The No Frontiers – Inclusion, Culture, Art event was held in Herceg Novi (Montenegro) in early December 2010. Its aim was to help cultural institutions open their doors to people with disabilities and to help cultural venues adapt to these people’s needs.

The event was the brainchild of Olga Zulović, president of the Performa Ars International, a Non-Governmental Organisation in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro.

The first event of this kind was held in Podgorica in 2009 along with other events observing the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December. Together with the performance of The Curve for Gaus by the Belgrade-based Let’s group, there were also workshops held by the choreographer Sanja Krsmanovic Tasic and dancer Bojana Misic

The second event was held in May last year at the town of Trebinje in Bosnia and Herzegovina. People with and without disabilities from both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro gathered there. On that occasion, a five day workshop was held, created by US artist Karen Peterson.

“This time round we picked Herceg Novi because we wanted to bring together a large number of people from the Boka Kotorska region of Montenegro,” Olga Zulović told South East Europe: People and Culture.

Choreographer Nela Antonović and modern dance professional Bojana Mišić from Slovenia were in charge of the workshops in Herceg Novi.

“These workshops were an opportunity to give all disabled people a chance to take part in a creative process. If someone has talent, then later on they may get a chance to show it,” said Olga Zulović.

One of the highlights of the event was a performance of Reset by the group Let’s. Reset forms part of the Body Frame (Okvir Tela) project that the members of Let’s have been working on since 2008. The aim of the project is to establish a working relationship between disabled people and modern dance performers and choreographers. The performance involves dancers both with and without disabilities and is blind and visually-impaired friendly.

In an interview for South East Europe: People and Culture, the group’s artistic director, costume and set designer Boris Čakširan said that he was extremely happy to see that the production played before a full auditorium in Herceg Novi.

“It makes me happy to see modern dance fighting for audiences, it being a form of art that manages to quickly establish communication in all countries and all cultures. Moreover, inclusive projects of this kind actually give a society a different kind of power and consciousness of how a society can perceive itself in a different way, in a form that is more humane and where art plays an important role, which in this modern age happens all too rarely”, says Čakširan.

Marko Pejović, a psychologist and playwright as well as a member of the Let’s group, says that modern dance is an inclusive form of art because it helps encourage and establish cooperation between different sections of a society.

“Modern dance is an excellent means of communication because it is not based on dance figures as is the case in classical ballet. Here dancers, people who are taking part, make moves according to their abilities, which are then used to create choreography. These moves are organic and are in tune with their personalities,” said Pejović.

Among other things, these events have resulted in the placement of a wheelchair lift in Podgorica through the efforts of the local Cultural Information Centre Budo Tomović, one of the most important cultural institutions in the Montenegrin capital. Similar projects which make getting around easier for disabled people have been put in place in Trebinje and Herceg Novi.

Olga Zulović has announced that the next No Frontiers – Inclusion, Culture, Art regional event will be taking place in Sarajevo later this year.