Tanec, tanec... 2026

40th National Showcase of Scenic Dance for Youth and Adults

Jablonec nad Nisou will host the jubilee 40th annual national showcase Tanec, tanec… It will also commemorate 50 years of Czech scenic dance.
From September 25–27, 2026, Jablonec nad Nisou will once again become the center of Czech scenic dance. The jubilee 40th annual national showcase of scenic dance for youth and adults, Tanec, tanec…, will continue here the half-century-long tradition of specialized showcases and commemorate the significant 50th anniversary of the first national scenic dance showcase.
When the first national scenic dance showcase took place in 1977, few could have guessed that it would become a tradition lasting five decades. Over that time, generations of dancers, choreographers, and educators have passed through, and both the movement language and the themes that dance creation opens up have transformed. One thing, however, has remained the same: the need to meet, share experiences, inspire one another, and together discover new forms of scenic dance.
This is the very idea carried by this year's jubilee edition of the showcase, which will take place in Jablonec nad Nisou for the 24th time. The city is inextricably linked with the event in the long term and over the years has become its natural home. Every year, hundreds of dancers, educators, choreographers, and spectators from all over the country come here, with the showcase significantly contributing to the city's cultural life and confirming its position as one of the important centers of amateur scenic dance in the Czech Republic.
Over two evenings, Friday, September 25, and Saturday, September 26, from 6:00 PM each day, the dramaturgy will offer twenty choreographies that were selected at regional showcases across the Czech Republic. The showcase is not a competition of best performances, but a representative image of the contemporary form of Czech scenic dance. Audiences will see intimate authorial statements as well as large group compositions, choreographies with live music, and works based on precise movement stylization. On one stage, fourteen-year-old dancers will meet experienced adult performers, budding authors, and prominent figures of Czech dance pedagogy.
The jubilee program will not only consist of the showcase itself. Visitors can also look forward to an exhibition mapping the fifty-year history of national scenic dance showcases, meetings with veterans, expert discussions, the ceremonial christening of the jubilee almanac, a guided creative tour
Tanec lapený ve skle
and the traditional final program
Tanec oceněný
. An extraordinary event of this year's edition will be an organ concert by Linda Sítková:
Petr Eben - Jób
, a composition for organ, spoken word, and dance, which will be presented on Saturday from 2:30 PM at the Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on Horní náměstí, and will be part of the celebrations of the city's 160th anniversary.
Scenic dance has changed many times over fifty years and will continue to change. However, its essence remains the same – it arises from joint work, shared experience, and dialogue between people. That is precisely why the Tanec, tanec… showcase has been a place for fifty years where Czech scenic dance meets, inspires itself, and looks toward the future together. We are glad that you will be there with us.
 
Organizers and Patronage
Commissioned by and with financial support from the Ministry of Culture and with financial support from the Liberec Region and the statutory city of Jablonec nad Nisou, under the patronage of the statutory city of Jablonec nad Nisou, organized by the National Institute for Culture, the ARTAMA Prague department and Taneční a pohybové studio Magdaléna Rychnov u Jablonce nad Nisou, z. s., co-organized by Městské divadlo, o. p. s. Jablonec nad Nisou, Kultura Jablonec, p. o. Jablonec nad Nisou, Museum of Glass and Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou.