History

Time line (milestones)

1983

10th July - An excited audience packed the auditorium at the Sociedade Harmonia Lyra, na historical building in the center of Joinville and stage for the first festival. Joinville was experiencing one of the worst floods on record, which made getting around the city difficult, not to mention the rest of the state of Santa Catarina. To the surprise of the organizers, 40 groups enrolled, bringing the total to around 600 dance students. The event consisted of five days of spectacles which included classical, modern, jazz and folk dances.

1984

The second festival exceeded all expectations. More than a thousand students, representing 62 schools, took over Joinville. In order to provide a suitable venue for such a number of competitors, the festival was moved to the Ginásio Ivan Rodrigues, and the duration was extended to seven days. That year's highlight was the first presentation of "The Great Mystical Circus", by the Guaíra Theater Ballet. The festival began to trace a model that would go beyond Competitive Presentation making it a national attraction.

1995

Without missing a year, the Joinville Dance Festival reached 1995 and the 12th festival, which now consisted of 13 days. That year, guest performances included such names as the Bolshoi Theater Ballet from Russia and the Stuttgart Ballet from Germany. International interest was awoken when the dance world began to discover that somewhere, in the Brazilian countryside, there was a genuine concern for dance. Private investment also increased, with sponsorship, providing more hotel accommodation and even by improving the shopping facilities to better serve the participants and hundreds or tourists flocking to the city for the event.

1998

The Joinville Dance Festival gets a stage equal to its productions. The Centreventos Cau Hansen, a multiuse arena, able to accommodate the event's entire administrative area, as well as to provide a great stage, with the dimensions and technical equipment for staging any type of artistic event. With boxes, stalls and orchestra seats, the new space houses around 4 thousand spectators per presentation. Also created that year was the Dance Slipper Fair, now considered the biggest fair in its sector in the country, where all the main domestic manufacturers of dance products exhibit their wares. Some of these exhibitors were at the early Festivals, setting up kiosks outside the Casa da Cultura and the Ginásio Ivan Rodrigues.

1999

A new phase began this year with the creation of the Joinville Dance Festival Institute, a non-profit making entity set up for the purpose of taking over full management of the event. In its legal capacity, the Institute can get resources from the private sector through incentive laws, thus attracting sponsor interest. By adding these amounts to those obtained through group enrollments in courses and workshops and to both and ticket sales, the event is self-sustainable from a financial point of view.

2000

In order to provide an opportunity for young dance students, the Half Point Festival is created, more commonly know as just the Half Point. The event is designed for children between 10 and 12 years of age, who, for three days, give performances in the Juarez Machado Theater, a space for 500 spectators, located inside the Centreventos Cau Hansen complex.

2001

This year saw the beginning of the Contemporânea Dança Exhibition, evento não-competitivo, voltado a companhias de dança profissionais, em três ou quatro noites de apresentações, realizadas no Teatro Juarez Machado.

2005

It is cited in the Guinness Book of Records as the as the biggest dance festival in the world. This notable achievement is listed under Festivals and Traditions - The modern world: "The Joinville Dance Festival, in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, is the biggest in the world. Produced for the first time in 1983, it lasts for at least 10 days, with a total of 4,500 Brazilian and foreign dancers, from more than 140 amateur and professional groups, watched by more than 200 thousand spectators every year".