Since 1981

Oriente Occidente was founded in 1981 as Incontri Internazionali di Rovereto and changed its name in 2020. Its main activity has always been the Oriente Occidente Dance Festival, a well-established reality that represents one of the most important Italian contemporary dance festivals known all over Europe. 

Oriente and Occidente are poles of an ideal path of exchanges and intersections not only between cultures, but between languages of the contemporary scene as well. 

The spirit of the association in its more than 40 years of activity has been to bring to Rovereto the influences of the Eastern artistic tradition on Western experimentation and vice versa.
Oriente Occidente is a circular journey between theatre and dance, research and tradition, identity and innovation. 

In 2003, the association added to the Festival, production, training and dissemination of dance culture, opening in Rovereto CID - Centro Internazionale della Danza, a venue where dancers study and improve their skills thanks to workshops and masterclasses with the best masters of dance in the world, where companies find a place for artistic residencies, where dance is a tool for building sense of community.