IDENTITY.MOVE! offers a transnational platform for theoretical and artistic research in the field of contemporary dance and related performing arts, focusing on the „Eastern Belt“ of the European Union, i.e. the countries stretching from the Baltic Sea down to the Mediterranean. IDENTITY.MOVE! provides a forum for exchange and artistic production to young emerging artists and curators of the involved countries and thereby links the local scenes to the experience of Western and Southern European protagonists. The idea originated from ongoing interdisciplinary discussions on the ‚authenticity’ of regional contributions to the multiplicity of European artistic production in the 21st century. In the past two decades after the fall of the Iron Curtain, substantial progress has been accomplished: a number of dance centers have been founded, networks created and a growing number of younger artists are struggling to find their authentic voice amidst the choir of European contemporary dance. Naturally they find their orientation marks in the highly developed and differentiated dance scenes of Western Europe, where the discourse on body politics has led to elaborate artistic results in the last decades of the 20th century. Dance, using the human body itself as a means of communication, is the most direct way of artistic research on identity issues, both individually and collectively. In the title IDENTITY.MOVE! both components are expressed: Move ahead searching for your own identity! And: do it by moving, i.e. dance. To materialize this idea and encourage creativity on the local level, a complex structure has been developed that includes an initial symposium of experts and practitioners, a series of labs with changing participants and a final presentation of the results to a wider audience in the form of a bazaar of ideas and shows.