In addition to exhibitions and masterclasses, the festival is preceded by the Days of Dance at the Cinematheque, as well as one performance of the Principles and Soloists of the famous New York City Ballet in Novi Sad and Belgrade, with a fantastic repertoire of George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Christopher Wheeldon. Belgrade Dance Festival was founded in 2003, while the first edition took place in Spring, 2004. Discovering the contemporary dance through its best production, the Belgrade Dance Festival has gained a large audience. Since its founding, about 370 works by renowned choreographers have been presented, while in recent years the programs have been followed by over 23,000 spectators and about 120 local and international journalists, per year. At the same time, the Festival provides tremendous support to local professional dancers, teachers, choreographers and representatives of all artistic fields. Valuable information and contacts with foreign dance companies opened up the prospects, opportunities for scholarships and engagements for young dancers, while successful performances produced on local scene, were created by foreign choreographers that Festival managed to present. Thanks to this event, Belgrade has become a prestigious spot in the biography of artists who create trends and write the history of dance, a place where new productions are to be discovered, while well-known and young artists could be mixed with equal care and attention. The actuality of the program determines the position of the event on the international map, while high standards and bold introduction of new forms, choreographic manuscripts and aesthetics, at the same time enhance the expectations of the audience and dictate the challenges of content creation. At its very begining , the Festival won the Jelena Šantić’s Fund Award, and was declared by UNESCO to be the leading artistic project of the Southeastern Europe region (2006), followed by admission to the World Alliance of Artistic Dance (WDA ITI-UNESCO). In 2011, the festival was organized under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Serbia, and earned the recognition of Belgrade Star by the European Integrations Agency. Berlin-based BalletTanz, in 2012, announces the Belgrade Dance Festival as "the most representative manifestation of the old continent" and a "trendsetter of contemporary dance". The tenth edition of the event was marked by the presentation of the Decadance monography, and the fifteenth by the presentation of the Transendance monography, both designed by the Belgrade-based New Moment Agency and published by Službeni glasnik. For eight years in a row, Belgrade Dance Festival’s educational programs have been organized in close cooperation with the EU Delegation to Serbia, and since its twelfth edition Festival was organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia. Since its ninth edition, the Festival has maintained the title of excellence awarded by the WDA (World Alliance of Dance) within ITI-UNESCO. Apart from Belgrade, some of the performances were successfully presented in Novi Sad, Niš, Krusevac, Užice, Sombor, Zrenjanin, Pančevo, Vršac ... The biggest ballet and dance stars visited Serbia as guests or participants. Among them are Mikhail Baryshnikov, Sylvie Gillem, Carla Fracci, Manuel Legris, Nacho Duato, Jiri Kylian, Jose Carlos Martinez, Annes Letestu, Gradimir Pankov, Paul Lightfoot, Angelin Preljocaj, Sharon Eyal, Jacopo Godani, Johan Inger, Giuseppe Piccone, Mourad Merzouki, Noa Wertheim, Viviana Durante, Ohad Naharin, Eun Mi Ahn, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui…