Biography

M.A. Nikola Petrović (01/03/2000), ethnochoreologist and drama & audiovisual artist of artistic dance, was born in the German city of Heilbronn. Coming from a migrational background, in which his Serbian parents moved from the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina) to Germany, his roots led the foundation of his future in engaging actively in the traditional folk practices and folklore of his ancestors and those of others. 

Nikola’s father, Predrag, and his aunt, Kosavka, were traditional folk dancers and choreographers for over four decades, who practised and conserved this art form in the city of Zenica (Bosnia and Herzegovina) within its historical Ensemble Ibrahim Perviz. After his father moved to Germany in 1992, he began working as the artistic director of the Ensemble Zavičaj in Heilbronn. Driven by love and compassion from his earlier childhood, Nikola started his first steps, path, and career in traditional folk dancing, ethnochoreology, ethnomusicology, and ethnology at the age of two while dancing under the direction of his father within the ensemble. From that point on, his meaning and focus in life were formed. 

His academic engagement began with his undergraduate studies in Stage Traditional Folk Dance and Music as a student of the pioneering batch at the Belgrade Dance Institute - IUI in Serbia and his enrolment at the University of Heidelberg in the courses of Philosophy and Ethnology. During his studies, he actively began his close relationship with the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade as an ethnochoreological and ethnomusicological collaborator. At the same time, he became the artistic director and choreographer of the Ensemble for Traditional Folk Dances and Songs Koloin Stuttgart and the Ensemble Šumadija in Heilbronn while collaborating for years to come with the Folkloristic Society Veliko Kolo and the Folklore Ensemble Splet in Novi Sad, Serbia. After his finished undergraduate studies, Nikola started his postgraduate studies in Ethnochoreology at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, in Ireland, while also becoming a member of the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance - ICTMD (German National Committee, Study Group on Ethnochoreology, Sub-Study Group on Dance and Diaspora) as well as the International Dance Council - CID. Currently, he pursues his PhD by Research in Ethnochoreology at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance.

Having studied different ethnic groups in the Balkans, Anatolia, Levant, Hindustan, and Southeast Asia, he prioritised his ethnochoreological, ethnomusicological, and ethnological research on Ottoman and Oriental influences as well as the concept of Stage Traditional Folk Dance and Music.