Dance artists and other performing arts professionals were invited to join a 3-day Atelier to explore different approaches to equity as an integral part of dance practices.
The Atelier was co-organised by Dansateliers Rotterdam and ICK Dans Amsterdam and takes place in Rotterdam on 17 - 18 May and in Amsterdam on 19 May during the Moving Futures festival.
Co-curated by dance artists Connor Schumacher, Jija Sohn and Aleksandra Lemm, and Christian Guerematchi, the Atelier focused on sharing embodied practices and tools for working from a (more) equitable ground.
The Atelier, hosted by la briqueterie CDCN du Val-de-Marne took place on 22 and 23 March 2023 during the 22nd edition of the Biennale de danse du Val-de-Marne in Vitry-sur-Seine.
It offered a space for discussion, practice and collaborative learning on issues of fairness and solidarity. Artists and other professionals explored ways to seize the principle of equity in creation, in their relations with the public and in international collaborations.
The Atelier, hosted by Dance Ireland and Dance Limerick, took place on 9 and 10 February 2023 during the What Next Dance Festival in Limerick.
Artists, programmers, curators and cultural policy makers were invited to explore, through discussion and practice, what it means to be on the periphery; geographically, culturally and socially through the lens of creative, community and curatorial dance practices.
How can we move? This question was common thread running through EDN's 2022 activities. The annual online closing event on 14 November 2022, titled "How Can We Move? Ecological Perspectives on Contemporary Dance," joined participants from within and outside the network and the sector, addressed burning issues for the sector and for society and culture more broadly, and presented the results of all annual project activities.
Between August 18-21, 2022, CSC Bassano del Grappa hosted a Carte Blanche Artist Exchange. A 4-day exchange of artistic practices took place in the frame of the B.motion festival and was designed to build on the outcomes from the Empowering Dance Project by tracing the soft skills in dealing with unpredictability, flexibility, endurance, adaptations and creativity in the context of seasonality and climate change.
Dance artist and educator Stella Mastorosteriou's participated detailed written report can be found at the link below. Christoph Bovermann, coordinator of EDN activities, spoke with dance dramaturgs Merel Heering and tyroneisaacstuart, who curated, led and facilitated the sessions for participants. You can listen to the recording at the link below.
The EDN Atelier was held in Athens on June 1-2, 2022, co-organised and hosted by Duncan Dance Research Center. Atelier was open to EDN members and others. Two different papers have been writen as reports from the Atelier. Dance theorists and dramaturgs Anastasio Koukoutas & Betina Panagiotara present an extended report, while Carmen Anne's report sums up the two-day Atelier.
The event took place within the Czech Dance Platform, 24-26 April 2022, in Prague, hosted by Tanec Praha. In addition to the live gathering, the event was live-streamed. During the EDN Encounter, guest speakers shared different resources, indicating existing initiatives that are focusing on helping Ukrainian and Russian dance (artist) community.
The EDN Atelier was held in Sofia on May 10-11 2022, and it coincided with Bulgarian Dance Platform, followed by Antistatic- international contemporary dance festival (Sofia) and One Dance Week Festival (Plovdiv). The participants investigated the theme of sustainability from an institutional production perspective.
The EDN Atelier, co-organised and hosted by HELLERAU, took place on 7-8 July 2022 in Dresden, in the context of the “Cool Down” Festival of the Alliance of International Production Houses, dedicated to the environmental and sustainability questions and artistic practices in connection to climate change. Participants dived into environmental and sustainability questions and artistic practices in connection to climate change.
EDN and The Ice Hot Nordic Dance Platform organized a seminar on equity and dance production, taking place live at Theatre Museum, Helsinki in the context the Ice Hot Nordic Dance Platform 2022 on July 1, 2022.
The European Dancehouse Network together with The Place and Saddler’s Wells presented EDN Online Forum “Are you here? Dance and its audience”, an online event open to all dance professionals and others who would like to delve into the complexities of the relationship between dance and its audience.
In the frame of the dance festival “Dancing About”, TANZPAKT Dresden, HELLERAU and Villa Wigman hosted an EDN Atelier with the topic “Mobility of Artists, Mobility of Ideas” from 30 September to 2 October 2021 at HELLERAU/Dresden, Germany.
With the arrival of the new venue of 700/220 seats in Helsinki, the team at Tanssin Talo hosted a dialogue with European and international colleagues to unpack the diverse potentials and issues concerning creating and presenting dance in different contexts, economies and conditions.
Meeting grounds was a gathering about contemporary performing arts, thinking in/out Africa. Mercat de les Flors casa de la dansa and Graner creation center for dance and live arts, in the context of Grec festival of Barcelona, proposed an Atelier with discussions, panels and practices. An hybrid format with face-to-face practices and an online programme with panels and a writing workshop. The atelier was in collaboration with and the participation of curators, artists, journalists such as Aida Colmenero, Qudus Onikeku, Nelisiwe Xaba, Panaibra Gabriel, Claudia Brufau, Antonio Tavares among others.
Acknowledging the challenges the European dance sector is facing, EDN’s online conference on 10 December 2020 provided insights into adaptive measures across Europe, emerging practices and current needs, envisioning a renewed dance ecosystem after a period of crisis.
The European Dancehouse Network in collaboration with Kino Šiška organized the EDN Atelier on 20 & 21 November 2020, linked to the November online edition of the International Festival of Contemporary Dance - CoFestival, organized by Kino Šiška and Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia.
The EDN Atelier HOLDING_TOGETHER was organized by Art Stations Foundation by Grażyna Kulczyk in relation to the Grand Re Union monthly gathering in October 2020.
B. Motion hosted a group of EDN Carte Blanche dance artists and professionals for the second time. The format of the programme was maintained: a platform for exchange.
An atelier organized by EDN member Dansmakers Amsterdam that explored the current possibilities of digital communication of and about artistic practises. The atelier brought together makers from dance and other disciplines with digital professionals working with social media, digital archives and online monetisation to share tools and knowledge in times of need.
The Atelier organised by KLAP Maison pour la danse in Marseille on January 10-11, 2020 dived into the question of audience engagement from the perspective of local neighbourhoods and social bonds.
The second edition of the EDN Carte Blanche for artists took place from 20-26 August 2019, hosted by the CSC – Centro per la Scena Contemporanea. Twelve artists from nine dancehouses attended B.Motion under the guidance of local mentor Eva Zilio.
At a time when certain democratic processes seem to be in crisis, the Centre National de la Danse and EDN felt it was important to take a global look at Europe and the world in order to better understand the realities of individual countries at risk and to conceptualise more precise spaces for international solidarities. Giving a podium to artists and groups engaged in social, political and intimate struggles seems to us the best way to bear witness to today's artistic realities.
For the first time, EDN offered the possibility for its members to send artists to the Moving Futures festival in Amsterdam, from 22-25 May 2019 as part of the Carte Blanche – Artist focus.
How to develop an art practice in times of uncertainty? After years of neoliberal policies which have damaged the sector and with right-wing governments gaining ground in Europe? How to create solidarity among the actors within the European dance field, when everyone is struggling to survive? How to create alternative ways of working together in order to respond to the economic and ecological crises These urgent and relevant questions were addressed in the EDN atelier on Mobility and Freedom of Expression, hosted by the three most important contemporary dance organisations in Budapest – Trafo, SIN arts centre and Workshop foundation.
EDN members were invited to discover the Baltic dance scene at the Baltic Dance Platform that was held as a part of the international contemporary dance festival “New Baltic Dance” between 2 and 11 May 2019. It was a combined platform among 3 countries – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Those are some of the questions addressed during the Atelier hold at K3 - Zentrum für Choreographie. Organised as part of the first edition of “Explore dance – Festival for young audiences” it gave to the participants the opportunity to watch up to seven new dance pieces for young audiences and encounter the artists, to exchange with other colleagues on short best practice presentations from different parts of Europe.
An Atelier investigating relations between ‘Dance and Craft’ organised by The Isadora & Raymond Duncan Dance Research Center, Athens. The Atelier invited artists from the performance arts, pedagogues and cultural workers to explore, observe and experience a range of materials, techniques and methods of craft and to share and reflect on the insights that crafts can initiate through a series of workshops and lectures/performances.
In this atelier organised by Dansateliers (the Netherlands) participants explored strategies for dance professionals and dance institutes to remain vital and constructively critical with regards to their own practice through lectures, working sessions, dialogue, movement classes and performances. How can we take in different perspectives on what we do, in order to remain responsive to, or pro-actively act on the ever changing world we live and work in?
At the occasion of the EDN meeting in Athens that took place in November 2015, the local dancehouse, The Isadora & Raymond Duncan Dance Research Center, organized a series of events under the title "Map of contemporary Dance in Greece".