iDance

iDance lab, group session

iDance Workshop

iDance lab

iDance workshop

December 9, 2018

iDance was a collaboration aimed at improving education and training opportunities in the field of inclusive dance between Onassis Stegi (Greece), Holland Dance Festival (Netherlands), Skånes Dansteater (Sweden) and Stopgap Dance Company (UK). Taking place from September 2016 – December 2018, it was co-funded by Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

Project overview

The iDance project is a training-based collaboration between cultural organisations, professional dance schools, dance companies, academics, NGOs, access workers, artists, and adults with or without disabilities to develop, test, and implement innovative course packages enriching inclusive dance participation, as well as adult educators’ competitiveness.

The project intended to develop, test, adapt, exchange, and adopt innovative practices related to inclusive dance training for adults with and without disabilities; to increase capacity of adult educators in developing inclusive dance training programmes; and to cultivate and support professional dancers with and without disabilities.

The four partnering institutions devoted their efforts to:

  1. Offer transnational learning opportunities for disabled adults and dance educators.
  2. Address the need to support disabled people as artistic leaders.
  3. Introduce more attractive educational and training programmes, in
    line with individual needs and expectations.
  4. Respond to the demand for practical professional skills development toolkits.
  5. Use participatory approaches and ICT based methodologies.
  6. Introduce a major web resource for the development of professional
    skills and for the promotion of European disabled dancers.
  7. Build on the experience of previous programmes and initiatives.
  8. Work with a broader range of arts educators, including more nationally-significant organisations in the field of dance.

Partners

Onassis Stegi- Project Coordinator

The Onassis Stegi is Athens’ new cultural space hosting events and actions across the whole spectrum of the arts from theatre, dance, music and the visual arts to the written word, with an emphasis on contemporary cultural expression, on supporting Greek artists, on cultivating international collaborations and on educating children and people of all ages through life-long learning. The Onassis Stegi proposes a programme running from October to July each year, including new works by young or more established Greek artists, thematic festivals that approach specific areas in depth, cutting-edge international productions that bring challenging aesthetic concepts to the Greek public, lectures and public discussions on a range of subjects relating to contemporary culture and society and an extensive educational programme that aims to reach out to a wide audience, including groups that for a variety of reasons do not have satisfactory access to contemporary culture.

The educational programmes and actions that complement the Centre’s programme of events seek to cultivate a more informed public increasingly open to new directions in the arts. This goal is achieved by means of continuing education which seeks to familiarize children and adults with key concepts in contemporary arts, foster the development of new skills and competences and to keep them up-to-date with the salient issues of our times.

Onassis Stegi also supports the touring and promotion of Greek troupes and artists abroad and is actively engaged in several networks and bilateral collaborations at an international level.

Stopgap Dance Company

Stopgap Dance Company creates world-class productions with exceptional disabled and non-disabled dancers to tour nationally and internationally. As the dance education remains highly inaccessible for disabled people, we have devised our own training framework during our 20year history.

Since our establishment, we have successfully turned a number of young disabled amateurs in the community into internationally recognised professional dancers.

Within our organisation, we have built a professional pathway for disabled people and we are now in a position to share our expertise to instill our methodologies to partner organisations. We work with dance schools, syllabus providers, conservatoires and professional companies to help them make their training provision accessible to disabled people. We consider ourselves to be an agency for change with a real prospect of making dance and performing arts more diverse and accessible.

Skånes Dansteater

Skånes Dansteater is Sweden´s largest independent dance institution. We are a repertory company of 16 dancers presenting works by Swedish and international choreographers. Skånes Dansteater’s main aims and objectives is to promote contemporary dance in the region of Skåne, southern Sweden. Principally this is achieved through the work of and performances by the company of professional dancers but also through participation projects which seek to engage the wider population of Skåne.

With its base in Malmö, Skånes Dansteater has responsibility to promote, strengthen and develop dance as an art form at a regional level. This strand of the company’s work is achieved through producing and touring contemporary dance works of high artistic quality.

Skånes Dansteater strives above all for high artistic quality in both the work of its professional company of dancers and the community outreach projects that work in parallel with performances.

We aim for exceptional artistic quality and the work that we do is accepted as such both nationally and internationally.

Holland Dance Festival

Holland Dance Festival is a leading international dance organization. Our mission is to make dance accessible for everybody regardless of age, social or cultural background. Dance inspires and that is why we are so passionate about our work. We pride ourselves in being allowed to unlock the passion and the power of dance. That we are able to connect people worldwide through dance. For over 30 years.
Without a doubt, one of our best known activities is the world renowned biennial Holland Dance Festival. During three weeks performances of internationally distinguished dance companies and artists are presented. Variety, uniqueness and quality are guiding principles in our programming.

Holland Dance organizes a wide range of educational activities, projects, workshops and tailor-made lessons.

These can be part of education or to give people the opportunity to experience the power, meaning and diversity of dance.

Holland Dance organised in 2015 DanceAble a three-day event on creating beauty in disability. At DanceAble both amateur and professional dancers with and without handicap presented the amazing results of their collaborations. In addition, a large community art project demonstrated that with dedication and joy, the things we often believe to be impossible can become reality.

Evaluation and resources

A full evaluation report is available here (pdf)

A series of lesson plans is available here

Additional research is available here

A series of project films is available here

Related Content

Sign Up To Our Newsletter

See our past newsletters
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.