What skills do we practice when we share a dance experience?
When we connect eyes, offer a hand, or balance together in a moment; What is happening?
We are practicing the skills of togetherness. We are navigating the delicate balance between our own reality and that of others.
Dancing together brings people into the present moment, creating a shared experience and making them feel part of a collective, a community. What we practice physically becomes our skill mentally. What we practice mentally shapes how we approach others in our environment. How we recognize our own strengths, take care of others, deal with uncertainty and complexity, and how we negotiate space are just some of the essential human skills - also known as soft skills - that we develop while dancing. The more we embody these types of soft skills in dance, the stronger those skills can become.
Which skills do you foster for people in your dance practice? Which skills do you take from dance into your daily life? In a digital handbook, created with support from the European Commission, we share our findings, tools and examples to help you identify and articulate the knowledge and soft skills within your practice, bringing a new layer to the human and societal experience that dance generates.
Welcome to Empowering Dance.
A joint project by Akademija likovnih umjetnosti Sveucilista u Zagrebu (Croatia), CSC Bassano del Grappa (Italy), Dansateliers (Netherlands), Hrvatski Institut Za Pokret (Croatia), K3 (Germany), La Briqueterie (France) and the Roehampton University (United Kingdom). Financially supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.
The European Commission support for this project does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Edmond Hustinxzaal
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Connor Schumacher and Kristin de Groot
Connor Schumacher has developed himself as a dance artist under the wings of Dansateliers. Here he made The Fool (2015), Asset, Liability and Equity (2016), Exhibition (2017), OK Future (2017), THREESOME (2019), Funny Soft Happy & The Opposite (2019), Pilot PC (2020) and HOLD (2022). Connor's social choreographic practice developed through his participation in several European research projects, including Performing Gender, Dancing Museums and Empowering Dance, in which he searched for new ways of interaction with an audience and the soft skills people can develop through dance. In 2019 he won the 'Prize of the Nederlandse Dansdagen'. It is his deep belief that society would be better if we danced everyday.
Kristin de Groot has worked in a variety of positions/roles within the dance field.
Her journey through the field of dance, led her to being appointed director of Dansateliers in 2011. Collaboration, co-creation, reciprocity, appreciating one's differences and sharing responsibility are essential to her working practice and how she relates to the people she works with. In her professional practice, she uses a dramaturgical approach, cautiously wandering through listening, observing, questioning, mirroring, reflecting and responding. She highly appreciates working in an international context and has experienced the opportunities she was engaged in as great learning environments during her career. She has been actively involved in the development of various EU projects, generating opportunities for artists and related professionals to further develop themselves, broaden their (choreographic, communication, dramaturgical etc.) practice and their networks.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Paul Sixta, Roberto Cinconze
