Siniparksi embodies human rights through contemporary dance creation.
In Free Dance we are very proud to be part of a European cultural project SINIPARKSI. It’s aim is community building and promoting the right to dance through implementaion of international collaboration network and contemporary dance workshops within local communities that will result with applicable training kit for dance teachers and coreographers. We invite you to follow project development and join it’s activities.
Welcome to the power of movement – it helps us to connect, communicate, understand and accept.
Project display
The SINIPARKSI European exchange project aims to make contemporary dance accessible to as many people as possible while consciously embracing the cultural diversity of people living in Europe. To realize this intention in dance projects, it is necessary to offer choreographers and dance teachers continuing education opportunities on how to address human and social diversity in dance. Thanks to the collaboration of four European dance institutes, a self-training support program will be developed and made accessible to the public.
Four European dance companies and schools from France, Greece, Germany and Croatia exchange ideas on the potential, practices and challenges of cultural diversity in dance projects. Choreographers consciously challenge their artistic and pedagogical practice in cultural contexts other than those with which they are familiar, by co-creating with different types of local communities in Europe, including people with and without dance experience. In this way, choreographers exchange and develop their own practice. The knowledge acquired will be shared with other choreographers in Europe in the form of a “training kit”, a written educational guide, enriched with a video tutorial.
The Siniparksi project aims to promote the development and dissemination of community artistic projects that respect cultural rights in Europe. Cultural rights are part of human rights and protect the identity, language and traditions of a cultural community and its expression without discrimination or coercion, thus supporting the cultural participation of all. Project duration is 2 year (from November 2023. until the October 2025.)
Meet the dance companies
ASCEN-DANSE was created on July 18, 1996 and is based in Mont-Dauphin, France. It hosts a dance school which has existed since 1996 under the direction of Isabelle Bazin Mazuel, a professional dance company called “Compagnie Isabelle Mazuel”, and, since 2006, the organization of the famous dance festival “Vertical’été” in a setting classified as a UNESCO heritage site. Isabelle Bazin Mazuel teaches contemporary dance from Briançon to Embrun. With the local Dance Federation, it offers co-creations with amateur dancers of all levels. With her company, she offers workshops for children (“Trop la Classe”) and in retirement homes. The company also does in situ shows and workshops with the population. Ascen-Danse is rightly renowned for hosting artistic structures as part of the “Vertical’été” festival, which celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2023.
QUO VADIS is a dance company founded by Zafeiria Tsirakaki in 2017. Quo Vadis means “Where are you going?” and turned out to be one of the most important questions, in conjunction with “Who are you?”. It is actually a question of identity, which implies a direction towards something. Knowing yourself is as important as knowing the path to this discovery. The company works to promote the arts to a wider audience, encouraging and facilitating free and autonomous expression of artists. Zafeiria Tsirakaki teaches dance and movement to people with no experience. QUO VADIS collaborates with artists who focus on approaching contemporary dance for the whole population, and with the self-managed Free Theater EMBROS, an open public space with international impact, free of access for more than 1000 visitors per week. She also maintains an open collaboration with the Duncan Dance Research Center.
The FREEDANCE Center for Dance and Performing Arts is an independent, non-profit organization founded in 2004 by Melita Spahic Bezjak. It continually and openly engages the creators and recipients of dance art, striving to create a positive environment for the development of an independent cultural scene and contemporary dance art. Melita Spahic Bezjak creates and works as a choreographer, performer, producer, curator and teacher. Organized by Free Dance for the first time in 2011, the Karlovac Dance Festival (KDF) was launched and still represents an open venue for different collaborations, exchange of knowledge and experiences, bringing strong cultural and educational content to the local community. The company tends to connect different artistic disciplines with other fields of activity. It directly involves spectators in the shows, particularly young audiences.
SENECA INTENSIV (SI) is a private institution for the art movement based in Berlin, Germany. Seneca Intensiv offers intensive dance, circus and physical theater programs as well as training in dance pedagogy to a wide audience. In addition, SI organizes numerous theoretical dance workshops focusing on production and artistic management, aimed at all performing arts professionals. The program attracts a diverse group of participants, ranging from those with extensive dance and performance experience to newcomers to the dance world. SI’s large studios are located in the post-industrial and economically deprived district of Marzahn, allowing it to reach a diverse audience.
The stages of the workshops
Shared preparation in Berlin
This step aims to establish a common methodology for questioning practices, in order to define the structure of the training kit, which will guide the work of the project team, from the creation and collection of materials (videos, interviews, feedback experience…) to the sharing of writings following the workshops.
Co-creation workshops with the population
Three days of co-creation workshops and a final performance will be held in Athens (Greece), Hautes-Alpes (France), Berlin (Germany), Karlovac (Croatia) and Crete (Greece). The emphasis will be on the diversity of participants: dancers, immigrants, refugees, villagers and citizens… All workshops will be guided by choreographers and dancers from Germany, France, Greece and Croatia.
Feedback in France
This three-day meeting aims to finalize the construction of a common practice based on co-creation and diversity, formalized by a training kit.
The exchange map
The training kit
At the end of the last meeting in France, the results will be shared via a training kit:
- A 24-page written training manual including information on the participants, the emotions and reflections of the choreographers during the experience (in mother tongue and in a foreign language) and a didactic proposal for transmission.
- A video kit, with 10 short videos of approximately 5 minutes each, including interviews with the participants, interviews with the choreographers questioning their individual emotions (in their native language with English subtitles) and 8 videos that will focus on didactic content for transmission.
Contact
Project coordinator: asso.ascendanse05@gmail.com
More Informations about the European project :
https://www.cultures-ecoactives.fr/projet-europeen-siniparksi-2884
contact@cultures-ecoactives.fr
“Funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed, however, are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education Executive Agency and culture (EACEA) Neither the European Union nor the EACEA can be held responsible.”
