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We are happy to announce the publication of the eBook from Clash! When Classic and Contemporary Dance Collide and New Forms Emerge.

The eBook represents an important result of the investigations performed in the last two years by the five dance companies involved in the initiative: Balletto di Roma (IT), Polski Teatr Tanca (PL), 420PEOPLE (CZ), Derida Dance Center (BG); Companhia De Dança de Almada (PT). It is an interdisciplinary product created by a team of scholars from the Sapienza University of Rome, project partner responsible for the articulation of the tacit knowledge from dance practice and its translation in a language accessible to a wide audience.

Directed by Vito Di Bernardi (full professor of History of Dance), the team of scholars is composed by Luca Ruzza (professor of Digital Scenography) and Letizia Gioia Monda (adjunct professor of Digital Choreography).

The eBook was projected as a digital platform to combine written content with images and videos. It provides an opensource tool for users to transversally explore the systems developed by the partners to put in dialogue several models of dance expressions, from classic to contemporary.

The experimentations began from the application of the Clash! Professional Empowerment Strategy, a methodology elaborated by Vito Di Bernardi and Letizia Gioia Monda to lead the five dance companies to enquire into their own daily practices and face issues related to the Dancer’s Training, the Audience Development, the Marketing and Communication systems.

Those strategies have been put into play along 16 Clash! National Seminars. The internal reports and the feedback from the participants at the seminars have been collected, analysed, and processed to become part of the eBook contents.

For any session, it is possible to compare the starting method with its variables, or rather the specific strategies developed by each partner on any single theme. By following the eBook structure, users are able to identify solutions or compare problems the partners recognized along their research paths. In the section “terminologies” a glossary of 10 keywords is proposed to help to contextualize how partners realized the Clash! between tradition and innovation in the dance field, and to examine the knowledge coming from this experience.

Edited by Letizia Gioia Monda, the eBook has been created thanks to the collaboration of the designer Natan Andrea Ruzza and of the videomaker Chiara Crupi.

CLASH! project co-funded by Creative Europe Program of European Union (Grant Agreement n. 2018-2031/001-001).

On 10th of October 2020 in Fórum Municipal Romeu Correia – Pablo Neruda Room Ca.Da. will bring together a group of international participants and stakeholders to present the Clash! Project as an example of the Creative Europe program supporting dance production, and discussing the importance of the program.

Clash! Project is Co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, Grant Agreement n° 2018 – 2032 /001 – 001 .

We are happy to share with you some exciting news and pictures from the preparation process of Polski Teatr Tańca – Polish Dance Theatre

Davide Valrosso – a guest choreographer at Balletto di Roma (BdR) came to Poznan as part of the exchange of choreographers within the CLASH! Project. He worked with three of the Polish Dance Theatre’s dancers: Jerzy Kaźmierczak, Zbigniew Kocięba and Agnieszka Jachym, who in February this year studied her concept of choreography with BdR dancers. One will see the effects of the whole project during the Clash! On Stage Festival on 8-13 December. We invite you to follow us!

CLASH project! When Classic And Contemporary Dance Collide And New Forms Emerges is co-financed from the Creative Europe program (Grant Agreement No 2018-2032/001-001).

Partners: Balletto di Roma, Sapienza Università di Roma, Derida Dance Center, Companhia de Dança Almada, 420PEOPLE.org

During a long time of lockdown the partners of the Clash! Project took time to work on the development and implementation of online Audience development activities. They used tools from digital marketing and social media strategy to engage more audiences from different counties. This measurement was also the foundation of the new form of the “CLASH! On stage” Festival that should adapt to the new conditions of international travel and cultural exchange.

Online AD activities

On June 13th, 2020, Polish Dance Theatre launched a special installment of the “chat room” – series entitled “Dance of Spectators”. All participants were able to observe the contemporary dance audiences – not only to specify their description but also to investigate what attracts them to be part of contemporary dance performances and what defines their choice whether to be an active or a passive audience.

The online event was hosted by Agnieszka Jachym and Robert Chodyła. Their guests were Joanna Leśnierowska, Joanna Szymajda and Konrad Kurowski who talked about building an audience for contemporary dance and classical ballet, audience research, methods of arousing interest in the art of dance, and – in the context of the current situation in the world – the impact of the pandemic on the behavior of cultural audiences.

• Joanna Leśnierowska – a playwright, critic, dance curator and performer, who has been running the Old Brewery New Dance performance program since 2004 within the framework of the Art Stations Foundation established by Grażyna Kulczyk.
• Joanna Szymajda – the manager of the ballet of the Wrocław Opera, a critic, doctor of humanities, deputy director of the Institute of Music and Dance in 2010-2017, curator of dance projects such as the Dialogue of Four Cultures Festival in Łódź.
• Konrad Kurowski – a producer and manager of Lublin Dance Theatre (since 2014), co-organizer of International Meetings of Dance Theatres in Lublin, co-founder of Polish Dance Network, representing Lublin Dance Theatre – together with Anna Kalita – in Aerowaves, a European network of dance houses, will also be joining.

Furthermore, Polish Dance Theatre, lead a cycle of prerecorded short dance classes online in the space of the Internet between 14th and 19th of June 2020. This activity was dedicated to the company’s everyday routine to start their work with a class. This class aims to warm up and prepare the dancer for the rehearsal. Due to the varied, rich repertoire, the training of artists is very comprehensive and extensive. The access to the platform was free of charge and participants were able to join their Facebook accounts daily. Lessons were conducted in Polish and in English. The program included improvisation session, pilates, conditional training, classical ballet, physical preparation and contemporary dance.

The weeklong program concluded with a Skype talk with one of the dancers – artists from the Polish Dance Theatre (PTT) band. The goal of this conversation was to study audience expectations in the context of PTT performance activities and to analyze the use of cultural offers during the pandemic. Participants of the meeting had the opportunity to ask their questions about the Polish Dance Theatre, the repertoire, the work of the band, performances, etc.

The second partner who worked on audience development activities was 420people.org. They successfully prepared the exclusive in-person workshop CLASH! for the general public and for all levels of dancers. To mark the project CLASH! “CLASH! When classic and contemporary dance collides and new forms emerge”, they held the movement workshop for all levels of dancers accompanied by the choreographer Václav Kuneš and by Václav Havelka, the frontman of the band “Please the Trees”.

The hour and a half long dance seminar with the artistic director of 420PEOPLE Václav Kuneš allowed the company to complete the experience in leading seminars for different target groups and allowed them to evaluate information, principles, and knowledge (PES) collected during the CLASH project. They were happy to meet the public in person in the studio and share their knowledge developed during the CLASH project.

420people.org focused on the experience gained during all CLASH seminars and AD activities held in Prague, mainly on these recommendations and comments:

• Keep and follow already highly evaluated strategy of the workshop content: warm-up, somatic techniques, breathing exercises, and more intensive bodywork on the floor, more cardio exercises, energetic part, and final movement combination for connecting all elements.
• See as more effective to make the various dance techniques fusions.

They connected all these elements and supported the strategy of body awareness even more with live music.

All levels of non-professional dancers (mostly women) took part in the seminar. Many new participants learned about the CLASH seminars thanks to watching Václav Kuneš´s online dance workshops during a coronavirus pandemic situation.

420people.org received a lot of positive feedback, especially on the diversity of dance techniques. For non-professional dancers was easier to connect the movement with live music. The fusion of various dance techniques helped to understand the quality of the movement and deepen the dance research.

Participants feedback:

“I am thankful for the Vaclav & Vaclav workshops, for the fascinating slow-down of time, where the automatic everyday movements become refreshingly new and uncommon. Thanks for the possibility of creating one pulsating organism together!”

“Good and positive energy in studio.”

“Perfect amount of people in the studio. Professional approach to non-professional dancers. “

The Hybrid festival

Due to COVID-19 pandemic situation and the new measurements and international travel and exchange restrictions that are required by EU and the governments of partnerships, CLASH! Partners decided to change the form of the Festival and the tournee. CLASH! On stage will be held in a hybrid version – all partners will produce a screendance performance and they will stream online their planned workshops and discussions with audience and professionals. It will be conceived as a path the audience will be put in condition to follow in order to understand how the Festival expresses the results of a research carried by all the partners on the Clash! Between Classic and Contemporary Dance Models. The Hybrid festival will conclude with a premiere of CLASH! Screendance performance online and a discussion with professional from 5 countries.

CLASH! On Stage Festival will be scheduled at the beginning of December – from 8^th to the 13^th, in 6 days in as the number of the project partners. Each day will be dedicated to the theme of the project.

More details as well as the festival program and its participants will be revealed between mid-September and the beginning of October!

Exclusive movement workshop CLASH! by 420PEOPLE for the general public and for all levels of dancers was held on the 21st of June 2020. To mark the project CLASH! “CLASH! When classic and contemporary dance collides and new forms emerge”, the company held a movement workshop for all levels of dancers accompanied by the choreographer Václav Kuneš and by the live Václav Havelka, the frontman of band Please the Trees.

The CLASH! project and the movement workshop intended to support the classic and contemporary dance, traditionally more active in classical training and production, towards the production of contemporary dance and especially the focus on new strategies for audience development.

Short video resume from the workshop can be found on the Facebook page of 420people.org here

Next Sunday on the 14th of June Polish Dance Theatre is starting the cycle of short dance classes online in the space of the Internet.

Every day, the Polish Dance Theatre team starts their work with a class. It aims to warm up and prepare the dancer for the rehearsal. Due to the varied, rich repertoire, the training of artists is very comprehensive and extensive.

Polish Dance Theatre invites you to participate in a virtual part of its lesson and encourages you to practice together online!

And here is the necessary technical information – the premieres of each episode of the cycle will take place every day at 10.00 am on Facebook of the Polish Dance Theatre. Video clips of recorded exercise will be available for one week from the first show.

You can follow up on the event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/2278048682502309/

Program:

Sunday, 14.06, 10.00 am, Sunday Improvisation

Hosted by: Michał Przybyła

This lesson will allow you to work on mindfulness – being here and now – as well as body awareness, and will encourage you to search inside your own body and the space around you.

Feel free to switch on your own background music.

Monday, 15.06, 10.00 am, Monday Workout / Conditioning

Hosted by: Julia Hałka

This workout consists of three parts: a warm-up based on Sun salutation from yoga, intervals – a series of exercises that will strengthen your muscles and improve your shape and condition, as well as stretching muscles, necessary after each physical effort.

Prepare sports shoes and turn on motivating background music!

Tuesday, 16.06, 10.00 am, Physical Tuesday / Physical Dance

Hosted by: Paweł Malicki

Active warm-up, exercises on the floor will prepare you for a dynamic combination at the end, which will allow you to work on various elements of floor work.

Wednesday, 17.06, 10.00 am, Inhale, exhale / Pilates

Hosted by: Katarzyna Rzetelska

This technique will strengthen your muscles, especially the central parts of your body (muscles of the abdomen, hips and back), improve body elasticity, and allow you to concentrate on breathing.

Thursday, 18.06, 10.00 am, Ballet Thursday / Classical Dance

Hosted by: Adrian Radwański

Accompanied by: Zuzanna Majewska

This lesson focuses on the exercises at a bar (a chair can be used instead). It is a solid warm-up, where we work on coordination, flexibility and balance to be able to continue exercising in the “center” (without the bar).

Friday, 19.06, 10.00 am Contemporary Friday / Modern Dance 

Hosted by: Patryk Jarczok

A contemporary dance class with elements of floor work and improvisation, during which you will work on different qualities of movement.

Lessons will be led in Polish and in English.

The cycle takes place within the CLASH project! When Classic And Contemporary Dance Collide And New Forms Emerge, co-financed from the Creative Europe program (Grant Agreement No 2018-2032/001-001).

This Saturday, June 13th at 5 p.m., Polish Dance Theatre invites you to their FB profile for the special installment of the “chat room” series entitled “Dance of Spectators”. They would like to take a look at contemporary dance audiences – try to describe what those are and what attracts them to dance performances. They will also discuss listening and engaging the audience, i.e. the ways that teams and institutions use to develop and activate their audiences.

PTD invited Joanna Leśnierowska – a playwright, critic, dance curator and performer, who has been running the Old Brewery New Dance performance program since 2004 within the framework of the Art Stations Foundation established by Grażyna Kulczyk.

Their guest will be Joanna Szymajda, the manager of the ballet of the Wrocław Opera, a critic, doctor of humanities, deputy director of the Institute of Music and Dance in 2010-2017, curator of dance projects such as the Dialogue of Four Cultures Festival in Łódź.

Konrad Kurowski – a producer and manager of Lublin Dance Theatre (since 2014), co-organizer of International Meetings of Dance Theatres in Lublin, co-founder of Polish Dance Network, representing Lublin Dance Theatre – together with Anna Kalita – in Aerowaves, a European network of dance houses, will also be joining.

They will discuss the topics of building an audience for contemporary dance and classical ballet, audience research, methods of arousing interest in the art of dance, and – in the context of the current situation in the world – the impact of the pandemic on the behavior of cultural audiences.

The chat room “Dance of Spectators” is part of the CLASH project! When Classic And Contemporary Dance Collide And New Forms Emerge, co-financed from the Creative Europe program.

Hosted by: Agnieszka Jachym and Robert Chodyła

You are invited to discover contemporary dance and dance theatre audiences – still little known but a necessary link of dance and theatre communication!

420people prepare the exclusive workshop CLASH! for the general public and for all levels of dancers. To mark the project CLASH! “CLASH! When classic and contemporary dance collides and new forms emerge” , we are currently holding the movement workshop for all levels of dancers accompanied by the choreographer Václav Kuneš and by the live Václav Havelka, the frontman of band Please the Trees.

The CLASH! project and the movement workshop intends to support the classic and contemporary dance, traditionally more active in classical training and production, towards the production of contemporary dance and especially the focus on new strategies for audience development.

#clashproject #clash

Studio: CONTEMPORARY studio, Náměstí Míru 9, Praha 2

WHEN: 21. 6. 2020 / 6PM – 8:30PM

Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/296056681795428/

Date: 29 April 2020
Time 18:00 h (Portugal)

Follow the event in Zoom session at https://zoom.us/j/7865700512

This is a moment to practice dance in a very contemporary perspective and designed so that it can be followed and enjoyed by everyone, regardless of age or gender.

Who is Vaclav Kunes?
In 1993 he graduated from the Dance Conservatory in Prague, Czech Republic. Then, from 1993 till 2004, he was a member of the Nederlands Dans Theater where he worked with Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe, Paul Lightfoot, Mats Ek, Nacho Duato, Johan Inger, Andre Gingras or Hans van Manen to name a few.
In 2004 he became a freelance artist, danced many years with Saburo Teshigawara and for one of his works, Scream and Whispers he was nominated for Dancer of the Year 2005 award in Cannes. He was guesting at various gala events with Roberto Bolle, Sylvie Guillem and others.
He worked as an assistant to J. Kylián with many companies around the world. As a choreographer, he worked for theatres in France, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, USA, Czech Republic and Japan.
Since 2007 he is the artistic director at 420PEOPLE, group he co-founded with Natasa Novotna.

This action is part of the European project Clash – when classic and contemporary dance collide and new forms emerge, co-funded by the Creative Europe Program (Grant Contract n ° 2018 – 2032/001 – 001) and in Portugal, by the Ministry of Culture through the Direção-Geral das Artes.

For the partners of the CLASH! Project, the months February-March 2020 have been particularly intense, full of activities dedicated above all to the theme of Audience Development, designed and coordinated in its main guidelines by Petra Kašparová of 420People. Organized quickly and effectively to keep up with the many ongoing initiatives, Portugal and Italy were the first countries to set up two AD workshops each.

On February 19th, Companhia de Dança de Almada has organized in its studios an Open Rehearsal, plus a Q&A session, in order to bring a large community – groups of students, members of cultural associations and/or social solidarity organizations – closer to the world of professional dance. Approximately 35 seniors and youth in organized groups have been welcomed at the company’s facilities, where they have watched the work of the dancers, consisting of a warm-up class and rehearsal of pieces from the repertoire, and also chatted informally with the choreographers, teacher, rehearsal director, and dancers. The senior group was also invited to a short workshop in creative dance practice.

Balletto di Roma, institution open to 360 degrees from contamination with other worlds and experiences and firmly convinced that the premises for giving the idea of a meeting/clash are to exchange skills directly, has considered necessary to be in contact with choreographers from another company in order to make the concept of hybridization of languages and choreographic codes immediately visible and tangible. Once decided to exchange the Company expertise with Polish Dance Theatre, from February 18th to 22nd Balletto di Roma has hosted three dancers/choreographers from Poland to work with three dancers from Italy. Here is the feedback of Agnieszka Jachym, coordinating this inspiring choreographic activity, strongly desired by Artistic Director of PDT Iwona Pasinska in order to improve the expertise of her dancers:

“It was very interesting and satisfying to see the progress: how dancers of BDR learned the material and developed it within 5 days. We wanted that choreography to become their own story so they could feel comfortable performing it. Therefore, we asked them to create own movements that were a base later to combine them differently and insert into the piece. Dancers of BDR are focused on ballet technique mainly so exploring floor work tricks or learning various partnering (based on contact improvisation) were challenging. Just as for choreographers! Discussing different ideas of three of us and finding compromises so we have one vision of the show, also coherent dramaturgically. This exchange was great, rich experience artistically and on psychological level-to meet new people, get to know yourself and each other better, creating trust”.

On February 21st, Balletto di Roma has organized in its main venue an event called “Education Meets Professionals at BDR”: an important moment for the students of the CAP (Professional Start-up Course) and of the advanced courses of the Balletto di Roma School to attend the rehearsals of the above-mentioned creation which was running in view of the Festival Clash On Stage.

On February 25th, Teatro Vascello, Balletto di Roma invited the same group of students to attend the rehearsals and premiére of the re-staged creation “Sogno, una notte di mezza estate” by Davide Valrosso. The group has attended also an introduction talk by the Artistic Director Francesca Magnini who has introduced the history of the work and the details related to the creative process of the Shakespearian piece. Davide Valrosso is also the choreographer chosen to complete the exchange of competences with the Polish Dance Theatre for the Clash! On Stage Festival and in this sense, the circulation of knowledge is evident through a full
recurrence of themes and techniques related to dance practice.

The goal of both the AD activities of Balletto di Roma has been to expose the students to professional work practices under the guidance of expert artists and teachers in order to encourage them to think, research and communicate; to develop an open mind and a generous attitude in the rehearsals room and on stage; to be closer to the Company’s work. The target group was identified on the needs of Balletto di Roma to increase the interaction between the students and the professional contemporary activities, once selected a group of older students who were just starting to interact with the dance company on a professional level.

On March 6th, in the Auditório Osvaldo Azinheira – Academia Almadense a session has been held, open to all interested audiences with the presentation of an excerpt of the play “Inverno” by Companhia de Dança de Almada and the debut of the short film “Seven Days of Winter”, directed by Henrique Pina, followed by a presentation by Pedro Sena Nunes and Q&A session with the presence of authors Henrique Pina, Bruno Duarte and Luís Malaquias, moderated by Ana Macara.

In recent years, Ca.DA – Companhia de Dança de Almada has been proposing to carry out video dance projects that bring out the crossing of languages as a way of opening new aesthetic paths, innovating and expanding its cultural and artistic intervention in the community and stimulating the development of new audiences for contemporary dance. In this context, director Henrique Pina was invited to reflect on the dance piece “Inverno”, the latest choreographic work created in 2019 by Bruno Duarte for Ca.DA, in co-production with Teatro Municipal de Bragança. This is how the short film “Seven Days of Winter” emerged, based on that work, inspired by the winter traditions of Trás-os-Montes (Northern Portugal), and translating into a cinematic vision of that piece. After a whole process of research on the cultural heritage of Trás-os- Montes, we took the Ca.DA artistic team to that region for an artistic residence, from where they brought images, sounds, and signs of the ancestral mystique of that region.