Dance your way to other cultures Erasmus Project
General information for the Dance your way to other cultures Erasmus Project
Project Title
Dance your way to other cultures
Project Key Action
This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices
Project Action Type
This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education
Project Call Year
This project’s Call Year is 2015
Project Topics
This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Teaching and learning of foreign languages
Project Summary
The Oportunidance Project aims at improving adults’ competences in foreign languages and intercultural communication in a creative and recreational manner, through dance lessons and transnational social dance events. It is proposed in the context where more and more adults feel the need to involve in socializing and relaxation activities, but continue to be engaged in a diversity of task-oriented activities, via which they can also learn useful transferable skills.
Participant organisations: 3 public universities, one public language school and one dance school – from 4 countries.
The project has involved so far more than 1000 participants from more than 15 countries, dance fans, adults interested in improving their foreign language skills in an innovative and motivating way.
Our main activities: designing online interactive language lessons (www.oportunidance.ase.ro ), dance lessons (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd4CSdT_Y2VIErCUKeSW-GQ/playlists) and synergies between these 2 activities; designing the project’s website (www.oportunidance.eu) and multi media tools (FaceBook Page, FaceBook Group, GooglePlus, Twitter, Pinterest, Dailymotion) and continuously updating them; three Multiplier Events, similar to learning events, involving the participants in interactive workshops; dissemination activities (research papers on project topics, workshops, presentations); 5 TPMs.
We focused on 6 foreign languages: French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan and Romanian, taught through blended learning approaches. Participants followed online language, intercultural and dance learning modules via OER. Then some of them participated in action-oriented activities (dance choreographies, intercultural group activities, etc.), using the language content learnt in the online modules, focusing on reinforcing language, dance and intercultural skills (reacting in an appropriate manner when dealing with someone with a different cultural background; better understanding culturally determined values; developing multiple perspectives, etc.).
The results of the Oportunidance Project are 1. an online Platform containing a. Modules to enhance skills in up to 6 foreign languages on specific purposes; b. Modules to improve intercultural skills; c. Dance lessons based on video tutorials; 2. Three Multiplier events; 3. Dissemination events, including dance workshops aiming at consolidating and testing the skills; 4. A transnational network of dance fans, languages & cultural diversity, aiming at sharing their interests on these topics, while practising skills related to them, via our website, platform and social media. The added value of our project is represented by the task-based learning exercises in multinational teams, by the research we have carried out in the domain of foreign languages for dance and the related terminology and speech acts, by the highly motivating activities we put into practice and by reinforcing participants’ self-confidence and artistic expression.
Involvement in our project was conducive to participants’ self-development through innovative activities, leading to better communication between individuals at local, national and international levels, with constructive consequences on their personal and professional life. Impact can be translated in: improved language skills, intercultural and dance competence; improved transferable competences (lead & follow, using humour in problem-solving situations); more availability to participate in transnational events; better online skills, enhanced disposition to involve in online learning; more interest in self-development, healthy lifestyle and better life-work balance; new creative ideas related to specific areas of their lives, inspired by the Oportunidance activities. Teachers involved in the IO and PMI activities of the project have said that their professional skills related to designing and using online and non-formal teaching content and skills related to organising international learning activities have improved. We have also reinforced institutional networking, which is conducive to designing further common projects.
Adults involved in our project will continue to find a more efficient way of combining learning new skills with leisure and will be attracted to practising social dance, with its long term benefits and important impact at communities’ level: dance keeps both the mind and the body active, it develops social interaction competences, it forms valuable transferable skills that can be applied to any career path and it offers insight into other cultures. Another long-term impact of our project: a greater cohesion among multinational dance communities, transferable to different other contexts.
We consider that our project is innovative and manages to translate into practice creative ways to achieve the above mentioned results, with long-term benefits. For all these reasons, our project was awarded The ELL in November 2016.
EU Grant (Eur)
Funding of the project from EU: 149215 Eur
Project Coordinator
ACADEMIA DE STUDII ECONOMICE DIN BUCURESTI & Country: RO
Project Partners
- UNIVERSITE LIBRE DE BRUXELLES
- ESCOLA OFICIAL D’IDIOMES DE BARCELONA
- UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA
- Asociatia Club Vertical