Empowering Dance – Developing Soft Skills Erasmus Project

Project Title

Empowering Dance – Developing Soft Skills

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 vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture

Project Summary

Empowering Dance – Developing Soft Skills is a project carried out in the frame of Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships supporting cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices. This good practice exchange included an action research on 5 case studies assembled by 5 European dance houses as partner organisations: Kampnagel Internationale Kulturfabrik GmbH / K3 – Tanzplan | Zentrum fϋr Choreographie (DE) as the coordinator and the partners Centro per la Scena Contemporanea Bassano Del Grappa (IT), Dansateliers (NL), Hrvatski institut za pokret i ples (HR) and La Briqueterie – Centre de développement chorégraphique national du Val-de-Marne (FR). The research revolved around the question of how the practices of contemporary dance offered within the partners’ organizations helps people of all ages to acquire and develop soft skills.
According to The World Economic Forum – Future of Jobs report (2016), soft skills are personal attributes that can affect relationships, communication and interaction with others. Complex problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, intercultural skills and teamwork are regarded as the most important skills required in our contemporary society and in the workplace of the future.
Knowledge that is specific to dance is often implied or “silent” knowledge, operating in the background and rarely named for its unique impact and potential in diverse settings. Empowering Dance has identified, collected and articulated the implicit skills developed through dance practice by focusing on five examples of contemporary dance practices involving communities of non-professionals.
Staff Members of the 5 partner institutions, in total 21 participants including 7 dance practitioners, were involved in the project. In each partner house one artist led group with non-professionals (varying between 10-20 participants per group from local communities) was studied as a focus group for the process of soft skill learning effects in dance.
These 5 best practice focus groups do not provide an analysis of the whole dance sector but focus on 5 contemporary dance practices led by artists who are specifically interested and experienced in working with non-professionals. The practices vary in being an ongoing activity (a weekly class), a project-based activity (for a certain amount of time) and an artistically led activity with an outcome (performance) at the end. All dance practices investigated are mainly task and/or improvisation based.
Over the course of the project, 9 transnational project meetings brought together team members and dance artists of the five organizations. The gatherings were focused on sharing tools, analyzing the dance classes of the participating artists and to look at one’s practices anew through the lens of soft skill development. In addition to participatory observation sessions, conducted interviews with artists, staff members and non-professional participants of the dance practices brought new language and awareness to all participants.
What emerged from the exchanges and analysis was the identification of several ways in which contemporary dance could support the development of quite a large variety of soft skills, such as: the ability to reflect upon oneself; effectively manage time and information; to work with others in a constructive way; remain resilient; manage one’s own learning; the ability to cope with uncertainty and complexity; learning to learn; support for one’s own physical and emotional well-being; maintaining physical and mental health; the ability to lead a health-conscious, future-oriented life; empathizing and managing conflict in an inclusive and supportive context.
Overall, the project underlined how the practice of contemporary dance could be helpful to boost resilience and resist increasing levels of uncertainty and stress, helping to develop strong personal, social and learning skills in order to successfully navigate personal lives, social encounters and careers.
During the TPMs, the exchange of practices encouraged the dance artists to value themselves beyond performance and empowered them to recognize their skills and its transferability to other people. It became clear that a continuous contemporary dance practice helps people deal with change, build resilience and gain confidence. In peer learning sessions artists and staff members went through a mutual learning process for how teaching practices can support and develop learning approaches that foster soft skill development amongst participants. Furthermore, the dance artists felt strengthened in their ability to apply their professional skills to other fields of learning and work beyond dance, thus opening up new career opportunities.
The project website presents the findings of the good practice exchange in detail and aims at encouraging dance professionals all over Europe to become more aware of their own competences and how they can use them in a more targeted way across sectors.

Project Website

http://empowering.communicatingdance.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 63800 Eur

Project Coordinator

KAMPNAGEL INTERNATIONALE KULTURFABRIK GMBH & Country: DE

Project Partners

• COMUNE DI BASSANO DEL GRAPPA
• STICHTING DANSATELIERS
• LA BRIQUETERIE CENTRE DE DEVELOPPEMENT CHOREGRAPHIQUE DU VAL DE MARNE ASSOCIATION
• HRVATSKI INSTITUT ZA POKRET I PLES