Professional Development

Choreography Connects

Running over two years, CHOREOGRAPHY CONNECTS was a ground-breaking artist-led, residency initiative that united CoisCéim with two European dance trailblazers – CSC/OperaEstate (Comune di Bassano, Italy) and Le Gymnase CDCN (France). It brought together six distinctive, socially engaged dance artists: Vittoria Caneva (Italy), Marion Carriau (France), Justine Cooper (Ireland), Chiara Frigo (Italy), Aoife McAtamney (Ireland) and Betty Tchomanga (France) and one of Europe's leading dramaturgs, Monica Gillette. It was primarily funded by the Arts Council of Ireland through two IRIS Awards.

Across cultures and throughout history, dance builds connection – to oneself, to others, and to one’s environment. This was the foundation stone for CHOREOGRAPHY CONNECTS – an ambitious experiment designed to give time, space and imagination to engineer pioneering new pathways for sustainable environments – ecologically, socially and professionally – to rethink the very notion of “care” – and rewrite the source code of how we work.

The project began with a series of tasks to address the strategic alliance between three key themes: choreography, nature and care. It was then deliberately set free to evolve organically – driven by the desires and needs of the artists involved, under the expert accompaniment of dramaturg Monica Gillette – to facilitate candid horizontal dialogues, and to imagine, interrogate and share tools for artistic practice to flourish.

Critical to the success of this project was its innovative design that enabled 36 different physical points of connection between project artists, bound together by a safe online space that focussed purely on creative conversation. This was achieved through 12 in-person residencies (four in each location), 30+ connected digital conversations, and three annual summer gatherings in Bassano, Italy, that brought together primary project principals. Each residency connected visiting artists with their local counterparts and was deeply rooted in place through encounters with artistic peers, cultural organisations and their networks, and with the public as participants, witnesses and visitors.

DOCUMENTATION
Over the course of CHOREOGRAPHY CONNECTS, the artists shared visual notes and written reflections of their varied residency experiences. The project was also comprehensively documented by photographers, Anna Kushnirenko and Sara Lando. In addition, dramaturg Monica Gillette was commissioned to write an essay that looked firmly forward – capturing the essence of the project and learnings for the future – resulting in the publication below.


Events & Residencies

All Artists

Gatherings

Bassano del Grappa

23 July 2022 - 21 July 2024

French Artist

Betty Tchomanga

Dublin & Bassano

22 July 2022 - 21 July 2024

French Artist

Marion Carriau

Dublin & Bassano

22 July 2022 - 21 July 2024

Irish Artist

Aoife McAtamney

Bassano & Roubaix

22 July 2022 - 21 July 2024

Irish Artist

Justine Cooper

Bassano & Roubaix

22 July 2022 - 21 July 2024

Italian Artist

Chiara Frigo

Roubaix & Dublin

22 July 2022 - 21 July 2024

Italian Artist

Vittoria Caneva

Dublin & Roubaix

22 July 2022 - 21 July 2024

Choreography Connects

Gatherings

19-20 July 2024 | To complete the circle, CHOREOGRAPHY CONNECTS will culminate as it started with the third and final gathering of project artists in Bassano. Facilitated by dramaturg, Monica Gillette, the weekend will see artists and project principals coming together in the foothills of the Dolomites for a series of physical and artistic practices to inform its future

Choreography Connects

Betty Tchomanga

« I dive into the thinking of bell hooks. » « Racialized people here are invisible » « 6 white women untied my braids yesterday! My entrance to this residency…» « Reading and writing everyday… »

Choreography Connects

Marion Carriau

I had to tame my new environment, to smell it, to make sense of it…. to let my body become more and more liberated… free to go to new places, where my brain was not judging me anymore.

Choreography Connects

Aoife McAtamney

I left revived, my dancing body in shape and inspired by the performances I had seen. I was recharged.

"Through Choreography Connects we are able to welcome two Irish artists who very rarely would reach our territory and our communities, and build with them an international artistic community and shared path of research and exchange of dance practices. Being part of a project that invests in research and the development of joint and shared knowledge, allows us to become more responsive to the dynamic changes in the realities in which we work and live. It has also been an opportunity for artists and organisations to create a new international network of support and knowledge sharing together that focuses on the important topics of environment and community."

Roberto Casarotto, OperaEstate / Comune di Bassano

“Welcoming Choreography Connects artists during our festival Le Grand Bain allows these artists to combine individual research and immersion in the choreographic landscape of our region. On the side of Le Gymnase, it is to gather over a long time a testimony elaborated from a look at both the new and the expert. It also means allowing artists in our territory new gateways and opportunities for experimentation and establishing conversations with our partners outside of production and dissemination issues”

Laurent Mehuest, Le Gymnase CDCN

“It is a fundamental project for our dancehouse, as it shines a light on different connections (between artists and organisations, artists and artists), all whilsts navigating the different topics of nature, freedom, generation and expectations”

Greta Pieropan, Operaestate

Credits

DEVISED BY ROBERTO CASAROTTO, LAURENT MEHEUST, BRIDGET WEBSTER
WITH VITTORIA CANEVA, MARION CARRIAU, JUSTINE COOPER, CHIARA FRIGO, AOIFE MCATAMNEY, BETTY TCHOMANGA
DRAMATURG MONICA GILLETTE
PHOTOGRAPHY ANNA KUSHNIRENKO AND SARA LANDO
GRAPHIC DESIGN ALPHABET SOUP
PRODUCERS SARAH LATTY (FOR COISCÉIM DANCE THEATRE), NADIA MISINI (FOR LE GYMNASE CDCN), GRETA PIEROPAN (FOR CSC/OPERAESTATE)
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER BRIDGET WEBSTER

SPECIAL THANKS TO DAVID BOLGER, CAOIMHE COBURN GRAY, INNA MAZURENKO, OLWYN LYONS, MIA DI CHIARO, DUBLIN DANCE FESTIVAL, SOFIA GIRARDI, ADELAIDE DE BORTOLI, ROBERTO CINCONZE AND HERBALISTS MARCO AND ROBERTA OF INEDITOLAB IN BASSANO, AND ROMAIN PAQUET, CÉLIA BERNARD IN ROUBAIX.

About our Project Partners

Logo of Le Gymnase

 

For forty years, Le Gymnase CDCN has been supporting and creating a network within the dance sector in and around Lille, as well as regionally, nationally and internationally. At the heart of its activity is its support for artists and audiences. Le Gymnase is one of twelve National Centers of Choreographic Development (CDCN) in metropolitan France. As a CDCN, Le Gymnase’s guiding principles are based on: supporting artists, working to raise awareness and mediation, professional training, research,· dissemination of dance and regional outreach.

Every year, around 120 events are staged for the public, interspersed with regular outputs from residencies and shows with our programming partners. Le Gymnase also has two major events in its programme: festival Le Grand Bain - plural, diverse and innovative program, with creations, in-situ shows, multidisciplinary proposals, and the festival Forever Young, the first dance festival for children and young people created in France in 2006.

Le Gymnase also joins forces with an artist for a period of 3 years –and currently Silvia Gribaudi from january 2024 – working on co-productions, dissemination, masterclasses and participatory projects with the associate artist and boosting their artistic presence in its area. 

One particular historical and organic focus for Le Gymnase is its involvement in mediation working with the sectors of education, social work and health, using different tools and educational packs.

Another example of this is the LOOP network that Le Gymnase runs, a professional dance network designed for children and young people that currently comprises 24 organisations. This network is involved in sharing resources and developing educational tools, and is also a space of artistic exchanges, and commissions artists for shows for young audiences.

An international outlook is translated into each of our activities, such : · expanding the LOOP network to festivals and initiatives intended for children and young people on a European scale· Being more involved in producing and disseminating the work of international artists. · Establishing a career path for artists with our European partners, Becoming more international also crosses over into our mediation projects through our involvement in international cooperation projects such as Dance Well, which unites eight European partners to work on long-term activities from August 2022 to July 2025.

www.gymnase-cdcn.com

logo csc

Part of the Municipality of Bassano del Grappa, the CSC Centro per la Scena Contemporanea is a dynamic dance house dedicated to the development of the culture of contemporary dance in the Veneto Region, while the Operaestate Festival involves 35 cities and presents over 100 multidisciplinary performances and events each season in theatres, castles, parks, villas, site specific locations and museums of the territory. The CSC is supported by MiC (the Italian Ministry of Culture), and many of its international projects and cooperations are supported by the Creative Europe, Europe for Citizens and Erasmus+ programmes of the European Union. It is member of the European Dance Development Network (EDN) and of Aerowaves, in constant dialogue with dance organisations in Europe; and it is also part of the Anticorpi XL network: the very first Italian network for emerging contemporary dance artists, involving 37 programmers from 15 different regions, and including projects supporting the artists mobility and creative researches. In recent years, it has started dialogues with many European and extra-European partners.

The CSC is devoted to the artistic development, community projects, productions, promotion of artistic mobility. It offers more than 35 residencies to Italian and international artists every year. It is committed to developing new and enhanced ways of engaging participants and audiences whilst continuing to focus strongly on building a sustainable future for dance as the Italian leading supporter of dance artists. It is committed to transforming and enriching lives through dance, to shaping where dance is going next.

www.operaestate.it

Boarding Pass Plus Dance, supported by the Ministry of Culture, is a project that provides numerous actions and activities for the internationalization of the careers of artists and dance operators, as well as the exploitation of relations and collaborations between Italian and foreign partners, and the dissemination on the territory of the skills acquired and projects developed during the project.

The project leader is Operaestate/CSC di Bassano del Grappa, in partnership with Associazione Culturale AREA06/Short Theatre, Fondazione Piemonte dal Vivo/Lavanderia a Vapore, Oxa srl/Base Milano, Santarcangelo dei Teatri, and many international partners.

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