Choreography Connects

Founded in 1983, Le Gymnase National Centre of Choreographic Development (CDCN) has been working for almost 40 years supporting the choreographic sector and establishing networks in the Lille area and both regionally and nationally. At the heart of Le Gymnase CDCN’s mission is helping and supporting choreographic artists and forging a relationship between choreographic creation and audiences. On the basis of this, there are three strands to its activities:
• supporting creation and research structured around welcoming artists at work (in research and
creative residences), helping with production and company structures
• dissemination centred on two festivals: Le Grand Bain, an immersion in the diversity of the
choreographic landscape, and Les Petits Pas, a pioneering dance festival aimed at young
audiences
• education (with regular lessons, courses and masterclasses) mediation and raising awareness,
organised around opportunities for encounters and reflection as well as numerous activities in
schools and associations.

Located in the priority area “Quartier Intercommunal Roubaix-Tourcoing – Blanc Seau – Croix Bas Saint Pierre”, the CDCN’s home since 2003 is an old gymnasium built in 1876. Le Gymnase is active in its local area, but also wants to be more closely involved with people living in the Hauts-de-France region. With a population of just under one hundred thousand, Roubaix, the third largest commune in Hauts-de-France by population, is famous for its architectural heritage as well as for its economic expansion, its rich web of associations and its pioneering social activities (e.g. inter-professional housing committee, residents’ involvement, and its social and solidarity-based economy). Facing numerous difficulties, more than three quarters of the population of the city of Roubaix live in a priority area in terms of municipal policies. Roubaix is one of France’s poorest communes, but also one of France’s youngest population.

Starting from this vivid reality but also from the potential the city offers, since it relocated to Roubaix Le Gymnase CDCN has adopted new approaches to respond to the area’s needs and make art and culture accessible to the people who live there. To achieve this, Le Gymnase has launched projects that allow encounters between dance and the public, specifically in health clinics and social organisations,associations and educational institutions from nurseries to universities. It supports and works alongside the disadvantaged in priority areas, people cut off from cultural offers, and in cooperation with local actors and support structures (in the areas of social care, health and education). www.gymnase-cdcn.com

Comune di Bassano del Grappa is an Italian public body, dedicated to the development of culture and contemporary performing arts in the Veneto Region.

Part of the Comune di Bassano del Grappa are Centro per la Scena Contemporanea, a dance house, and Operaestate Festival Veneto, a multidisciplinary festival, their activities and objectives are aimed at supporting artistic development, audience engagement, cultural active participation of citizens in community projects, artistic productions, promotion of artistic mobility, promotion of initiatives of cultural inclusion, presentation of events and performances, qualification of the territory and its heritage with cultural initiatives.

It is member of Aerowaves and European Dancehouse Network and recipient of several grants supported by the Creative Europe and Erasmus+ programmes of the EU. www.operaestate.it

Boarding Pass Plus Dance, supported by the Italian Ministry of Culture, is a project that includes numerous actions and activities for the internationalization of the careers of dance artists and professionals, as well as the enhancement of relationships and collaborations between Italian and foreign partners, and the dissemination on the territory of the skills acquired and of the projects developed. The project leader is Operaestate/CSC of Bassano del Grappa, in partnership with the Cultural Association AREA06/Short Theatre, Fondazione Piemonte dal Vivo/Lavanderia a Vapore, Oxa srl/Base Milano, Santarcangelo dei Teatri, and many international partners.

The fourth edition of Boarding Pass Plus Dance identifies the need to support sustainable creation: responding to the need to share relationship formats and transnational collaboration that embrace the theme of sustainability also with respect to the life span of the artistic processes and the creations generated, and in the travelling, when possible. The project and its actions, shared among all the partners, therefore intend to explore the theme of sustainability connected to the conditions of research, creation and development of artistic trajectories.