Professional Development

Choreography Connects

Funded by Arts Council of Ireland Iris Awards in 2022 & 2023

CHOREOGRAPHY CONNECTS is an important new venture that unites CoisCéim with two European dance trailblazers – OperaEstate/CSC, (Comune di Bassano, Italy) and Le Gymnase CDCN (France) – in a project that explores the strategic alliance between choreography, nature and care.

An artist-led, residency initiative funded by Arts Council Ireland, it brings together the following distinctive, socially engaged dance artists: Vittoria Caneva (Italy), Marion Carriau (France), Justine Cooper (Ireland), Chiara Frigo (Italy), Aoife McAtamney (Ireland) and Betty Tchomanga (France) with one of Europe's leading dramaturgs, Monica Gillette, to explore fresh ways to connect people and increase access to the artform.


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.

About the Project

Across cultures and throughout history, dance builds connection. Connection to oneself, to others and to one’s environment. Hence CHOREOGRAPHY CONNECTS – an ambitious pilot project that unites three highly experienced dance houses, six socially engaged dance artists, their local communities and extensive networks in Ireland, France, Italy and beyond – to collectively address the strategic alliance between three key themes: choreography, nature and care.

The aim is to give time, space and imagination to engineer pioneering new pathways for sustainable environments – ecologically, socially and professionally – and actively direct us all to rethink the very notion of “care” – to rewrite the source code of how we work.

Taking place over two years and anchored by the highly experienced dramaturg, Monica Gillette – CHOREOGRAPHY CONNECTS underscores the critical value of dance practice in society and will enable socially engaged artists and organisations to transcend the limits of current product-oriented mindsets, inspire experimentation and discover new creative processes that coherently connect this “care” across borders, through:

– 12 in-person process based residencies;

– 36 connected digital conversations;

– 3 annual gatherings;

– 32+ encounters with the public as participant, witness and fellow contributor.

 

"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

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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