Performing Gender –
Dancing in your shoes
Have you ever dance in someone else’s shoes?
European Project
The project
Dancing In Your Shoes is the third edition of the European project called Performing Gender.
Performing Gender – Dancing In Your Shoes is a three-year audience development project that aims to develop a link between culture professionals and their local communities in the field of dance and performing arts through a discussion on gender in the European dance system.
It is a comprehensive project that involves 11 cultural organizations from 8 European countries, 16 international dance makers, 9 artistic directors, 8 audience developers, 11 project managers, 3 academic researchers and 1 artistic consultant.
Goals
The goal is to involve 225 people from their respective local communities in a comprehensive training process in the field of artistic production, that aims at putting the spotlight on the marginal voices of their communities. We wanted to highlight issues such as inequality, ethnicity, class, disability, environment and economy, with an intersectional perspective.
These communities are part of a one-year-long co-design process of creative workshops. 8 performances and workshops will be created which will be presented in festivals and events organized by our partners.
3 steps
Sharing and disseminating our activities involves 3 important moments:
- First of all, an international Opening Lab developed by the Cassero LGBTI+ Center in March 2021 with various activities. The event will be open to internal and external participants of the project and to a wide audience.
- An international Closing Lab during the Boulevard Theater Festival in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in August 2023. On this occasion, what was created in the three-year period will be shown and discussed in an exhaustive way.
- A presentation at the European Parliament, coordinated by the Cassero LGBTI+ Center, the British Council and the European Agency EACEA.
Project info
Performing Gender – Dancing In Your Shoes coinvolge
In September 2022, during the 20th edition of the Gender Bender Festival, the artists and international partners involved in this project met in Bologna for a weekend full of artistic activities related to dance and different considerations on gender issues. The events alternated moments of discussion, exchange and listening to each other with dance and movement activities. At the end of it all, every dance maker provided their feedback. In the afternoon of the second day, the festival audience and the citizens of Bologna were able to see this work in a moment of dance improvisation and electronic music by Francesco Giomi, an Italian experimental music composer and sound director.
The contribution of the University of Bologna
The participation of the Department of Music and Performing Arts (DAMSLab) of the University of Bologna is particularly important. University researchers are editing a textbook that brings together the analysis of methodologies and an academic evaluation of the project’s impact on the artists and audiences that were involved.
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