Background
What is Empowering Dance
Co-funded by the EU's Erasmus+ programme, the project Empowering Dance - The Soft Skills Teaching and Learning Approach developed this digital guidebook to support dance practitioners (choreographers, dance makers, dance teachers), especially those who have a participatory approach, in incorporating the teaching of soft skills into their artistic dance practice.
The seven European partners – CSC - Centro per la Scena Contemporanea (Bassano del Grappa, Italy), Dansateliers (Rotterdam, Netherlands), HIPP - Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance (Zagreb, Croatia), K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg / Kampnagel (Germany), La Briqueterie CDCN (Val-de-Marne, France), University of Roehampton (London, UK), University of Zagreb, Academy of Fine Arts (Croatia) – build on the results of their previous shared project Empowering Dance - Developing Soft Skills.
Also funded by Erasmus+, the aim of that project – running from 2018 to 2020 – was to investigate five case studies (also known as focus groups) of contemporary dance projects with non-professional dancers, questioning whether the participants personally experienced positive developments in their own soft skills through their participation in choreographic projects or dance classes. All five case studies confirmed this assumption. At the same time, the dance artists involved in the project’s research phase reported that they became much more aware of their own competencies through reflection on their dance practices throughout the project and were able to articulate them more specifically and clearly. All results from Empowering Dance - Developing Soft Skills can be found here.
Inspired by these findings, the follow-up project Empowering Dance - The Soft Skills Teaching and Learning Approach (2020-2023) was created to develop a resource to support dance practitioners in reflecting on their own practice, with regard to soft skills. Through becoming more aware of their own competencies and articulating them more clearly, this resource was created to support the dance artist in applying their soft skills both within the dance profession, as well as other fields of work beyond dance.
All partners contributed to the digital guidebook as a joint outcome of the project Empowering Dance - The Soft Skills Teaching and Learning Approach. The development of the guidebook was guided, written and edited by Monica Gillette and Prof. Sara Houston in collaboration with the artists and partner institutions.
CSC - Centro per la Scena Contemporanea (Bassano del Grappa, Italy): Luisella Carnelli, Roberto Casarotto, Roberto Cinconze, Giovanna Garzotto, Greta Pieropan, Elena Sgarbossa
Dansateliers (Rotterdam, Netherlands): Jiaxin Chen, Kristin de Groot, Connor Schumacher
HIPP – Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance (Zagreb, Croatia): Valentina Toth, Normela Krešić-Vrkljan, Mirna Zagar
K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg / Kampnagel (Germany): Dr. Kerstin Evert, Monica Gillette, Patricia Carolin Mai, Felix Wittek,
La Briqueterie CDCN (Val-de-Marne, France): Elisabetta Bisaro, Arina Dolgikh, Marisa Hayes, Marcela Santander Corvalán
University of Roehampton (London, UK): Prof. Sara Houston
University of Zagreb, Academy of Fine Arts (Croatia): Margareta Belančić, Eugen Bilankov, Associate Prof. Danko Friščić, Bernardica Svagusa, Nikolina Žabčić
We would like to thank the participants of the case studies in Bassano del Grappa, Rotterdam, Val-de-Marne and Hamburg. We would also like to thank all the dance artists and teachers in Hamburg, London, Zagreb, Val-de-Marne, Bassano del Grappa and Rotterdam, who joined us in workshops and gave their feedback during the development process.
Methodology
What is a methodology?
‘The methodology’ is an approach or system to gain knowledge and understanding, which is supported by principles and a particular way of looking at the world. We used a methodology to help us discover and process the soft skills present in contemporary dance practice with non-professional dancers. This section details our approach and how we went about obtaining our information to make the guidebook.
The foundations
Often in a research project, the methodology follows earlier studies to build up a more comprehensive understanding of what is happening.
Our project built on the findings developed in our earlier project, Empowering Dance - Developing Soft Skills. Empowering Dance - Developing Soft Skills identified, collected and articulated the implicit soft skills developed through dance practice. It did this by examining how they emerged in five case studies of contemporary dance practices involving a community of non-professional dancers.
The previous project also referred to literature on soft skills in the workplace, published by bodies, such as the World Economic Forum and by academics working in the area of business and management studies.
What emerged from the exchanges and analysis were several ways in which contemporary dance could support the development of a variety of soft skills: a soft skills map was produced as a result of this process.
The soft skills map seen in Empowering Dance - Developing Soft Skills was the starting point for the discursive process in Empowering Dance - The Soft Skills Teaching and Learning Approach, and the construction of this guidebook.
Who was involved in the process?
This guidebook was developed through a process of co-imagination, co-design and co-creation, involving a multidisciplinary team from members of the seven partner organisations. This included:
- A guiding three person research team, drawing on strengths in education, dramaturgy, socially engaged dance, artistry, research and evaluation.
- five dance artists/dance educators - from four different dance organisations in as many countries: all the dance artists were engaged in contemporary dance practices, which were channelled through four case studies, also known as focus groups. These were part of the programmes offered by each partner organisation and involved a community of non-professionals. One of them realised a final performance involving the participants. The others taught or facilitated process-orientated, on-going dance activities
- a team of four students from the University of Zagreb, Academy of Fine Arts working with a variety of media, including video, animation, collage and drawing
- staff members of the five partnering dance organisations and two universities from departments such as production, programming, teaching and communication.
What approach did we use to develop the guidebook?
We used an approach called Participatory Action Research. This approach involves working together with the subjects of the research (in our case, the dance artists) to understand the situation being examined (in our case, identifying soft skills in dance practice with non-professionals) and to shift the focus of the situation (in our case, to enable articulation of soft skills by dance artists), then to reflect on what has been said and done.
Participatory Action Research involves researching together, putting what you’ve found into action and then reflecting on it, before acting again.
What tools (methods) did we use?
The dance artists led four participatory dance initiatives that became case studies for the development of soft skills knowledge. The case studies fed the reflection and learning about soft skills, which helped generate the content of the guidebook. Due to the pandemic restrictions, the dance initiatives were first led online and then repeated face-to-face when restrictions lessened, allowing for a new understanding of how soft skills worked in each context.
Simultaneously, we set up online meetings for reflection, exchange and dialogue between the artists and the research team. These meetings were held in order to:
- draw out themes from each dance practice, for example, themes of leadership, trust, vulnerability, taking care, collaboration, relation
- relate these themes to soft skills so the dance artists could identify and articulate them in their practice
- discover the enabling conditions necessary for the development of soft skills and the attitudes and values needed to engage socially
- pinpoint what dance practices specifically offer to make soft skills flourish
- identify the reflective processes, tools and approaches needed to recognise soft skills in the practices
- reflect on ways to highlight soft skills and create marker moments with collaborators and participants
- become more effective in communicating one’s strengths in various settings.
The discussion was supported by the dance artists each keeping a regular journal of their reflections on enabling conditions and soft skills in relation to leading the case studies.
Throughout the project the research team analysed the dance artists' use of language and modes of communication with their dance groups, collaborators and in journals they kept.
The process was dynamically reflective, where the individual dance artist was given space for experimentation and individual learning, which through dialogue with the research team, became the basis for generating shared knowledge.
Tools to help produce the guidebook
The online meetings were also open to the Fine Art students at the University of Zagreb so that they could listen to the artists' artistic language, approaches and working methods. This enabled an environment of exchange and dialogue in which artists and students collaborated with each other to develop material for the guidebook. More about the students’ contribution is found below.
The staff at the seven organisations also joined in giving insight and writing. Dance artists external to the project and working in all partner countries were also involved in giving feedback as content was developed, as well as eventually testing prototypes of the guidebook.
This empirical approach was further validated by the research team through ongoing comparison with sources available in the literature.
This allowed for a constant interaction between evidence from the literature and contributions from the research team and dance artists, in a circular approach.
The Soft Skills Map in the Guidebook
This methodology has been particularly useful for the revision of the soft skills map seen in Empowering Dance - Developing Soft Skills. Each soft skill has been validated and interpreted in the light of the practices developed by the dance artists in teaching and creation settings, whose contribution was fundamental to understanding what soft skills are valued and what dancing opens up in people.
Definitions of each soft skill have been drafted in an original way, making full use of published studies and reports. The definitions of soft skills presented are also the result of a circular research process that started from scientific, pedagogical, social, economic and artistic literature and related to the soft skills present in the case studies.
Case Studies
Below the five dance artists who led each case study tell you in their own words about their dance initiatives that helped them identify and articulate soft skills. They also relate their approaches to bringing people to movement in relation to the soft skills developed.
All case studies, apart from the one hosted by La Briqueterie, took place in a virtual environment for the first half of 2021. Each partner organisation eventually reestablished the dance activity in person until early summer 2022. This arrangement, precipitated by the Covid-19 pandemic, allowed for specific soft skills and enabling conditions to be highlighted in each environment, which was documented in artist journals and in discussion with the research team.
Some of the answers to the questions below talk about the different modalities used for the activity and the specific relational complexities of online working. Please read the methodology section above for more information on the process the research team went through to identify, analyse and synthesise material for the guidebook.
Dance Well - hosted by CSC - Centro per la Scena Contemporanea (Bassano del Grappa, Italy)
Dance artists: Giovanna Garzotto and Elena Sgarbossa
Who were the participants of the case study? How many participated? Age range? What was the format (on-going class, workshop, making a piece, etc)
Dance Well classes are aimed at people with Parkinson's, but are open to everyone. There are around 50-60 participants in each class, ranging in age from teenagers to people in their 80s. They are also joined by students from secondary schools, professional dancers and choreographers temporarily in Bassano for artistic residencies. In addition to classes there are also specific workshops led by guest artists and pieces created for Dance Well dancers by guest choreographers. We refer to Dance Well as a process rather than a project.
Describe how you delivered your practice over the course of this project.
Elena: Since Dance Well is a constantly evolving process, the ways in which it is conducted also change and transform, always focusing on a listening attitude that connects the artistic proposals with the participants' responses. Activation of the senses, exploration of movement and collective practices are woven together to provide a perspective of discovery and experimentation.
Giovanna: I totally align with Elena’s words. Also, creating a non-judgmental space where through movement we can experiment and dare to take risks, allowing the emergence of different perceptions of excellence and beauty.
What were the soft skills you gave the most focus to? Please refer to both online and face to face experiences in your answers.
Giovanna: While practising online my focus was on patience, dealing with uncertainty and complexity, co-operation and learning to learn in a context that we had not experienced before. When practising in the physical space, flexibility and adaptability while dealing with uncertainty and complexity, active listening and teamwork are currently very present in my proposals.
Elena: Even if soft skills are interconnected in their activation, here are three that are particularly important for my practice at the moment: self awareness, ability to deal with complexity, understanding and appreciating differences.
What did you do in your practice to trigger these skills? Please refer to both online and face to face experiences in your answers.
Elena: Some examples are: holding time and space for people to perceive their bodies, inviting people to connect through the gaze, reserving a moment at the end of the class for celebrating and thanking the body through breath.
Giovanna: For me some examples are to focus on possibilities rather than limits and creating connections through gaze, through common actions (such as breathing), through shared intentions that leave space for personal and different outcomes. I also focused on celebrating togetherness within diversity (both online and face to face) and finding time and space for sharing thoughts and feedback with colleagues.
What did you discover anew or learn whilst leading the case study group online in the Pandemic?
That it is possible to create and nourish connection even without touch, sustaining a sense of belonging whilst experiencing a time of physical isolation.
How would you describe your attitude and how would you describe the enabling conditions? Please refer to both online and face to face experiences in your answers. (refer to the Activating Soft Skills chapter)
A sentence shared by all Dance Well teachers that has become an anchor in the vocabulary of the project is 'there is no right, there is no wrong'; a non-judgmental and welcoming attitude is the basic relationship condition that is proposed in the Dance Well environment.
This kind of attitude also spills over and is reflected in the environment and conditions in which Dance Well takes place. Additionally, the classes are free of charge and take place in artistic and inspiring locations and have been on-going since November 2013.
How did you collect feedback from your participants? (refer to Conversations and marker moments in Activating Soft Skills chapter)
Part of the Dance Well process has to do with creating the space after classes where teachers and participants can share, in an informal way, thoughts about the experience. This can eventually trigger deeper analysis and conversations. Over time participants feel encouraged and entitled to share their experience, because they recognize the value of their contribution.
Can you tell us what past experience in participatory work you brought to this project?
Giovanna: I have been involved with Dance Well since it began in 2013. Over the years I had the chance to teach and co-create classes, choreograph for the dancers and share practices with my fellow teachers, as well as co-lead and design teacher training workshops. The main focus has been to explore possibilities. I am also the co-founder of an association called Nolimita-c-tions where we have created many site specific projects with non-professional dancers in large groups, sometimes up to 100 people, ranging in age from teens to late 60s.
Elena: My experience with participatory practices started with the Dance Well project, approaching it both as a participant and as a teaching artist. That was the starting point for exploring different configurations of my movement practice. Observing the unique needs of the groups I asked myself, for example, what approach to use in participatory practices for children or a group of high school teachers, what soft skills are essential when practising online, what are the dynamics of movement and thinking that are most needed in this moment in time.
NOUS INVENTER (INVENTING OUR SELVES) - hosted by La Briqueterie CDCN (Val-de-Marne, France)
Dance Artist: Marcela Santander Corvalán
Who were the participants of the case study? How many participated? Age range? What was the format (on-going class, workshop, making a piece, etc)
In our group at La Briqueterie we had around 25 people, ranging in age from 18 to 70 years old. We worked from January 2022 until April 2022, initially gathering on three weekends and then a full week together. We worked full days where the meals were also moments of exchange. Being in a research format together with the group was very rich and important, which meant we were in a process of exploring movement together and sharing questions and reflections.
Describe how you delivered your practice over the course of this project.
I imagined the group as a mini-school of soft skills and imagination. I began by looking at which aspects of my dance practice seemed the most related to soft skills. I listed everything I wanted to do with the group and then each weekend I had a theme: touch, the other, rituals, voice, writing personal and collective mythologies.
From this list I shared exercises that are part of this corpus, and focused on guiding the group to meet and connect with their own body and the body of the group. I began with an extensive warm up with physical tools that they could then rely on and create with in the afternoon.
I imagined the final week as an immersion into creativity, including excursions outside of La Briqueterie, as well as encounters with the collaborators I work with, who offered their own practices to deepen what we started. It was a week where we were fed, and at the same time we felt and analysed the new information together. I asked the participants what they wanted to repeat as a practice and in the final week the participants were invited to appropriate practices and take them further.
What were the soft skills you gave the most focus to? Please refer to both online and face to face experiences in your answers.
I believe that what accompanies me most is the relationship between all the soft skills. I prefer not to separate them because for me the strength of the soft skills map is precisely in the relationship between each soft skill. I compose each soft skill mapping according to the context, the group and objective of each workshop and make a selection of the tools within my practice according to that criteria.
I think the most important aspect for me was making the tools conscious within my practice.
I began to look at each exercise and practice through a new lens, that of soft skills.
I was able to see my practice in a new way and have more words to express what I do and take it further.
What did you do in your practice to trigger these skills? Please refer to both online and face to face experiences in your answers
I began with questioning and actively listening to myself and the group. I worked with the flexibility of the soft skills map and how by naming the steps, we can have a group that is more and more autonomous, sensitive and involved in collective learning. Through using the soft skills map, I became more precise with my words and the themes I wanted to share. I let myself be guided in the temporalities of the practices and by the group. I learned to not be afraid of conflict, intimacy, differences and to speak about them. I learned to activate the mood when people felt lost and to have rituals that were activated in each meeting.
How would you describe your attitude and how would you describe the enabling conditions? Please refer to both online and face to face experiences in your answers. (you can refer to the Activating Soft Skills chapter here)
Wow, let's go!
I believe I am a very open and curious artist with others. I am very careful to create spaces where each participant can feel comfortable. I invent practices and exercises that can be read and done at different levels and requirements. I observe and try to feel and accompany the people who have more difficulty over the long term. I create a horizontal relationship through a listening and speaking approach where my words are not more present than the voices of others. I try to listen a lot and encourage others to name their needs. I co-imagine with the group, and it is the group that informs me.
I am not afraid to change my plan during the workshop, if I see that it does not work.
I do the activities along with the group so that I can guide from within the group experience.
How did you collect feedback from your participants? (You can refer to Conversations and marker moments in Activating Soft Skills chapter)
At the end of each session we made collective maps with images, words, ideas and questions. The idea was to create the traces for the group that would come later.
At each meeting I invited them to express their experience from the day before. I took notes with my collaborators and then I analysed the information for the following session.
I guided them to find their own words for the dancing, their physical sensations and how to make a group, so that what we learned in the project could be related to their daily life.We collected many images and sounds, but above all they created their own dances and mythologies through text and movement. The trace of permission, the trace of continuing to see each other, the trace of coming more to La Briqueterie, is a trace I hope that still lives in their bodies. We also invited an author and videomaker to create short videos about the accumulating experiences.
Can you tell us what past experience in participatory work you brought to this project?
I studied at the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine in Angers and then at the University of Paris 8. I have been involved in participatory and community work since 2011.
In my work as a dancer, choreographer and dance researcher, as well as in my company Mano Azul, the questions around how the tools of dance can be used in other fields are part of the core of the artistic project. I am currently working with several structures in France on the invention and implementation of projects in Artistic and Cultural Education in various schools, neighbourhoods and institutions. For the past two years I have introduced a new approach to the body, what I call the body's memories and subtle anatomy in somatic practices. I am currently training in bioenergetics and I am interested in how imagination plays a very important role in collective practices – learning and playing with our memories and imaginations through words and movement practice. Our bodies as a territory of fiction.
WAHN (MANIA) and UND SO KAMEN WIR ZUSAMMEN (AND SO WE CAME TOGETHER) - hosted by K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg / Kampnagel (Hamburg, Germany)
Dance artist: Patricia Carolin Mai
Who were the participants of the case study? How many participated? Age range? What was the format (on-going class, workshop, making a piece, etc)
In 2021 I worked with 17 participants between 21 and 85 years old in a digital rehearsal process for my work WAHN (MANIA), which premiered in May 2021. Due to the pandemic the whole rehearsal process in 2021 took place via Zoom for seven months.
In 2022 there were 31 participants between 10 and 89 years old, who were part of my dance production UND SO KAMEN WIR ZUSAMMEN (AND SO WE CAME TOGETHER). The rehearsals took place in-person from December 2021 to May 2022 in the evenings, as well as on the weekends. The piece premiered in May 2022.
Describe how you delivered your practice over the course of these projects.
Each in-person rehearsal started with a one hour practice where I gave focus to the concept of arrival. For me this meant engaging in various physical tasks to bring awareness to the body in space and in the moment, as well as to prepare the dancers (their body and mind equally) for the rehearsal. In the rehearsals held via Zoom the arrival period was much shorter since my experience was that staying connected digitally is much more exhausting and has other timelines and needs. The choreographic process for both pieces involved tasks that I offered in relation to the participants' own movement generation.
What were the soft skills you gave the most focus to? Please refer to both online and face to face experiences in your answers.
To dance with each other in an intergenerational setting and with different bodies and experiences, we need to develop not only empathy and active (and embodied) listening for each other, but also processes of negotiation are required constantly.
What did you do in your practice to trigger these skills? Please refer to both online and face to face experiences in your answers
From my point of view, you cannot trigger these skills in a directed and explicit way. For me it is more to create an open, safe and reliable space in which relations (first with oneself and then with others) can be explored and negotiated.
What did you discover anew or learn whilst leading the case study group online in the Pandemic?
I have learned how to organise and to take care of the participants entering the zoom-session, especially those with less experience using technology. Arriving online to the session takes time and it is necessary to create a reliable structure and be explicit about the time-frame within an online session. Since the screen is very flat and is making the awareness of the eyes and body shrink, I learned with my people to be and to stay 3-dimensional (e.g. think of the back of the head as well).
One challenge was how to work on memories of togetherness to strengthen the online experience. Therefore, we worked a lot with exercises that focused on relations. For example, dancing with plants and chairs, to refer to an object and then to refocus the dance again, to build relations for the body to the surroundings and oneself. Within this, I learned how to work with the different spaces the people are in (at home) and options of discovering this home-space.
How would you describe your attitude and how would you describe the enabling conditions? Please refer to both online and face to face experiences in your answers. (you can refer to the Activating Soft Skills chapter here)
Welcome everyone in the way they are. Being positive and staying in the moment, as well as thinking into the future but not getting stuck in the past.
How did you collect feedback from your participants? (You can refer to Conversations and marker moments in Activating Soft Skills chapter)
We reflected on the process verbally, as well as in an ongoing written way, with a paper roll that was used during each rehearsal. We used the same paper roll for each rehearsal, where the participants could share and reflect about their experiences from the first hour of the rehearsal. In this way it was accumulative and they could look back on what they wrote in prior encounters, so the awareness of past and present was always in the room. This practice supports the concept of the body as an archive.
Can you tell us what past experience in participatory work you brought to this project?
Since 2015 I have choreographed and produced dance pieces that explore bodies in states of emergency, as well as leading community based dance practice. My starting point is the concept of the body as an archive of stored and embodied life experiences. Within my pieces I work with professional dancers, as well as with people of all ages and backgrounds, who are not trained as professional dancers. I consider dance as a practice that brings people not only into motion but also into moments of relation. My artistic and choreographic work is driven by a participatory vision of creating an intergenerational space within my pieces, which provides room for negotiation and exploration.
Movement Class, Progress is Moving - hosted by Dansateliers (Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
Dance artist: Connor Schumacher
Who were the participants of the case study? How many participated? Age range? What was the format (on-going class, workshop, making a piece, etc)
Dansateliers Monday Movement class was 10 sessions long, each of 1.5 hours in length. They took place entirely online due to the Pandemic. There was a core group that was there for at least 8 of those sessions, but the session was open to more participants, no experience required. Ages ranged from 20-65 years old. It was called Progress is Moving.
Describe how you delivered your practice over the course of this project.
I was very explicit about my research on Embodied Cognition, Culture through Metaphor, Rave culture and the development of the soft skill map as a basis for moving. We would go through an individual warm up, to spatial warm up, to group exercises based on improvisational invitations, social gestures and choreographies.
What were the soft skills you gave the most focus to? Please refer to both online and face to face experiences in your answers.
In the online sessions, I focused on activating self-perception, perseverance, resilience, identifying emotions, managing information. I used background screens in the zoom sessions where I put up text relating to soft skills. I also talked about soft skills while we were all dancing.
What did you do in your practice to trigger these skills? Please refer to both online and face to face experiences in your answers
The things we practice physically become our skills mentally - this mantra has been a foundational concept that has helped facilitate practising soft skills. I have found exercises that make use of metaphors, which relate to the skills, as well as verbal prompts that acted as cues for embodying them. For example:
- Strut down a curvy catwalk = is confidence a physicality or a mentality
- Pumping the legs and pushing the arms = friction, energy, heat, power = confidence, perseverance, resilience
- Taking control of the breath, paying attention to the air on your skin = navigating impulses, managing information, activating self perception.
What did you discover anew or learn whilst leading the case study group online in the Pandemic?
You cannot replace the collective effervescence that happens when you are in a group, engaged in all your senses, and sharing the same particles in the room. The warmth, the smells, the sounds, the tensions, the releases - cannot be replaced, only simulated, but you can still simulate connection to a certain degree. To enhance the digital space I approached it as a performance utilising costume, background screens and Rave music.
How would you describe your attitude and how would you describe the enabling conditions? Please refer to both online and face to face experiences in your answers. (you can refer to the Activating Soft Skills chapter here)
No matter the physical context they are always the same: be the values you want to see in the room. Open, Available, Welcoming, Non-judgemental, Foolish, Vulnerable.
By making yourself available and present, you become a clear anchor for people in the room, while also showing others it is okay to stand and be seen in full-bodied presence. Foolishness and vulnerability go a long way in helping frame a non-judgmental space. Making jokes, even about yourself, sharing your own insecurities without shame, just to acknowledge that even the person holding the space deals with uncomfortable feelings during the sessions. I try to be an example of how you can move through that towards something else, to other states of being.
How did you collect feedback from your participants? (You can refer to Conversations and marker moments in Activating Soft Skills chapter)
We used an online survey that took into account the experience with the movement classes, word clouds to get an impression of the participants’ experience, and then shared that data back with the group to create a dialogue.
Can you tell us what past experience in participatory work you brought to this project?
For several years I have worked on non-professional and inclusive dancefloors, crafting a practice that focuses on developing a culture of social movement through metaphors based on the natural body, science and through social choreographies.
I come into participatory work with research in cognitive science, called Embodied Cognition, and how that pairs with Linguistic Studies in regards to how metaphor is used in our language. This provides an immensely fruitful tool in how to communicate and create common ground to help connect cultures through movement.
Visual Arts Contribution
Students from the University of Zagreb, Academy of Fine Arts were an integral part of the process for the design of the guidebook. Their contributions are in the guidebook to support another layer of visualisation and sensation relating to dance and soft skills. Each of the students came with a distinct interest and skill set, which is visible in the format and design of their works throughout.
Their contributions emerged via interdisciplinary encounters with the other project participants, such as following zoom workshops with the dance artists and regular meetings with the research team. Over several months, the research team collaborated with the students using keywords and guiding questions to help shape the visuals for each section of the guidebook. The keywords were collected via discussions between the research team, dance artists and fine art students on soft skill themes. Some examples of the keywords were growth, behaviours, environment, transformation, body as a resource, practice and self-awareness, to name a few. Some instances of the guiding questions were:
- How can you visually capture clusters of soft skills in one image? For example, flexibility, resilience and persistence.
- How can your illustrations relate an emotional and sensorial discovery of soft skills rather than representing them in a literal way?
- How can your illustrations reveal collectivity and community?
- Think about the sense of vulnerability or risk taking that your process-oriented approach might be able to create. How can you demonstrate the process through live drawings to give value to the durational nature of soft skill growth?
To further inform their experiences the Zagreb based Empowering Dance partner, Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance (HIPP) was instrumental in broadening the students' interest and understanding of contemporary dance as an art form and practice. Throughout the project the students attended contemporary dance performances, took part in workshops from HIPP and local dance artists, and engaged in the feedback and reflection processes for the creation of the guidebook.
Gallery of Visual Arts Contributions
Eugen Bilankov: Senses of Motion
Nikolina Žabčić:
Margareta Belančić:
Bernardica Svaguša:
Project Partners:
