Migrant Bodies developed a shared international research, focusing on identifying, developing and testing new and relevant actions for the inclusion of refugees and migrants with dance and movement based initiatives.
The project Migrant Bodies - Moving Borders is an act of extending oneself into another person’s situation. Dance is the means to meet, express, feel, break down barriers, connect and build new communities.
The initiative promotes respect and understanding for diversity, giving EU citizens the opportunity to discover and learn the values and cultures of people who, for a multitude of reasons, have become labeled as refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, illegal.
The project empowers participants through sharing perspectives, practices and knowledge, with respect for the indi- vidual identity and cultural heritage that each person carries. It has become the starting point for many adventures in exploring how dance can be instrumental in shaping and developing society.
The project was composed of five workshops, four residencies and four presentations - as well as regular partners' meetings.
The project was composed of dance activities, inclusive dance practices conceived and held for migrants and refugees within the communities they live in.
Some activities involve children of second/third generations of migrants with the dance artists to create, the Moving Borders walks: guided tours reflecting their view point of the cities they live in. The walks are public events where citizens, migrant and refugees discover together the cities from new perspectives.
Parallel to the dance activities and Moving Borders walks, stories of migrants are collected with audiovisual supports. They became part of an artistic exhibition/installation that accompanies the presentations of the project, and its results, at festivals and events, to promote respect and understanding for diversity, giving EU citizens the opportunity to discover, to learn and to understand the values and cultures of refugees/migrants and rediscover and enriching their own.
An online publication, as well as a video of the project provide detailed documentation, including best and new practices.
Visit the website of the project for more information: www.migrantbodies.eu
The final publication takes the form of a polyphonic glossary in which participants and partners take the word to share their impressions and knowledge from the project. Two EDN members share their views on the relevance and importance of Migrant Bodies - Moving Borders for their institution.
It is a project which implies the development of responsibilities and position taking. It is the acknowledgement that a public body, being a cultural and civic institution, must take care of all the citizens and inhabitants of its territory, despite cultural, national or ethnic origins. It enhances the relevance of dance in one of the most discussed and challenging topics of the beginning of the twenty first century in Europe. It highlights the importance to connect cultural initiatives and activities to the reality and daily life in order to create, in the present, the conditions to develop better and alternative futures for humanity and multiculturalism.
Roberto Casarotto (CSC Bassano del Grappa, Italy)
It resonates closely with the values that our organiza- tion endeavors to represent in areas of basic human rights and supporting equitable treatment of all peoples. The project also asserts the power of dance to bring different communities together. Through the project, we contribute to a better under- standing of our differences and to the overall sense of wellbeing in society in general. It also allows us to learn and to empower our artistic community to look beyond the obvious and find inspiration in human experiences around them.
Mirna Žagar (HIPP, Croatia)
Migrant Bodies is a project created in partnership between CSC Centro per la Scena Contemporanea – Comune di Bassano del Grappa (Bassano del Grappa, Italy), La Briqueterie – Centre de développement chorégraphique du Val de Marne (Paris, France), HIPP The Croatian Institute for Dance and Movement (Zagreb, Croatia) and
D.ID Dance Identity, platform for choreographic research and the practice of dance. The Italian association "Casa a Colori” was associated to the project.
This project was co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.