Advocating for Dance: The Future is in Motion

Join EDN’s flagship online conference, where diverse voices from Europe’s contemporary dance scene respond to the urgent need for cultural policy reform.

You can expect inspiring interventions and open dialogues across roles and regions, generating collective visions and practical strategies for the policies and infrastructures that can sustain dance in the years ahead.

The Time is Now

EDN's 2025 online conference takes place as the EU shapes its new Culture Compass policy framework and negotiates the next EU budget (2028-2034) — a decisive moment for the future of cultural funding in Europe.

The conference advances EDN’s advocacy campaign with a call to rebalance public support structures and invest in long-term infrastructure for dance.

Are You Coming?

The conference will take place online on 5 December 2025, from 10:00 to 13:00 CET.
Participation is free of charge. Please register using the form below — the Zoom link will be sent to you upon registration.

Programme Outline

Laurent Meheust & Louise Costelloe (EDN Co-Presidents)
Normunds Popens (European Commission, DG EAC)

Moderation: Bertha Bermúdez (EDN Board Member)

How dance contributes to social value, advocacy, and cross-sectoral collaboration. With dancer, choreographer and innovator Boris Charmatz.

Perspectives on leadership, infrastructure, and sustainable practices in dance.
With contributions including: Ulrike Kuner (EAIPA - European Association of Independent Performing Arts), choreographer and biologist Idoia Zabaleta (AZALA creation space).

Dance as a space for inclusion, mobility, and shared cultural futures. With choreographer and professor Efva Lilja (University College of Dance Stockholm).

A practical exercise led by Amy Fee (Danscentrum Sweden) on gathering meaningful data for the sector's visibility in cultural policy.

Contribute to a collective reflection on what infrastructures, working conditions, and values the sector needs to thrive.

*The full programme will be announced soon.

Speakers

In order of appearance

Bertha Bermúdez

Bertha Bermúdez is co-director of Dantzaz - Dantzagunea, coordinating international projects, residencies, and documentation of Basque artists’ creative processes. Formerly a dancer with leading European choreographers, she now co-leads programs with Adriana Pous focused on sustainable working conditions, professionalisation, mediation, and mentoring. She has advised on the Navarre Music and Performing Arts Archive and contributes to dance curricula across Europe. Bertha also creates interactive installations and has published widely on dance documentation.

Laurent Meheust

Laurent Meheust (EDN Co-President) is the director of Le Gymnase / CDCN (Roubaix / France) and develops international projects connecting to the residencies program and annual festivals. He previously took part in the construction of KLAP Maison pour la danse in Marseille and worked as a guest lecturer at the Université de Provence for the License and Master's in Cultural Mediation and in the Art and Cultural Heritage programmes.

Louise Costelloe

Louise Costelloe (EDN Co-President) is currently Programme Producer at Dance Ireland, where she works with the Dance Ireland team and membership to create opportunities for dance artists and the art form of dance to flourish. Her work in arts and dance management encompasses engagement with young people and communities, artist development, and programming performances and participatory experiences in dance. She is interested in dance dramaturgy, socially engaged practice and choreographic thinking.

Normunds Popens

Normunds Popens has served as Deputy Director-General in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture since January 2024. From 2011, he was Deputy Director-General for Implementation in DG Regional and Urban Policy, overseeing EU structural and cohesion funds. Before joining the Commission, he held senior roles in Latvia’s diplomatic service, including Permanent Representative to the EU, Undersecretary of State, and ambassadorial posts in Norway, Iceland, and the United States.

Boris Charmatz

Boris Charmatz is a French dancer, choreographer, and creator of experimental projects. He trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School and the Lyon Conservatoire, co-founding the duo À bras-le-corps with Dimitri Chamblas in 1993. From 2009 to 2018, he directed the Centre Chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne, renaming it the Musée de la Danse to explore new relationships between dance and audiences. Since 2019, he has led his production company Terrain and was the artistic director of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch between 2022 and 2025.

Idoia Zabaleta Morán

Idoia Zabaleta is an artist, choreographer, and biologist whose work focuses on rural artistic practice and situated research. She co-founded Azala, a residency space in Lasierra (Basque Country), dedicated to supporting experimentation, artistic processes, and critical thinking. Her practice foregrounds attention, interdependence, and ways of making that emerge from rural environments, offering distinct perspectives on how dance ecosystems can evolve.

Ulrike Kuner

Ulrike Kuner has extensive experience in production and project management for major international festivals and theatre institutions. She led EU-funded initiatives, including modul-dance (2010–2014) and the European Dancehouse Network (from 2014). Since 2017, she has served as managing director of IG Freie Theaterarbeit, supporting freelance artists and collaborating with policymakers on advocacy and funding. She became president of the European Association of Independent Performing Arts in 2018 and co-founded the Contact Point against abuses of power in 2021.

Efva Lilja

Efva Lilja is a Swedish choreographer with a global reach. Her choreographed events challenge and offer new visions for creating a reality in which political activities and everyday actions can be questioned and reformulated. Her award-winning works have been presented in forty countries, often seen as controversial and trailblazing. She is also highly recognised for her work promoting artistic research, as well as her activism and art-political engagement.

Amy Fee

Amy Fee is the General Manager of Danscentrum Sverige, the national organisation for independent choreographers and dancers in Sweden. She has a background as a producer and project leader in the performing arts and expertise in EU and Nordic cultural funding, collaborative projects, and sector development. Amy is also an experienced board member, a former IT project manager, and a certified Scrum Master. She is interested in democracy, community organisation, and evaluation methods for "soft" values.

About the Project

The conference is brought to you by Embodied Transformations, EDN’s EU-funded network project. It connects contemporary dance professionals, organisations, and communities across Europe to foster a transformative and interdependent dance ecosystem.