From the perspective of the dancehouses, it is crucial to invest time in developing the skills of different professionals involved in the dance ecosystem.
Artists are obviously a key focus of EDN's work. We have however dediacted specific activities to the professional development of other people involved.
A dedicated cooperation project, as well as singular Ateliers, have been dedicated to the further (formal and informal) training of professionals.
Léim (2013 - 2015) aimed to offer emerging dance leaders the opportunity to undertake a personal and collective professional leadership development journey in organisations with a high degree of expertise in dance, both in their own countries and across Europe. It involved 10 participants from 5 countries drawn from the spheres of dance management, production and curation.
Find out more about the project and its outcomes.
In February 2016, the Place and DanceEast invited EDN members to an exploration of ways dance organisations might lead. Participants included 11 persons with various professional backgrounds including Artistic Directors, Programme Managers, Administrators, Choreographers and a Dramaturge.
Leaders have ultimate responsibility for everything. They set the vision and direction of travel, inspire and nurture others, and make decisions that cannot always be popular. Other people may offer advice and opinions, but in the end it is up to the leader to juggle different demands, make sense of diverse views and shape the future. Leadership is a lonely dance.
As manager, do you know the tools and procedures choreographers in your house use to create? If yes, do you use some of the choreographic tools in the way you run your organization? If not, do you consider choreographic knowledge as valuable for the context of running a project?
This Atelier at Kino Šiška in November 2016 used approaches from improvisation, somatic practices, composition, and developing specific reflection tools to access topics such as creative leadership, facilitation of processes, inspiration, ideas, focus, organization and decision-making. Find out more.