The purpose of Dança DK is to strengthen the Danish contemporary Dance scene by contributing to its competitive edge and visibility within the international creative industry.
The project presents the Dance dance scene to the Brazilian public and encourages cultural exchange between Brazilian and Danish dance professionals, and thus also strengthening the Brazilian scene
Dança DK opens up opportunities for creating a world of dance with participants through residencies, Danish / Brazilian co-creation, masterclasses, performances and interaction in the public sphere, school performances for young students, social inclusion, arts education and fusion between “arts” and “education” in new intercultural ways.
Dança DK is developed in close cooperation with the Brazilian, professional dancer and university lecturer, Deborah Dodd Macedo, and is built around the three core values: Democracy, Participation and Dialog. The umbrella project involves professional dance groups, college students, Brazilian dancers and institutions of higher education within performing arts in both countries.
The university exchange aspect seeks to anchor the continuity of the exchange. This gives a better perspective of making substantial and lasting impact.
Program
In its first year, Dança DK offers a range of amazing projects.
“Denmark – Brazil Dance Education Seminar”
The project was officially initiated in March this year through the seminar “Denmark – Brazil Dance Education Seminar”, which was held in the capital, Brasília. Eight students and two teachers of the Danish National School of Performing Arts (SSKS) from the Department of Dance Partnership (DAF) and from the Department of Music Accompaniment for Dance (MAD) visited Instituto Federal de Brasília (IFB) and Universidade de Brasília (UnB). The study trip was a huge success and a stepping stone for a five-year strategy of cooperation between the two institutions. During the week, the seminar reached out to more than 600 children, university students, professors and artists.
In August 2016, Kim Helweg, the composer and leader of MAD will do a one-week workshop about composition in dance at IFB. The project has so far been financed by the institutions themselves, but SSKS is working on an application to the EU’s Erasmus Plus program in order to establish a three-year course, planned to begin in 2018.
The MAD at SSKS is a master’s degree that focuses on the connection between music and dance throughout the entire phases of composition, improvisation, production and performance. The program also draws clear parallels to other audio and visual contexts such as music in films.
Granhøj Dans to visit Latin America
Next project as a part of Dança DK is Granhøj Dans, who will visit São Paulo and Lima in Peru during the months of June and July. Together with producer Patricia Alves Braga DCI takes care of the tour dates in São Paulo, where the dance company will perform choreographer Palle Granhøj’s newest work, Petrushka – Extended, and do a workshop at SESC Vila Mariana.
Body/Architecture – Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen in Brasília
In September, the performance artist, Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen visits Brasília to make an artistic program with students from IFB in Brasília and IFG in Goiânia, which is going to end up with a performance in a public space in Brasília. The project works with the relation between the body and the architecture of Niemeyer/Costa (Brasília is a UNESCO World Heritage Site). An integration with SKSS as a reflection of the project in a Danish context would be interesting and the Danish Cultural Institute is still working hard to make it possible. In addition to the IFB students, students from Bergen Academy of Arts and Design, where Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen teaches, are included in the performance.
Uppercut Dance Theater and DF Zulu Breakers perform CRASH
The year ends with CRASH; a dance performance whose first seeds were planted as a so-called Twinning Project by Uppercut Dance Theatre, Deborah Macedo and the Brazilian street dance group DF Zulu Breakers, in 2015. A twinning process refers to a choreographic collaboration over long distances via digital media. DaCi is an organization and part of UNESCO, which works internationally with dance education and learning through dance and movement. The result was a mini show with the title, CRASH.
The experience at DaCi 2015 was very successful and now Uppercut Dance Theatre plans to go to Brasilia to further develop the concept into a new 45-minutes show for young people in collaboration with DF Zulu Breakers. The tour includes six school performances at the theatres of the organization SESC in the satellite cities of Ceilândia, Gama and Taguatinga, and two performances in the centre of Brasilia, Plano Piloto. Additionally Uppercut and their Brazilian partners will facilitate three workshops for the young students during the school performances.
The dancers from DF Zulu Breakers are on a high international award winning level. The use the art form to support each other on a path away from crime and drugs in their rough neighborhoods. This artistic coorperation aims to empower these artists by integrating their expression in a narrative artistic context that unites street dance and contemporary dance.
An important element of Dança DK is to test new ways of integrating education in art and art in education. In October, a student from MAD and a student from UnB will together produce music for Uppercut Dance Theatre and DF Zulu Breakers’ CRASH performance.
With CRASH, Uppercut aims towards a tour in Denmark and a number of performances during their celebration of the five year anniversary of Uppercut’s house scene, Dansekapellet, in the northwest of Copenhagen. The hope is to fulfil the project by presenting the show on the next DaCi conference in Australia in 2018.