About
This conference took place November 20, 2020 at Skånes Dansteater via live-stream online.
2012 Skånes Dansteater initiated a journey towards a more inclusive dance business with the first DANSFUNK festival. The festival became in many ways a decisive moment in the Swedish dance world for increasing the work being done towards a more inclusive dance world, challenging the conceptions regarding what bodies and individuals inhabit the stage. We scrutinized existing structures and future possiblities. And Sweden experienced several comitments towards change and greater inclusion.
Today, several years, productions, projects and collaborations later, things have changed in a number of ways. Many great initiatives and strategies have been created aiming towards greater inclusion within the dance world. On November 20, 2020, we want to rally the dance business once again with the aim of joing forces and voices in creating a joined manifesto and collective strategies for the future.
In the creation of an equal stage, all voices need to be heard and present – choreographers, dancers, policy makers, presenters, public relations and artds admins – together we can develop a more inclusive stage.
The conference will be held in English and sign-language interpreted in Swedish.
Welcome to DansFunk Conference 2020!
DansFunk Conference 2020 is part of the project Europe Beyond Access co-funded by the European Union's Creative Europe programme and Region Skåne.
LIVE STREAM ONLINE
This year the DansFunk Conference will be held without a live audience in the auditorium. The conference will be live streamed online, so that you can take part from wherever you are. The link to the conference is available free of charge.
Please follow this link to participate in the conferenec online: https://vimeo.com/480679088/520d9bffd8 link to Skånes Dansteater's Vimeo.
If you use sign-language, please follow this link to participate in the conference online: https://vimeo.com/466146478/7e21fc1125 link to Skånes Dansteater's Vimeo with sign-language interpretation.
PROGRAM
09:30: Welcome to the DansFunk Conference!
With host Tanja Mangalanayagam, Project Manager, Skånes Dansteater.
09:40: Manifesto for inclusive performing arts: Focus Dance
Together with other leading dance organisations working with inclusive dance, Skånes Dansteater and Share Music & Performing Arts invite you to take part in debates and discussions about national cultural strategies, policies and frameworks that need to be developed in order for a more inclusive dance scene. Accessibility to dance is not about reducing physical discriminatory barriers but rather an artistic endeavour to develop dance as an artform.
Where are we now and what formal cultural policies and structures needs to be implemented for the future?
We will look at the current national status report but also examples from other countries such as the Netherlands, Italy and UK.
Participants
Ingrid Skare, Swedish Arts Council;
Sander van Dijk, Holland Dance Festival / Landelijk Kennisinstituut Cultuureducatie en Amateurkunst;
Anna Consolati, Oriente Occidente Dance Festival;
Abid Hussain, Director of Diversity, Arts Council of England.
Moderator: Sophia Alexandersson, chief executive/artistic director Share Music & Performing Arts.
11:10: Who dictates the conditions for artists?
How do we challenge the structures and processes that exists when we produce and make dance?
Are these structures different within institutions, independent dance companies and the freelance sector?
How do we challenge our ways of working so that it is the artists themselves setting the conditions of working? How do we create possibilities so that disabled choreographers and dancers develop artistic leadership on their own terms?
Participants:
Kate Marsh, dancer, choreographer and researcher;
Madeleine Månsson, dancer/ choreographer Skånes Dansteater;
Sindri Runudde, independent dancer/choreographer;
Emilia Wärff, dancer Danskompaniet Spinn.
Moderator: Stine Nilsen, Artistic Director and CEO, CODA Oslo International Dance Festival.
12:10: Lunch break.
13:10: Developing Dance Education
Disabled dancers and choreographers do often not take the same pathways to the dance profession as others. Often this is not something that they have chosen themselves but rather a consequence of the fact that traditional routes into the profession are not available to them. This became clear during DansFunk 2012.
Since then a lot has changed but still discriminatory barriers to dance education exits. In this session we will look at how dance education has evolved for disabled dancestudents. From early education through to university.
Participants:
Annika Notér Hooshidar, University Lecturer at Uniarts in Stockholm;
Karin Delén, dancer Share Music & Performing Arts and solicitor;
Beata Alving, advisor, Art School Committee, Swedish Arts Council;
Laura Jones, Head of Talent Development, Stop Gap Dance Company.
Moderator: Petra Frank, Head of Department, Academy of Music and Drama at University of Gothenburg.
14:45: Programming and curating dance
The Swedish Arts Council actively works towards developing structural policies and frameworks so that disabled people have equal access to the arts and culture as audiences, participants and as artists. This mission stems from the UN Convention on Human Rights which declares that it is the full obligation of State members to deliver full accessibility to and participation in, all aspects of culture.
How does this work manifest itself within Swedish dance programmers, dance producers, dance houses and other venues that present dance performances?
How can we, using the support of the signed UN convention, develop a sustainable agenda which enables our audiences to gain access to performances by and with disabled dancers and choreographers.
Participants:
Veera Suvalo Grimberg, Artistic Director Danskompaniet Spinn;
Dag Rosenqvist, Producentbyrån;
Raphaële Choppin, Cultural Officer at Arts Council of Sweden;
Nadja Dias, Executive Producer Claire Cunningham and Independent Senior Producer.
Moderator: Ingrid Fransson, Head of Production and Planning, Malmö Opera.
15:50: Summary and the future.