Identity and Culture (Erasmus Plus funded project)
What is normal, anyway?
What is identity? A movement pattern changing according to the situation in time and space? Structured but fluid in shape and tone? Dance has the power to explore our inner landscapes. Through the body we memorize and connect to our experiences and to others. Everything is stored in the body. Culture shows through gestures, inhabited ways and „rules“ of moving in society as well as individual movement patterns. So dance offers tools to analyze society in its development and states. On the individual level we can get to know ourselves more and find an expression to who we are.
Video of the performances:
In this project youths in the age of 16 to 25 years from five different countries (Greece, Italy, Spain, Poland and Germany) met for an intercultural exchange in Kassel, Germany through the medium of arts. The whole topic was framed by visits to minority groups, talks with politicians, museums and religious communities. The project included two theatre and two dance workshops for which the participants could choose. What the youths found out and experienced in the meetings and visits of diverse groups they could bring to the theatre and dance workshops to digest and create a dance/theatre piece. In the end the findings and explorations of the participants to the theme of "Culture and Identity" were shown in a performance.
Project dates: 22nd July to 5th August 2023
Project by:
• Stadt Kassel, Kommunales Jugendbildungswerk,
• Kulturnetz Kassel e.V.,
• Sesam e.V. – Verein zur Förderung von Ideen junger Menschen in Alltag und Zukunft
Contemporary Dance workshop 2/ performance: Inner landscapes
Choreographers/ workshop leaders: Julia Pfister and Josefine Malakci
Dance and Co-Creation: participants from five different countries