News

Twinning, Outreach, Research

daCi members are invited to submit applications for Twinning, Outreach and Research projects in preparation for the daCi Malaysia 2027 conference.

Check Guidelines and Application forms please for Twinning, Outreach and Research Project.

Please send applications to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

DEADLINE FOR applications October 15th 2025

daCi gratefully acknowledges generous financial support for these projects from the Cooper-Newell Foundation

The Faculty of Music and Performing Arts at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris is welcoming daCi delegates to the daCi Interim Meeting and Workshop, which will be held at UPSI from 10–15 July 2025.
This international gathering, supported by UNESCO, brings together global experts and educators in dance and child development.
There will be workshops, cultural visits and strategic planning sessions for 2027, paving the way for the daCi conference in Malaysia in 2027.

During the month of June, four students from the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa and five students from Makerere University in Uganda embarked on the second phase of their daCi twinning project: Our Earth, Our world, Afrika Speaks, in the city of Kampala, Uganda. The project was largely funded by daCi, with contributions from UCT and private donors, and facilitated by daCi members Associate Professor Lisa Wilson of UCT and Dr. Alfdaniels Mabingo of Makerere University.

The team from Cape Town travelled to Kampala during the period of June 8-15 and together they explored and workshopped the issue of climate change in South Africa and Uganda through music, dance, drama and poetry, and generated a performance that was shared with children at a Ugandan orphanage. Through dance and other creative arts, the children and adults learnt about the causes of climate change and some of the African solutions to this urgent matter on both the macro level of industries and government policies and also on the micro level of the individual. The process included the team from South Africa learning Ugandan songs about the forest and water in the Luganda language and the team from Uganda learning poetry written in South African languages.

Both groups learnt movement choreography that they have been working on during the preparation stages. The creative team also engaged in site-specific dance performances at a critical water source to highlight its importance to the people of the community while embodying a sense of custodianship and care for the environment. Uganda is one of the most biodiverse countries in Africa, and it was a delight for us to see, share and interact with the people and the place and to use dance as a pedagogical tool and advocate for the environment with children.

Explore the highlights of our recent conference in Ljubljana, held from July 7th to July 12th, through a comprehensive documentary of the event. Featuring a collection of images, videos, statements, and important documents, you can capture the key moments and activities of the conference.

Looking ahead, we are excited about our next conference, which will take place in Malaysia in 2027. Join the daCi community to stay connected and engaged with our network. Membership offers opportunities for collaboration, networking, and access to exclusive resources.

Dancing into Communities took place in 2022 and was daCi's15th conference. The conference took place from July 10-15 and was hosted virtually for the first time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Please enjoy the proceedings now published by York University and accessible here.

Permanent URL for the collection:https://hdl.handle.net/10315/42081 

INTRODUCTION:

It is said that there is nothing so consistent as change. This is particularly true of the daCi 2022 Conference, which was originally planned to occur in July 2021 at York University in Toronto, Canada. When the COVID pandemic created a world health crisis, we postponed the conference for one year. However, due to the continued precarity of gathering together, we ultimately made the decision to offer the conference virtually. While the preparations leading up to the daCi 2022 Conference were extremely challenging, we were very pleased that the responses during and after the conference were very positive.

The content was a carefully calculated blend of pre-recorded students’ dance performances, papers, posters, and workshops with live presentations by most keynote speakers, along with many panels, workshops, papers, and research discussions. Every session concluded with a live ‘Question and Answer’ period so that delegates could chat, and discussion rooms were available for casual visits among colleagues. Each day began at 7 am Eastern time and concluded by 10 pm Eastern time with large breaks throughout the day. This facilitated registrants across all time zones to participate throughout their day at convenient times for them.

In large part our ‘virtual’ success was due to the tremendous commitment and expertise of the technology experts at York University, for which we are very grateful. Technology rehearsals were available and smoothed the way for all speakers, leaders, and moderators.

The Opening Ceremony presented inspiring young dancers from 7 performing groups from across Canada. We were welcomed by Susan Koff, outgoing daCi Chair from the USA, and Jeff Meiners, the then-incoming Chair from Australia. During the conference, 130 young people participated in Creative Gatherings and Exploring our Futures sessions that were led by a total of 16 facilitators. Each group included dancers from different countries, with young people from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Uganda, Jamaica, the USA, South Africa and Barbados having the opportunity to create dances and talk with one another.

Exploring our Futures was a new initiative that focused on the importance of Good Health and Well-being, one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The discussions around mental health were greatly appreciated by everyone.

Another new initiative was the Indigenous Forum, which offered a panel of Indigenous dance educators from Canada, Australia, Uganda, and Brazil who addressed issues and questions regarding appropriate inclusion of Indigenous dance in the curriculum. We hope to continue this discussion in the future.

We thank everyone who gave presentations and who participated in the 2022 virtual conference.

Nancy Francis and Norma Sue Fisher-Stitt
daCi Conference Co-Chairs, Canada, 2022

Attention dear members and friends,

Review on the 2024 Ljubljana conference and other important info is included in the recent newsletter posted to the members Area!

https://daci.international/welcome-to-the-members-area/member-newsletters