Dance gathering generations learning - Panpapanpalya

By Deborah Price, Jeff Meiners and Ann Kipling Brown

We are pleased to announce that a new daCi research collection of the Panpapanpalya 2018 Proceedings have been published by the Ausdance National website featuring papers from our Advisory Board and Members!

The second joint world congress of Dance and the Child International (daCi) and World Dance Alliance Global Education and Training Network was held 8 – 13 July 2018 in Adelaide, Australia, hosted by the University of South Australia.

The world congress took place in a pre-Covid world in which travel was comparatively easy, unhindered and enabled physical contact due to cheapening flight costs.

For the joint congress, over 900 participants came together from 26 countries to dance and learn with the congress key words: dance, gathering, generations, learning. The program included a variety of activities and presentation formats. Many brought snapshot performances to showcase on the first two evenings with other chances to perform in Pop-Ups and a BigDance. There were opportunities to gather and dance, to network, share and develop knowledge in Creative Gatherings, Young People’s Gatherings and Twinning projects. In addition, Teachers’ Gatherings and Scholarly Gatherings focused on more academic dance study. The congress challenged a widely-held preconception that dance is a soft option for learning or study, reflected in the papers presented here.  

READ THE PROCEEDINGS HERE:  https://ausdance.org.au/publications/details/panpapanpalya-2018

Deborah Price, Jeff Meiners and Ann Kipling Brown.

Co-editors

Exploring identities in dance

by Charlotte Svendler Nielsen & Susan R. Koff

The 13th World Congress of Dance and the Child International (daCi) was held 5–10 July 2015 in Copenhagen Denmark hosted by the Dance Halls, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen and the Danish National School of Performing Arts.

The World Congress explored the theme of identity in dance as it is experienced in formal, non-formal and informal settings of education. The program included a variety of activities and presentation formats such as Nordic Dance Flavour workshops, invited keynotes, Creative Meeting Points, Twin Labs, Youth Forums, Professional Forums, papers, panels, roundtables, research and dance workshops, project dialogues, lecture sharing, performances of young people and professional companies.

Dance is part of four recognised artistic areas within arts education, which is acknowledged as a key area within UNESCO’s 21st Century Skills. Dance education, in particular, puts an emphasis on the role of the body in artistic processes, and the body is in current research in educational studies, psychology and neurophysiology highlighted as being the ‘place’ where experiences, cognition and identity processes are grounded. A person’s identity is multi-faceted and believed to be constantly developing in intertwinement with embodied and cultural experiences, social relations and the various situations that the human being experiences. This understanding of identity formed the base for the Congress presentations to explore:

• How can we comprehend and describe identity in the 21st Century?
• What kinds of identity are experienced and expressed in dance practice of young people around the world today?
• What role does dance play for young people to define and perceive their own and others’ identities?
• How do professionals working with dance and young people comprehend and articulate their own professional identity?

Following the event, authors of papers, panels, and project dialogues were invited to submit their contributions for these proceedings, the second that are hosted online by Ausdance. The submissions are organised into the themes of the congress program: Embodiment, Empowerment, Assessment, and Education. In addition, there are a few special papers: two papers that report research as recipients of the Across Borders Research Fund from daCi, and one Roundtable report that followed a keynote and the Youth Forums report.

We appreciate the support of all those who made these proceedings a possibility and hope that you will enjoy reading. Please click here to read the proceedings.   

Susan R. Koff and Associate Professor

Charlotte Svendler Nielsen, 

Co-Editors and co-chairs of the Congress committee for papers, panels, and project dialogue. 

Dance, young people and change

by daCi & World Dance Alliance Asia Pacific originally published on 14 November 2012

The 2012 Global Dance Summit: Dance, Young People and Change, held at Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA) in Taiwan 14 – 20 July 2012, was organized collaboratively between Dance and the Child International (daCi) and World Dance Alliance (WDA) and hosted by TNUA. The summit attracted more than 1500 delegates of all ages, from over thirty countries. The program included performances and workshops for and by young people and adults, as well as presentations of research papers and panels and professional projects.

This event was groundbreaking in several ways. It is the first time that the two international organizations, daCi and WDA, have joined forces to organize a conference. It is also the first time in the history of daCi, and the third time in the history of WDA, that conference proceedings have been published online, thanks to the Australian Dance Council – Ausdance.

There were further innovations in the conference program, some of which are visible in the Proceedings. In response to the large number of abstracts submitted for the conference, the organizers developed a new category designated as 'Project Dialogues,' adding to the menu of more traditional research papers and panels. These dialogues allowed dance educators and artists to share professional projects focusing on young people. Project presenters were paired and urged to communicate with each other prior to the conference in order to plan discussions linking the projects.

In addition, the conference was the first time in these organizations’ history that a couple of presenters were given the opportunity to present by Skype. This was part of an attempt to be inclusive of participants from diverse parts of the world.

Following the event, authors of both research papers and project dialogues were invited to submit their contributions for the proceedings. All those submitted are published here, organized by the themes under which they were identified in the conference program; each appears in the language (English and/or Chinese) chosen by the author(s).

The conference organizers wish to thank everyone who contributed to the conference and to this publication. Enjoy reading!

Susan W. Stinson, Editor-in-chief

Shu-Ying Liu, Co-editor

Charlotte Svendler Nielsen, Co-editor and chair of the conference committee for papers, panels, projects and proceedings