WORKSHOPS 2009.

EDUCATION

Group "Let’s..." with the support of British Council, European Youth Foundation and Cultural institute "Vuk Karadzic", organized training for contemporary dancers, youth leaders and persons with disabilities on how to use contemporary dance in work with mix-ability groups.

Training lasted from 7th-15th of March. Workshop leaders were dancers from Candoco Dance Company, Victoria Malin and Elinor Baker. This company is, among other things, known for gathering dancing artists both with and without disabilities.
At the end of the training public presentation of achieved results were organized with 30 participants on the stage.

INCLUSIVE WORKSHOPS

Belgrade

During September and October 2009, "Hajde da..." Group, Association of Blind and Visually Impaired People of Serbia "White Cane", and Sports and Recreation Association of People with Disabilities "Everything is Possible", have organized contemporary dance workshops, which lasted 40 hours and took place in Belgrade. The workshops were participated by wheel-chair users, blind and visually impaired persons, deaf and hard-of-hearing persons, students from ballet school “Lujo Davico”, contemporary dancers and other interested individuals.

The first set of workshops was facilitated by Mr. Boris Caksiran (co-facilitated by Ms. Jovana Rakic, assisted by Mr. Senad Sopnic), whilst the second one was facilitated by Ms. Sanja Krsmanovic Tasic (co-facilitated by Ms. Jovana Rakic, assisted by Mr. Danijel Todorovic). There were also held two presentations of the achieved results: the first was in September 2009. as part of Bitef Polifonija, and the other was in October, when the second set of workshops was completed. Both workshops and presentations were held in the Dah Theatre (Belgrade).

The project was evaluated by Ms. Jasmina Karic, Professor at the Faculty for Special Education and Rehabilitation. You can see segments of her evaluation report below.

"All participants have claimed that contemporary dance workshops helped them to meet new friends, and only one participant couldn’t estimate if the workshops have contributed for them to enrich their free time. The others were sure about the latter, and said that it included sharing experiences and positive energy, boosting self-confidence and self-satisfaction. Furthermore, they all said that atmosphere in the group was highly cooperative; participants were supporting and respecting each other, and their mutual relationships were fairly satisfying. There were some attendees without disabilities, who initially had some doubts in concern with communication within the group, but these appeared to be unfounded. Most of the participants reported that their expectations were met (Pic. no. 1):

Pic. no. 1: To what extent have your expectation from these workshops been met (description of the picture: three bars, representing three categories of answers: the first one showing that 23,1% of participants said that their expectations were exceeded, the second one showing that 69,2% of participants said that their expectations were met, and the last one showing that 7,7% of participants said that their expectations were partially met.) 

All participants claim that the workshops have motivated them to practice contemporary dance in the future. They also think that contemporary dance contributes to improving interaction between persons with disabilities and majority population, as people get the chance to meet and support each other, and promote their ideas, as they all become friends and the equal-righted ones. Moreover, with even more enthusiasm after the project, participants said that these contemporary dance workshops can contribute to changing image of persons with disabilities, as – through presentations – they get the wider audience introduced with abilities and potentials of persons with disabilities.”

Podgorica

Except in Belgrade, inclusive contemporary dance workshops have also been held in Podgorica, in December 2009, in cooperation with PERFORMAARS INTERNATIONAL. Another presentation of results has also taken place there.

Within the DEUS Festival, “The Curve for Gauss” was also performed in December, in Podgorica.