News
GIED Seminar | Characterization of professional profiles and competences in dance: European perspectives raised by the Up2Dance program
PERMANENT SEMINAR ON DANCE STUDIES
The Permanent Seminars of the INET-md Dance Studies Research Group (GIED) are intended to be a forum where all its members (integrated and collaborators), as well as other researchers from the academic, cultural and artistic world, can present their work and discuss ongoing projects and research. The enormous challenges that await us are like a compliment to the insistence and persistence (some would say resilience) that any scientific research represents, with greater evidence in artistic areas, and one of the simple but representative reasons why the Permanent Seminars organized by the Dance Studies Research Group have salmon as their chromatic option, illustrating a continuum against the current, always moving forward in a resilient dynamic of strength and will.
2024-02-07 | 6 p.m.-8 p.m. | FMH-UL, Esteiros Building (Lisbon) | Room 8E | Zoom Room
Free access, in person and online:
Zoom Room
Meeting ID: 952 3553 6204
Pass code: 368641
Characterization of professional profiles and competences in dance: European perspectives raised by the Up2Dance project
Ana Macara | INET-md & Carlota Machado | Almada Dance Company
In recent decades, and in parallel with the general evolution of the arts and culture in our society, profound changes have taken place in contemporary dance practices, affecting the entire world of dance.
Much of what used to be seen as fundamental in the training of dance professionals is now contested and new demands are being made, posing profound challenges for those in charge of dance companies and schools. This was the starting point for the launch of the UP2DANCE project, supported by the Erasmus+ program, which brought together five European dance companies with responsibility for training professionals. The purpose was the research about the different professional dance profiles, seeking to update training models and possible normalization that may contribute to the circulation of professionals at European level.
Dance companies wishing to optimize and differentiate their teaching offer face numerous challenges, including:
-
The need to redefine curricula and generally update training programmes in line with the latest tendencies;
-
Professionals working in this field have to deal with new languages and methodologies that may not fit in with their traditional training;
-
The situation in Europe is not at all homogeneous: in some cases, a certain notion of contemporaneity has been fully embraced, drawing aesthetic, technical and conceptual changes; in other cases, these new languages and approaches are not yet properly disseminated and need to be included in vocational training programs with a redefinition of curricula.
Taking advantage of the vast experience of the directors and collaborators of the companies involved in the project, and recognizing the wide variety of contexts in which they operate, we tried to develop a working methodology that would involve a significant number of the living forces of dance in the different countries, in order to characterize the skills profiles of some dance professions that we considered fundamental: the dancer, the choreographer, the rehearsal director and the vocational dance teacher. The selection of these four professions was necessary, due to the impossibility of addressing all the other dance professions that could be listed and whose study will also be necessary.
This was a first stage that we considered important in order to be able to deepen our reflection on the need to update professional training courses and study possible curriculum revisions that could contribute to the development of contemporary dance.
Keywords: Professional profile; Competence; Dance; Training policies.
Ana Macara | Associate Professor, retired from the Faculty of Human Motricity, PhD in Dance from FMH in 1994. Master's and post-doctorate in Dance from UNC-Greensboro (USA). Between 1983 and 2015, she taught at the Faculty of Human Motricity of the University of Lisbon (FMH). She was responsible for the Dance department between 2003 and 2008. She is a member of Instituto de Etnomusicologia - Centro de estudos em Música e Dança (INET-md). She is currently working as artistic director of "Quinzena da Dança de Almada", International Contemporary Dance Festival. She has also been a guest choreographer and artistic consultant for the Almada Dance Company, collaborating on various international projects.
Carlota Monteiro Machado | Born in 1991, she has a degree in Theatre Design from the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema in Lisbon and a degree in Arts and Culture Management from Goldsmiths University of London. She developed and completed her thesis on "Analyzing performing arts festivals in Lisbon: the roles of artistic direction and curation" (2021). She began her professional activity in 2012 as Production Assistant at various international festivals, film and advertising projects, as well as in Lisbon's main theatres. She has been working at Companhia de Dança de Almada - Ca.DA since 2018, as Production Director of the International Dance Festival Quinzena de Dança de Almada and the Company's International Relations. She has worked on the management of European projects such as "Clash! - When Classic And Contemporary Dance Collide And New Forms Emerge" (2018-20), "Up2DANCE - Updating professional profiles towards contemporary dance" (2019-21), "Woman Made" (2021-22), "BeInternational" (2022-23) and "Dance Beyond Borders" (2023-24) as well as other sporadic dance-related events. In 2023, she was invited to join the international jury of dance festivals such as "La Danza in 1 Minuto" (Turin, Italy) and "MasDanza - International Contemporary Dance Festival of The Canary Islands" (Spain). As a guest panelist, she took part in the International Dance Week in Jerusalem (2022) and the Šibenik Dance Festival in Croatia in 2023.
