Dantzaz is community

Dance is the language used by Dantzaz to dialogue with the territory and makes heterogeneous social sensitivities and identities visible.

Based on this philosophy, it designs projects that bring contemporary creation closer to audiences less familiar with this artistic practice and to spectators who are not so close to the circuits or hegemonic cultural discourses. Experiences such as ‘Dantzagela’, ‘Dantzabideak’, ‘Dantzapote’ or ‘Coleografías’ have demonstrated the capacity of dance to conquer new spaces and look horizontally at local contexts, with the complicity of programmers and networking with cultural and stage management teams, festival management and audiences. All these actions would be impossible without an essential ally, Gipuzkoako Dantzagunea, the company’s house and home.

Firi Fara. t was one of the first programmes developed by Dantzaz for the school community in the second and third cycles of Primary Education (boys and girls between 8 and 12 years of age). During eight editions (between 2008 and 2015), Firi Fara brought dance to 7,500 pupils in 40 schools in Gipuzkoa through informal meetings, games, exercises and awareness and body expression workshops highlighting the potential of movement in a playful and didactic way. This pilot programme was complemented with school performances and the design of didactic guides that provided teachers with a practical methodology for approaching the world of dance.

Dantzazubiak. Dantzaz collaborates with primary and secondary schools in a transversal educational project that takes as its starting point some of the productions that make up the company’s repertoire, but also the proposals of other guest choreographers. Dantzaz performers spend several days (which can last up to a week) with the pupils of these schools and share a plural and open creative process that brings together the creative sensibilities of all the participants.

Dantzabideak. This joint initiative of Dantzaz and Global Servicios Culturales for ‘Salto a escena’ (Red de Teatros de Navarra) has brought dance to schools through a programme of artistic residency and collaborative work in which schools in several municipalities of Navarra come together. The pupils of these schools have the opportunity to work alongside the performers of Dantzaz and meet to show their work to the public in a dance performance inspired by pieces from the company’s touring repertoire.

Dantzapote. This itinerant proposal took short extracts from the pieces in the company’s repertoire to bars and catering establishments in a spontaneous and surprising tour that sought the attention of the customers of these establishments in unexpected encounters that reinterpreted the space and related the dance directly to the public attending the bars. Dantzapote’ was launched in 2013 with the collaboration of the Gipuzkoa Hotel and Catering Association and took as its starting point several fragments of ‘Kameleoia’, a dance programme that brought together works by great choreographers such as Itzik Galili and Jacek Przybylowicz.

‘Journey to the centre of dance’. With this pioneering initiative, Dantzaz combines tourism and live arts by offering the public the chance to accompany the company on tour and enjoy open rehearsals, concerts and other places to meet and talk with the performers.

Open rehearsals and meetings with the public. The company holds open rehearsals of some of its productions to meet with audiences and talk openly about its work, the language and codes that define contemporary dance.

Workshops in academies and conservatories. The performers and choreographers invited to create with Dantzaz also carry out workshops and workshops with dance students from academies and conservatories.

This project was created to create a community that shares experiences through the practice of contemporary dance and generates an audience for it. To this end, it brings amateur groups from different municipalities in the Basque Country into a network that interacts with the performers of Dantzaz, with the participation of a mediation team and choreographers from the Euroregion. Dagaz also works with the heads of performing spaces, academies, cultural institutions, companies and creators to create new audiences for contemporary dance.

Amurrio, Durango, Berriz, Trapagarán, Zumaia, Lezo, Hernani (in collaboration with Chillida Leku), Markina and Errenteria (through Gipuzkoako Dantzagunea) have participated in the first editions of this network of dance enthusiasts who have the opportunity to join as audience or actively participate in classes and creative workshops. More information at https://www.dagaz.eus/