The project intents to conduct a set of activities in Hopa (the Eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey), Batumi (Georgia), Istanbul and Paris with the partnership of dance organizations and cultural operators from Turkey, France and Georgia. The focus point of the project is dance and movement. The Black Sea has a rich culture of dance. The dance forms in the region have obvious similarities and have been interactively developed throughout the history. Although the dance is a crucial part of daily life in the region, people are not familiar with new forms of dance like contemporary or modern dance. Furthermore, dance groups and young dancers do not have sustainable relations with foreign organizations and they are not active in international projects. In the course of the project, the artists and researchers will come together with local artists from different disciplines and interested local people from the region and through these meetings, they will exchange their practices, their visions and they will look for new forms of expression.
Therefore, the project has four dimensions: research, workshops, performances and capacity building. The workshops aim to ensure the exchange of practices and experiences related to the body and space. Therefore, these workshops also ensure body awareness for people having no relation with dance. The workshops are open not only to local artists but also to interested people who are open to encounter new artistic expressions. The lecture presentations aim to show pieces from contemporary dance field to the local audience and then discuss together the reflections and the philosophy beyond the performances. The project aims to ensure the transnational cultural collaboration and mobility of artists and cultural operators.
The project is supported by the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) and Institut Français. ECF is an independent organization based in the Netherlands that has been operating across Europe for nearly 60 years. ECF initiates and supports cultural exchange and creative expression across wider Europe.
