The Singing Body – Physical Empowerment for European Values
ERASMUS+ Project
“The Singing Body – Physical Empowerment for European Values”
In the project “The Singing Body – Physical Empowerment for European Values”, five socio-cultural organizations from Germany, Bulgaria, Portugal, Spain and Italy worked together over the course of 21 months from March 2020 to January 2023: Tanz der Kulturen e.V. (Dance of Cultures) as the project coordinator, Shevitsa Foundation, Popolomondo, Fundación Escuela de Solidaridad and Cooperativa Sociale IL FARO.
We exchanged and developed good practices of an innovative dance pedagogy with live music that uses embodied voice work for empowerment and community building for artistic, cultural, educational and pedagogical contexts:
Dancers, musicians and social workers with different educational backgrounds were brought together in six short term joint staff training events for interdisciplinary exchange (singing, different dance traditions, physical training, theater pedagogy, yoga, contemporary performance art, etc.) and to mutually train each other professionally. Throughout the project, the participants created an interactive performance with live music and participatory dance and voice elements that can bring the internal learning and creative process of working with dance and voice, both artistically and pedagogically, into the public space. Through public workshops and performances offered by the participants during the staff training events, a wider audience was reached. The potential for social inclusion, empowerment and group building of dance and voice work was thus tested on the spot, and teaching skills were deepened through direct experience.
This skill set of teaching dance pedagogy with live music and embodied voice work in social and cultural contexts was put into a practice-oriented manual with additional audiovisual material to be available for other actors in adult learning.
The interdisciplinary and holistic approach to dance (pedagogy) at the heart of “The Singing Body” explores a courageous socio-political vision of lived freedom, diversity, belonging and individual responsibility – and how these values can be experienced, expressed and taught through the “singing body”.
The objectives we wanted to achieve with „The Singing Body” are the following:
Sustainable professionalization of participating staff from interdisciplinary backgrounds and other professionals in adult education and dance: The competencies of musicians and dancers expand into pedagogical areas as well as the competencies of the social work staff are expanded to include creative and artistic approaches of embodiment.
Transformation of stereotypes, clichés and prejudices from the different disciplines and traditions: as these can show up in the creative process during the project, they can be confronted and transformed through the practice of dance pedagogy with voice work and live music for empowerment and community development.
Critical examination of cultural and gender-specific attributions and values in dance (pedagogy), art and social work: Dealing with dances from different cultures enables a playful approach and at the same time creates a space for negotiation processes with regard to “European” values and norms. The microcosm of shared experience enables a playful approach to the question of how European values can be lived productively in heterogeneous groups.
Social inclusion of marginalized groups: As part of the project activities are implemented in public space or in the direct environment of target groups of the participating socio-cultural organisations (workshops and performances), spaces for empowerment and community development are created.
A paradigm shift in artistic work towards holistic, empowering practice: The project inspires teaching professionals as well as participants of educational and cultural activities to move away from mere imitation and consumption of “perfect” dance movements and elite standards in dance (pedagogy) towards playful confrontation with one’s own body and voice. In this way, it becomes possible to develop one’s very own dances and songs that strengthen individual and collective identities.
Project Results
The result of the exchange of good practice and the synergistic interaction of socio-cultural, pedagogical and artistic perspectives is a handbook for holistic work with voice and movement in adult education with groups.
The manual guides through three main sections:
1. Theoretical foundations – Why combine dancing and singing?
2. Practical applications – pedagogical principles for voice and movement work
3. Concrete guided exercise series combining voice and movement.
The manual (PDF document) is accompanied by video explanations and demonstrations that facilitate the application of embodied voice work for empowerment for adult educators.