REFLEX EUROPE researches and uses documenting as a tool for reflection in order to improve the teaching and to increase the impact on the learners in contemporary dance. It is a partnership of 8 European organisation working in the field of contemporary dance and its education. Throughout Europe, the demand for dance teachers is on the rise as the need for and the value of physical expression is more and more recognized. Yet ways of reaching a qualification in order to teach dance vary greatly, and in almost no European countries there is a certification process necessary in order to teach dance. Additionally, many dance teachers are career changers. These factors contribute to a very diverse field in dance with varying qualification. Because most dance teachers work free lance, they will not receive further education opportunities through their employers. REFLEX EUROPE addresses these issues by creating a REFLEX tool & guide for self- application by dance teachers. In their own pace, and with their own focus, they start a reflection process through documentation that enables them to identify better their indivual body of knowledge, weaknesses, and questions. REFLEX EUROPE supports dance teachers in their development and increases their visibility on the European labor market through better documentation of their work. REFLEX EUROPE relies on www.idocde.net, an online network for contemporary dance teachers that was created in an earlier EU- funded project. There are 900 teachers registered on the website who can make use of the REFLEX tool & workshop for their professional development. The REFLEX tool & guide, an interactive digital manual, will be published on www.idocde.net, and forums, additional information and results will be available there. The REFLEX tool & guide will be complemented by the REFLEX Master Class, a certification process of REFLEX EUROPE. At the core of REFLEX EUROPE is the project group consisting of 11 dance teachers and specialists in video and written documentation who over the course of three years, will develop the REFLEX tool & guide in a series of Research Modules throughout project duration. This developing, creating and testing phase will be concluded by a Tool Editing team and specialists who then edit and publish the REFLEX tool & guide. The summerly IDOCDE symposium which is held each year at ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival is the opportunity to introduce project progress to the interested public, and to receive feedback for further development. The last year of the 3 year project is dedicated to the implementation and dissemination of the tool: At all involved partner organisations workshops will be held to the regional communities of dance teachers to introduce the REFLEX tool & guide. Teachers who are interested in working in detail with the REFLEX tool & guide after attending a workshop in their home country are invited to a master class of the REFLEX at the Symposium. They will receive a certification which qualifies them to teach the REFLEX tool & guide workshop themselves. This will ensure the use of the REFLEX tool & guide beyond project duration and contribute to a further dissemination. The impact will be both qualitatively and quantitatively, by increasing the interest of dance teachers to document their work while maintaining high standards. It also will draw in more dance teachers into the website of www.idocde.net, and increase the quality of documentation on the website. Lastly, we increase the visibility for the important work many dance teachers contribute to their societies and support their voice in the contemporary art field.
Dance education traditionally relies on oral transmission, knowledge often considered ephemeral and difficult to convey in cultures that emphasize the written word over physical experience for knowledge creation. At the same time, the demand for dance teachers is on the rise as the need for physical education and expression is more recognized. Ways of reaching a qualification to teach dance vary greatly, and in almost no European country is there a certification process necessary in order to teach dance. Many dance teachers are career changers and freelancers, so won’t receive further education opportunities through their employers. These factors contribute to a very diverse field in dance with varying qualifications. In REFLEX Europe, eight European partners came together with the goal to offer tools to help dance teachers reflect their work at their own pace. It builds on two European projects: “IDOCDE“ (idocde.net), which created a network for dance teachers to discuss and share their work, and LEAP (Learn, Exchange, Apply, Practice), dedicated to joint skills development for dance teachers. REFLEX Europe supports dance teachers in reflecting their work by documentary action. It develops the quality of dance teaching and creates documentary material for further use, such as for sharing the work among colleagues, students and other stakeholders, making dance education accessible for a wider audience. To accomplish this objective, 14 researchers contributed to MINDTHEDANCE.com, a collection of varied approaches to documenting dance education. The online publication is accompanied by a printed workbook which combines parts of the online with individual material, to be adapted with experience and usage. The second outcome is the Master Class, directed at further in-depth distribution of the gained knowledge through “ambassadors”. Mind The Dance aims to inspire to documentary reflection by offering a variety of pathways. It ranges from artistic documentation, sensory-motor steps towards documentation, to manuals and coaching, and media/tech help. Developed in a series of 5-10 day research meetings in Hungary, Turkey, The Netherlands and Austria, the project started with a detailed needs analysis and established the scope of the publication and areas of individual expertise. It finalized the publication with a multiple step editing process, moved on to create and host the Master Class, and set up several outreach and dissemination channels. The research meetings were combined with individual writing / research locally, and with local outreach („Mind the Dance labs“). IDOCDE.net became a vessel for additional related content. The Mind The Dance labs - co-hosted by two partners, introduced more than 142 regional and 44 international dance teachers to the project, so they would realize the benefit of Mind The Dance and start to use it for their own work. A Master Class emerged out of the Mind The Dance labs as a week-long residency: 30 stakeholders learned in-depth about Mind The Dance, gained the expertise to teach the material to other dance teachers beyond project duration and received a certificate to do so. While all partners contributed to Mind The Dance, partners had also specific roles: Organizing partner Wiener Tanzwochen (AT) offered the infrastructure and high visibility through inclusion of REFLEX Europe within Europe’s biggest dance festival, ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival. Especially the symposia of REFLEX Europe, held each summer at the festival, created international acknowledgment of the project. ICK Amsterdam (NL) provided expertise in graphic design. The choreographic centers Le Pacifique (Grenoble, FR) and K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg (DE) were valuable partners for their experience with projects on a European scale as well as for their editing knowledge. Tanzplattform Rhein-Main (DE) offered media and digital expertise, while communication and people skills of Sín Budapest (HU) and Elim Sende (Istanbul, TR) sustained project development from the inside. North Karelia Municipal Education and training Consortium/ North Karelia College Outokumpu (FI), as the partner with a 3-year education program, offered unique perspectives onto the work, also from the Nordic point of view. Outreach at dance schools and centers, festivals, conferences and other events informed further 940+ stakeholders in person about Mind The Dance, locally and internationally – with events as far as Berkeley (US) and Auckland (NZ), and at least 2500 more through IDOCDE.net and partners online. Impact that can be seen during the process is the rise in the quality of contributions on IDOCDE, as dance critics have noted. The freely accessible website, the continuous dissemination through the Master Class participants and creators of Mind The Dance, the stock of printed workbooks for further hand-out ensure the presence of the project beyond project duration.