DanceMap: Innovation Pathways and Policies to Promote European Dance Heritage at Home and Abroad

Project team

Simon Ellis
Rachael Davies
Charlotte Walde
Lily Hayward-Smith
Joe Askew

Collaborators

The DanceMap partners are:
Bureau Ritter (Berlin, Germany) as lead partner
C-DaRE (Centre for Dance Research) atCoventry University (Coventry, UK)
University of Antwerp (Antwerp, Belgium)
Motion Bank research group at the University of Applied Sciences Mainz (Mainz, Germany)
Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln (Cologne, Germany)
STUK House for Dance, Image and Sound(Leuven, Belgium)
Culturgest (Lisbon, Portugal)
Noa Eshkol Foundation (Tel Aviv, Israel)
Station Centre for Contemporary Dance(Belgrade, Serbia)
Lokomotiva Centre for New Initiatives in Arts and Culture (Skopje, North Macedonia)
Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Nomad Dance Academy Croatia (Zagreb, Croatia)
Brain Store Project (Sofia, Bulgaria)
Rosas (Brussels, Belgium)
Culture Concepts (Berlin, Germany)
Goethe-Institut – Associate Partner (Germany)

Total value

3,996,161.18 EUR

Duration

01/01/2025 - 31/12/2027

Project overview

The heritage of 20th century dance in Europe is largely invisible and in real danger of being lost. Works that are no longer being performed – even from the recent past – are forgotten, their memory confined to small and fragmented communities of artists and practitioners.

DanceMap is a pioneering heritage initiative funded by Horizon Europe, the European Union’s funding programme for research and innovation. This ambitious project, which will run for three years from January 2025 to December 2027, operates under the research cluster “Culture, creativity and inclusive society” and aims to develop a cross-sectoral strategy for safeguarding and promoting Europe’s rich dance heritage. The total funding amount is just under 4 million euros.

C-DaRE is leading work package 2: Mapping European dance heritage.

Project objectives

• Compile a European directory of dance archives & knowledge centres.
• Develop an interactive digital platform to make dance heritage visible and accessible.
• Combine scientific research with artistic practice to preserve cultural heritage digitally and practically.
• Advocate for stronger cultural policies at local, national, and European levels.

Impact statement

The DanceMap project will:

• Build cross-sectoral alliances of organisations from the fields of culture, heritage, culture, technology and education who will contribute to the safeguarding and promotion of European dance heritage.
• Increase the visibility of and access to European dance heritage by piloting a digital platform with international reach.
• Valorise artistic dance heritage and highlight the ways in which it reflects European values and priorities, contributing to a sense of belonging for all.
• Embed awareness of dance heritage in the cultural & creative sector.
• Assess the effectiveness of existing digital tools for safeguarding dance heritage and propose a conceptual framework for ensuring that the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH) is equipped to feature intangible heritage and embodied practices.
• Develop specific policy tools for dance heritage.

Outputs

• Survey
• Interactive digital platform mapping European dance heritage
• Research articles
• Policy tools

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or [name of the granting authority]. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. The granting authority is the European Research Executive Agency (REA).

Image credit: Angles and Angels, 1990. From an installation view of 'archival capsule',Biennale of Sydney, 2016. Photographer: unknown. Courtesy of The Noa Eshkol Foundation for movement Notation.