A quantum LEAP to REFLEX

Dear fellow dance practitioner and IDOCDEista, 

As LEAP culminated in and finished with our „Teaching Form[less]?“ Symposium this summer in Vienna, we are now gearing up for our new project REFLEX Europe. We are very happy to share that we received EU-funding again, which we also take as a sign that our work is also being recognized as a worthwhile contribution outside our tiny contemporary dance world.

REFLEX Europe will draw on our previous work in many ways, most notably it will explore the reflective and creative potential of including documentation in our teaching and research processes.

REFLEX Europe signifies also a shift in IDOCDE: So far we aimed to provide infrastructure and collective  support for us dance teachers via networking and documenting. Now we dig into providing ideas, concepts and tools for in depth documenting, without abandoning our meetings, such as the symposia in Vienna each summer.  A group of dance teachers, writers, videographers already started to research together, so that we can offer you hands-on ideas to work with in your teaching process and practice. And which also aims to support you to communicate your appreciated work to your collegues, students and maybe outside the field of dance.

In the course of the coming 3 years of REFLEX Europe, we will publish a REFLEX tool & guide for you to dive into, discuss, disagree, source from. This goes together with (free) workshops for all those of you who would like to practice this in person with your peers. In the course of these three years, we will come to you to ask for your opinion, guidance, and your questions – to make this REFLEX tool & guide something that you actually will and want to use!

We are very proud to have assembled a diverse group of artists to accomplish this undertaking: Bertha Bemudez (FR), Maite Bermudez (FR), Defne Erdur (TR), Eszter Gál (HU),  Sabina Holzer (AT), Andrea Keiz (DE), Kerstin Kussmaul (AT), Ulla Mäkinen (FI), Barbara Meneses (NL), Martin Streit (DE), and Gabriele Wittmann (DE).

And without the caring and ongoing support of our partner organisations REFLEX Europe would not have been possible:

Wiener Tanzwochen (AT), k3-Zentrum für Choreographie | Tanzplan Hamburg (DE), tanzlabor Frankfurt (DE), SíN Culture Center (Hu), Pohjois-Karjalan koulutuskuntayhtymä  (FI), Le Pacifique (FR), ICKAmsterdam (NL), Elim Sende (TR).

Our by now seasoned Project Team (Eszter Gál, Defne Erdur, Kerstin Kussmaul, Olivia Schellander, Martin Streit) holds this coming phase together. And, as a bow to the continuing development of IDOCDE, we have increased our team size and happily introduce our new co-editor Pavle Heidler, whom you might know from his memorable symposium contributions. Also, Marlon Barrios Solano, will be our liaison west beyond Europe and support IDOCDE with website development.

We are looking forward to continue our journey together with you!

Kerstin Kussmaul, for the IDOCDE / REFLEX team

October 2015