World Dance Alliance Global Summit – Angers, France

Contemporising the past: Envisaging the future
July 6–11 2014

Presented in partnership with Centre National de Danse Contemporaine (CNDC) in association with the University of Angers

Day registrations are now available !

Please note that your registration covers entry to all programs.

The international conference program is now on line : click here to download

The theme for the 2014 Summit Contemporising the Past; Envisaging the Future provides a place  for us to explore – through our research, teaching and practice – the multiple ways in which dance engages with a contemporary, networked world; of digital transformations and interdisciplinary/transcultural practices, and pedagogies that intersect with the ongoing evolution of our social and cultural identities. In this complex and rapidly changing choreographic environment, knowledge of the past enriches and simultaneously informs past and present. This, arguably, is essential to building an innovative and dynamic space for dance.

The Global Summit therefore interrogates:

• How choreography, with its renewed focus on the place of history, articulates that in relation to the past, present and future.
• How this articulation is shaped by the current reality of globalisation.
• The threads of influence that make up our practices.
• The ways we view current and future trends at local, national and international levels.
• The ways in which we envisage the future to help us create an ecology of dance that is sustainable and interconnected.

The Summit will feature six key elements:

• An international conference with keynote addresses by choreographers Robert Swinston (Director, CNDC and USA/ France Cunningham legacy), Germaine Acogny, Senegal / France, and Olivier Dubois, director of the National Choreographic Centre Roubaix. Also featured are more than 200 presentations featuring scholarly papers, panel discussions and performative presentations by international artists and practitioners, as well as poster presentations by emerging scholars and graduate students. Dual language refereed online proceedings will be published after the Summit.
• Daily sunset showcase performances of over 30 short works by independent artists and pre-professional dance students.
• Thirty-six international workshops for professional dance artists working in performance, education, community, youth and special interest areas.
• Choreolab for four emerging and mid-career choreographers and 40 dancers from around the world who will work intensively under the mentorship of CNDC Director Robert Swinston and Germaine Acogny, Director of École des Sables, International Centre for Traditional and Contemporary African Dances in Senegal. There will be a public showing of works in progress.
• Evening performances by local and visiting companies, including the controversial Tragédie by Olivier Dubois, the celebrated Event by Robert Swinston and the duet Extension by Amala Dianor and BBoy Jr.
• WDA Global Assembly and Network meetings – your opportunity to get involved and shape the future of World Dance Alliance.

 The following additional events are being held in the main venue, le Forum du Quai:

• Robert Swinston’s Shadowplay performed by the students of l’Ecole supérieure du Centre National de Danse Contemporaine.
• Bal Moderne,  a unique French experience of a kind of choreographed flash mob for all attending the Summit – learn some serious (simplified) repertoire in an evening of fun.
• An installation by French visual artist Jackie Matisse.
• Screenings of Sue Healey’s award-winning feature film Virtuosi.

The main site for the Summit will be the impressive contemporary Quai Forum des Arts Vivants theatre complex, situated on the banks of La Maine river and looking out on to the 13th Century fortress that houses the extraordinary Tapestry of the Apocalypse – an artistic endeavour that continues to enchant, intrigue and astonish.

You can participate in this major international dance event by registering now – Early Bird registrations close on 31 May!

For interviews please contact WDA Secretary General This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .