Toolbox

Dansverkstæðið received an Erasmus+ grant for the project TOOLBOX 2024.

The goal was to increase access for performing artists, and especially dance artists, to adult education, continuing education, and training abroad.

TOOLBOX 2024 focused on ways to increase social engagement, enhance expertise in dramaturgy and innovative ideas in the digital world. The project's objectives were pursued through a variety of study tours for teachers and other staff. Participation in dramaturgy courses answered a call for knowledge that few can offer in Iceland. Other visits added knowledge of digital solutions and new methods in social engagement. To expand the group that benefits from study tours within the Erasmus + project, participants shared their experiences with the community through courses, educational meetings and open discussions following their trips. In this way, the knowledge gained through TOOLBOX 2024 is disseminated to more people, is useful to both participants and the wider community, and contributes to a lasting impact in the long term.

A total of 27 people participated in the project organized by Dansverkstæðið, and visits were divided fairly evenly between job shadowing and participation in courses.

International partners:

• Dance House Lemesos, Cyprus

• Stichting Iid Company, The Netherlands

• Gym, Slovakia

• Site, Sweden

• Dance, Norway

• Association Of Theater Pedagogues, Poland

• North Atlantic Islands Dance Network, Faroe Islands

• Bratislava In Movement, Slovakia

• Tic Tac Art Center, Belgium

• Dance Information, Norway

• Aviaaja Dance, Denmark

• Dance in Blekinge, Sweden

• Nurt Foundation, Poland

• Davvi, Norway

• Impulstanz, Austria

• Tanzfaktur, Germany

• Fundacja Sanatorium Somatyczne, Poland

• Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna, Poland

• Inshadow / Voarte, Portugal

• Danseateliers, The Netherlands

Through active participation in the Erasmus+ network, we built and strengthened partnerships with numerous European institutions in 11 countries with the aim of establishing long-term partnerships. Our staff participated in peer learning, exchanging knowledge and co-creating educational policies, which further connects our organization to the Erasmus+ community. Through shared knowledge seeking, we expanded our international network and secured sustainable collaboration opportunities for the future.

Participant's experience

Sóley Ólafsdóttir:

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I am writing this letter reflecting on my summer being spent at the Impulstanz festival in Vienna as a DanceWEB’ber. I try to write about DanceWEB, yet I don’t know if I will speak of dancing, unless dance is a way to ask, to deeply know, to care and to fantasize of the unspeakable future. I can’t grasp to corner my impression of this journey from a place of simply telling about.

There were five weeks of madness... sliding between a state of overextended bliss and absolute fatigue... A circus that only exists once.

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A group of DanceWEB’ber’s, brought together by mentor, more than sensational, Raja Feather Kelly. From the first letter sent to us, 23.’rd of January 2025, the tone was SET: “Now is your time to get ready, say goodbye to your old self, a new you will be back in August. If you want, if you lean in. If you find your CUNT - your Curious Underdog of Nuance and Understanding.” The first days we were invited to ponder and explore through notions of; Mask, Persona, Clown, Drag and Camp. These notions became an influential force in my navigation through the festival, coping with self-awareness and identity in absurd scenarios, revealing encounters and new-found performative states. A force of fools in the most wise and aware direction of wind. Force in knowing that we can make new meanings. Dancing is meaning-making in a deeply political and campy way (though, we can’t mention that... camp is unaware of itself, so, stay camp, but... shhh...).

“The old world is dying. And the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters.” (From a remarkable performance at the festival, “Work Body” by Michael Turinsky)

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Irony is dead, let the clowns in, cry to the moon and laugh to the stars. Say too much rather than nothing at all. Sometimes we think we want people to be honest until somebody says something so real... It’s easy to put up the Mask and to abstract daily doings of being, then there is an eruption  ́BOOM ́, there is an ever present war and there is genocide. Our earth is crying to the void. We move aimlessly through the simulation. I invite myself and all of us to think about who abstraction really belongs to?

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I need to negotiate with reality and write this semi-poem...

for now:

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Magma is slithering

Norms, or even so, organic stability,

does not exist in the real world.

Stability is a simulation and

the binary perspective is a paper town.

The market

is now a mosquito,

inhabiting the ashes.

Simulation is dead,

the show is over

... a new show must go on ...

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Let's embrace each other's entangled perceptions of this so-called reality and make the most of it together. Our foundation is togetherness and I acknowledge the care and dedication it takes to foster a community. I appreciate Dansverkstæðið’s dedication to the freelance dance scene here in Reykjavík. Without them I can’t imagine what my dance endeavours or community would be or look like. I thank their collaboration with Erasmus in supporting me to co-finance my scholarship to partake in the DanceWEB program and become a part of their global alumni. This experience was profound and I believe life-changing. Thank you for everything... always!

xoxo Sóley