Lucia Newcastle Final

Lucia Matos (Doctor in Scenic Arts - Dance) Professor of the Graduate Program in Dance of the Dance School of UFBA – Bahia –

Brazil

Interwoven Networks: Articulations of dance in Brazil through the expansion of cultural policies and the constitution of the National Plan of Dance.

Interwoven Networks: Articulations of dance in Brazil through the expansion of cultural policies and the constitution of the National Plan of Dance.

WAAE Summit 2009 – Newcastle – UKWAAE Summit 2009 – Newcastle – UK

Networks

NETWORKS - organizational form that has allowed articulating processes between different agents in the social sphere, involving transversal interests, not eliminating internal differences and conflicts between members of the network, but seeking to overcome territorial frontiers and to construct more horizontal and permeable power structures.

Networks offer a space for joining and mediating between diverse ecologies of knowledge (SANTOS, 2005)

NETWORKS IN DANCE IN BRAZIL

There are two and common functions of Dance Network:

as collaborative strategies for the creation and construction of alternative pathways for circulating achieved results;

as agents of political action: working through networks and forums organized in civic society. Focus: promote spaces of representation and present propositions for the construction of cultural policies for dance.


Dance as political action started emphatically in 1999.

Reasons:dissatisfaction with federal cultural policies - market

logic to the funding of the arts;In 2000 was launched a national polemic involving

dance professionals and The Federal Council of Physical Education (CONFEF) about the regulation of the professional activity of Dance. In the CONFEF´s point of view, dance is defined as a physical activity (not art);


Dance professionals started a national campaign called “Dance is Art”

This marked the beginning of social and professional mobilization: networks of dance was formed and spread throughout Brazil


In 2001, this national mobilization was structured into the National Dance Forum;

Nowadays we have more than 21 regional forums.

Advantages for dance networks in Brazil:gains support and a pro-dance vote from state and federal

congressmen in various stages of the formulation of a law that determines that professionals of dance are not subject to regulation by the Council of Physical Education;

contributed to the perception and empowerment of dance artists and advocates in terms of representation and of action;

launch discussions among dance professionals about cultural and educational policy for dance in federal, state and municipal spheres;

started to exercise a greater influence in the formulation of cultural policy and to secure positions as representatives of civil society appointed by the federal government for the creation of the National System of Culture;

The Dance and the National System of Culture

The System:

importance of establishing directives for the cultural area necessarily considering the views of all three levels of government (national, state and municipal) and of civil society;

The government’s proposal considered cultural diversity as the major patrimony of the Brazilian people;

proposed an anthropological understanding of culture which contemplated three dimensions: symbolic, economic and citizenship;

2004 - introduced the Sector Chambers in each artistic language (dance, music, theatre, visual arts and circus);

National Conference on Culture (2005) - indicated directions for the National Plan for Culture.


The Sectorial Chamber of Dance – Ministry of Culture – MINC:

Initially the dance chamber was projected as part of the Scenic Arts chamber but, as dance professionals were linked throughout the country, declarations were made for the separation of theatre and dance;

Sectorial Chamber of Dance, as a consultative organ of MINC. It is composed by three parts: representatives of government (5), invited specialists (8) and representatives of the artistic segment, elected by forums in each state (12)


The Sectorial Chamber of Dance – Ministry of Culture - MINC

contributed to the national articulation of the dance category;volunteer work by its members;Dance has a set on the National Council of Cultural Policy

(MINC) – it is a deliberative organ;Documents elaboreted by Sectorial Chamber: Diagnostics of

the area, recommending directives and actions for the elaboration of sectorial policies for dance; National Plan for Dance.

National Plan for Dance

In it is finalization process in the MINC;It is organized into six sub-areas:

Registration and Memory in Dance.

Formal and Informal Dance Education and the Formation of Audiences for Dance;

Diffusion and Circulation for Dance;

Research, Creation and Production in Dance;

Economy and Financing for Dance;

Management and Cultural Policy for Dance;


Guidelines:Guidelines:

22

55

33

44

11

Guarantee of access to the teaching of dance as an artistic language from primary to higher education (with 4 actions);

Expansion of opportunity in public and private institutions for university education of professionals in dance (with 5 actions);

Integration of programs of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education for the implantation of actions that articulate artistic, cultural and educational production in the area of dance (with 7 actions);

Promotion of the integration between educational and cultural institutions (with 2 actions);

Adoption of strategies of audience formation – (with 4 actions).

Formal and Informal Dance Education and the Formation of Audiences for Dance


Expectations of the National in relation to Dance Education:

Improve the quality of Art Education; Promote continuous education for arts teachers;improve arts teacher education programmes;create a joint responsibility for Arts Education within

the Ministries responsible for Culture and Education;Opening of hiring positions for dance teachers in

public municipal education networks and in federal universities;

Approximation of universities in South America and the Caribbean, seeking to create protocols of cooperation.


Interwoven Networks in Brazil:

It is important that the Plan is carried out and does not remain merely in the field of intentionality;

it is essential that dance networks maintain their political activities;

It is to be hoped that the implementation of the National Plan for Dance strengthens dance as a political action and foments diverse configurations and artistic-educational processes in both formal and informal fields. For this, beyond government action it is important that civic society, through interwoven networks, accompanies critiques and is envolved in the decision-making processes of cultural policy.

Interwoven Networks in South America:

- South American Dance Network – Red Sudamericana de Danza - RSD- created in 2001;

Objective: an initiative of integration and collaboration among the various protagonists of South America’ s contemporary dance scene, with an international reach. The RSD participates in discussion regarding artistic and cultural development;

Partnering with Brazil’s idanca.net (on-line magazine) it created the social network movimiento.org, with its focus on dance and the promotion of thought about dance, reaching more than 2000 members in less than one year.

DECLARATION

1

It is necessary and urgent to implement public undergraduate and graduate courses in dance in Latin American and Caribbean countries with an emphasis on teacher training, as the development of dance depends on the expansion of educational spaces.

2

Funding institutions that support the arts in each country should seek to create multi-national agreements between the Latin American and Caribbean countries to assist in the education and accreditation of dance professionals in undergraduate and distance e-learning undergraduate programs;

3

Funding institutions that support the arts in each country should support the organization of exchanges, artistic residencies, joint research projects between universities and educational centers and/or between independent artists and universities / centers of education and between independent artists;

8th Forum of the RSD, from 16 to 21 of September of 2009, at the Dance School of the Federal University of Bahia - Brazil.

We present the following recommendations:

4

Cultural policy of the Latin American and Caribbean countries will provide for specific, structured programs and actions for and in the area of dance, fostering the development of creation, research, training, sharing, recording and archiving, for the diverse configurations of dance;

5

Children and young people should have access to dance through the inclusion of dance as a curricular component in the educational systems of each country, and artists should be present in schools, through projects and extension, to contribute to the aesthetic and creative development of all children and young people.

6

Plans and programs of teacher training should be developed for practicing dance teachers that certify through accreditation experience, artistic trajectories and knowledge.

DECLARATION

With the intention of advancing the construction of a panorama equal to the task of presenting dance in our region as an area of knowledge, we request support for and responses to this document from those in positions of responsibility for these issues and from the international community in general, in respect to all of the above mentioned points and others to be included through the expansion and deepening of our dialogue.

DECLARATION

Business

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