Maturing Korai* Performing Body Democracies *Kore (Greek:κόρη "maiden";plural korai) is the modern term given to a type of ancient Greek sculpture depicting female figures, always of a young age.)

Through Maturing Korai our aim was to: - Create innovative opportunities for women 50+ in order to reconsider themselves and the world we live in, in a new way - Bridge boundaries between individu...

Through Maturing Korai our aim was to: - Create innovative opportunities for women 50+ in order to reconsider themselves and the world we live in, in a new way - Bridge boundaries between individuals and communities, and between communities - Create the space for dance and theatre to have community-building impact, through physical, cultural, and ideological processes - Build the capacities of adult educators in performing arts - Support development of professional networks in community dance and theatre - Use dance and theatre practice to promote equality and justice: dance and theatre practice involve mind, body, and spirit, thus they are capable of moving any conflict, division, injustice - Deconstruct preconceived notions about aging, community, service, and the mover’s body - Encourage mature women to connect with their inner strengths and abilities in order to inspire the rest of the society.

The first activity of the project consisted of online meetings of trainers-coordinators to introduce selves, discuss about the ways we implement our work, the challenges we face, the goals we want to achieve. We also had online meetings of all the participants from the three countries to introduce them to the project and to play games “to know us better”. The second activity included preparatory training sessions of each organization during which a short improvisational performance was created based on the idea of the project. The performances were inspired by the statues of Ancient Korai and approached through dance and theatre the idea of beauty and strength in women's ageing bodies. The third activity was one week (22 to 29 of March 2024) in Italy where the participants and the facilitators from all the countries met, performed their pieces, shared experiences and organised dance and theatre workshops plus a theoretical lecture. In the final part of the project, the forth activity, we wrote the Manifest of the Maturing Korai. It was a collaborative work that took place physically in every country and digitally along with the final evaluation and feedback online sessions.