Future perspectives of inclusive dance education

To help to expand access to inclusive education, we want to investigate current and future opportunities to create an inclusive, educational dance project for teachers, amateurs, and individuals w...

To help to expand access to inclusive education, we want to investigate current and future opportunities to create an inclusive, educational dance project for teachers, amateurs, and individuals with and without disabilities. We think that everyone should be able to fully engage in civic and cultural life in our society. Due to social, economic, and architectural obstacles, people with disabilities in Slovenia and Spain are still mostly excluded and isolated. We have achieved all our goals and implemented all the planned activities. In order to prepare teachers, future professionals, and adult learners for learning the competencies, the project intended to enhance and supplement the knowledge and abilities that were lacking in each of the four organizations. The transfer of information and skills through workshops, study visits, and research will alter Slovenia's approach to inclusive dance and strengthen ties between local organizations in Madrid that focus on inclusion and the performing arts in Spain. Reaching out to a larger number of adult learners was another of our main objectives, and we exceeded both the number of participants and the interest of local communities in Slovenia and Spain.

We have implemented all the planned activities, mainly workshops for local communities and adult teachers in Slovenia and in Spain, in addition, we had a short presentation of our organisations, what are our goals, and our methodology. The University of Primorska also presented its research on literature and inclusive dance. In Slovenia, we implemented and taught 6 different dance theater workshops open to our primary and secondary target groups that were inclusive and adapted. In Madrid, the study visit was a combination of inclusive dance workshops, meeting the local organisations that work through arts with different collectives (Autism, intellectual disability, and social exclusion), networking, and establishing first contacts for future collaboration on national and international levels. An additional workshops were done in Madrid with both groups of Spanish partners and as a result, a small performance open to the audience was performed at Centro Social Seco in Madrid. We also organised one dance jam session. We also followed all the steps of the general project management, realizing numerous meetings and calls, and have regularly published and promoted our project on social media, Epale, and through our networking.

SLOVENIA - 6 workshops with 190 participants with and without disabilities - 25 adult teachers and students participating and learning about methodologies to apply when working with inclusive groups through performing arts - Presentation of the Spanish partners to a Slovenian audience in Koper, mainly local association and university students - A dance showcase from a MeetShareDance dancers - Documentation: Video recordings, photographs, and evaluations that capture the learning process and experiences of the participants. - Regular classes of inclusive yoga throughout the whole project (90 participants) SPAIN - 4 workshops for different target groups (youth, adults, families) 120 participants - Visits three different local organisations and learned about their educational and artistic project for people with disabilities in Madrid - Presentation of the research of the University of Primorska and their Curriculum Development in the near future: the creation of inclusive dance lessons once a month and the long-term vision - Documentation: Video recordings, photographs - Regular classes for adults with and without disabilities and elderly (65 years plus) throughout the whole project (350 participants in one year)