Media Dance is an interdisciplinary project of educational innovation that offers to students and teachers of secondary schools spaces, tools, and performing arts pathways of participatory reflection on contemporary issues.
The project
Since 2016, Media Dance – conceived by the Lavanderia a Vapore of Collegno – has been offering secondary school classes and teachers concrete support for addressing social issues related to contemporary urgencies, often not discussed in the classroom due to lack of time, adequate tools or approaches. These focuses are identified every year as part of Educare alla Bellezza, an annual event dedicated to the exchange of practices and dialogues on educational innovation, designed to give voice to the needs of the school world. From 2016 to 2019, Media Dance has involved around 4,000 students from the city and the province of Turin: 150 teachers who participated in the selection of the topics addressed, 20 school-work alternation courses, and over 50 body workshops with artists and choreographers from Lavanderia a Vapore.
By virtue of its interdisciplinary approach, Media Dance has encountered over time the collaboration of numerous cultural institutions active in the area, such as the Urban Library System of the City of Turin, Associazione Dare Voce al Silenzio Onlus, Propositi di Filosofia, Centro Studio Piero Gobetti, the Concentrica review and Fondazione Paideia. Moving on the ridge between art, philosophy, and health, the project is now enriched by the collaboration with DoRS (Documentation Center for Health Promotion) and with the ASL To3 of Collegno and Pinerolo, entering for the first time – from 2020/’21 season – within the “Art and Health” chapter of the Catalog of intervention proposals for health promotion and education. The University of Turin and the “Riccardo Massa” Department of Human Sciences for Education of the University of Milan-Bicocca contribute with their respective points of view to enhance the artistic and pedagogical component of the project. Finally, the collaboration of the Regional School Office for Piedmont is very valuable, in support of the point of view of the teachers.
Media Dance is therefore configured as a representative and virtuous model of the way in which performing arts can facilitate the promotion of well-being in school contexts.
The activities
In the belief that contributing to the creation of listening environments and psychophysical well-being for the entire educational community is a question of fundamental importance, Media Dance consists of four different actions, aimed at students and teachers. The body and, starting from the 2022/’23 season, also the voice thus become the basic tools of the project, aimed not only at facilitating contact with contemporary performative languages, but also at making questions such as relationship, listening, self and other knowledge. As for the school residencies and the shows, the choice fell on artists whose research methods and themes favor a listening dimension, capable of giving voice to the young generations, offering them the tools to adequately enter into dialogue with the world of adults.
For further information
Edoardo Urso | community@piemontedalvivo.it
Carlotta Pedrazzoli | pedrazzoli@lavanderiaavapore.eu
Media Dance in Europe
In 2022, Media Dance + (international extension of the namesake project by Lavanderia a Vapore) comes to light, in collaboration with La Briqueterie- Center de Développement Chorégraphique National (CDCN) Val-de-Marne and with the University of Milan-Bicocca and with the involvement of Liceo Alfieri (Turin) and Lycée International (St Germain-en-Laye). For more details, visit the dedicated website: mediadanceplus.eu.
MEDIA DANCE contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN2030 Agenda.
