The dance careers in the 21st century are changing. The diversity within the professional practice is becoming increasingly large and the actual career of a professional dancer includes a lot of transfers and hybridity. In our academies we aimed to widen the perspective on the career of the dancer because we saw that the narrow scope of educating a dancer exclusively for the stage did not reflect the actual career of dancers who make many transfers in their careers.We also saw students entering the academy with degrees in psychology, medicine, literature or mathematics who would benefit from an inclusive view on their career. The current generation is more interested in finding a purposeful and fulfilling career, rather than a successful one; they do not want to follow the path of those that went before them, they wish to create their own work and decide for themselves what constitutes a successful career. Our academies observed a strong need for skills that reflect the current reality of the contemporary dance artist: from that point of departure we set up the project.The project focused on the Transferable Skills of Dance and Movement Practice and how these skills could offer creative answers to particular needs in other sectors such as healthcare, urban development and somatic practices. The aim was to prepare dance students of our academies, as well as future dance professionals at large, as early as possible for their future professional careers, to enlarge the potential environments where their skills could be applied and increase their employability. By redefining and broadening the vision on the dance career, we aimed for reinventing dance education and developing new curricula that focus on transferable skills which are also applicable outside of dance as a performing art practice, and by supporting our students in developing more entrepreneurial skills and ICT-competence. We asked ourselves; how can dancers diversify and pro-actively create their own job opportunities, not only as performers but to expand the benefits of dance in society, beyond the narrow scope of dance solely created for the theatre stage and art for the sake of art.These objectives were achieved. In line with the title of the project: Inclusive Dance and Movement practice, the transferable skills of the dance artist, the project has helped to redefine dance education and has contributed to career development and the positioning of dance in society from an inclusive approach. The project approach was inclusive: inclusiveness of body-mind, sectors and groups with diverse abilities, spaces and practices. The possibilities of dance in other contexts and/or sectors and vice versa has resulted in an understanding of transferable skills of the dance artist, (re)new(ed) (educational) practices, on-/offline sharing and learning with digital means and a growing learning community in this field. The international co-operation included Fontys Dance Academy, Artesis Royal Conservatoire Antwerp and Duncan Centre Prague as the three core partners, together with Dans Brabant/Tilburg Dansstad, Demos Antwerp and Parkinson Help vz (regional work field partners).Each partner adopted a theme and created a practice-based research trajectory: •Re-thinking Bodies (Antwerp) (ultimately defined as Dance and Diversity)•Re-designing Spaces (Tilburg) (ultimately defined as Dance and Public Space)•Somatics (Prague) (ultimately defined as Dance and Somatics)The project involved activities including student and teacher exchange in three intensive study weeks, hosted by each academy, and the building of an open and online learning community with curated material in the form of live-streams, interviews, documentaries, vlogs, film clips and articles. At the end of the project, the first 120 hours curated content was made available open and online at the platform that was created as part of the project: www.inclusivedance.eu.The platform exemplifies and inspires ways to transfer knowledge and experience from dance and movement practice into other, non-dance focused practices and contexts; tools from dance and movement techniques, perspectives and creative concepts that can be integrated in other sectors.The platform contains the curated content (Explore), but there is also room for every interested member to share his or her own experiences and ideas (Share) and to connect to others who share the same interests (Connect). It is our enduring ambition to further strengthen the platform into a hybrid community of practice (online and offline) of dance students, teachers and professionals, that connect with other fields of work, expertise and disciplines, inside and outside the artistic domain.This project had a profound effect on how we look and define a dancer’s career, on our responsibility as educators and how we are now designing our education and collaborating with the work field and with students and teachers within our academy.

"This Erasmus+ traject ""Borderless young artists"" is a mix of bringing international partner organisations on the one hand, and youngsters from different countries on the other hand together.An organisation as De Centrale will be enriched by this project, to work with youngsters and to extend its existing networks and even create new ones.The project wants to launch and establish an exchange project in which the international network of young talented artists from Belgium, Morocco and Turkey will have an extra dimension. Een exchange of a young group of dancers and musicians on the one hand, and young talents from Morocco and Turkey on the other hand, who will make a creation together. The result will be shown as try outs and presentations in Tanger and Istanbul, and then finally on the Urban Sport & Art Festival in Ghent and Antwerp. This project is an aspiration of these young people. Lots of them have a migration background (especially Morrocan and Turkish) and are anxious to get to know the modern cultural life of young people of their age in these countries of their background. This of course besides the usual exotic and traditional forms of cultural expression from these countries as we can see here many times. The celebration of 50 years of Moroccan and Turkish migration to Belgium in 2014 enflamed even more the motivation and curiosity to launch an exchange project with these countries. The young people from Belgium with this migration background will be connected to the large Turkish and Moroccan communities in both Ghent and Antwerp. It is for this also important that they get a view in this modern artistic and cultural life in the countries with which they have a historical and original affinity. The modern cultural-artistic output which is often ignored or underestimated in these countries, doesn’t always get the attention it deserves in the west. Here we often prefer the more exotic and ethnic defined art forms from these countries. The young artists from Morocco and Turkey can by this means also break out of these ‘traditional’ networks and exchange with other young people. In this project they can expand their network and experience, and create a production of their own which will be shown on different stages – this only is already a big experience. The young artists from Belgium with this migration background will learn more about the situation in other countries and vice versa.Youngsters from Belgium, Morocco and Turkey are in need of extra professional input and are eager to explore new opportunities and experiences, so they can create new ways of blossoming. With this project the youngsters will get to know each others possibilities and benefits, and learn how to create something with this. Essential in this project is exchange, network and meeting between the young participants. In total there will be working intensively 24 participants between 16 and 30 years. Most of them didn’t follow any art classes or artistic education, and are mostly coming out of a difficult socio-economic situation. At het end of the project they will have more experience in exploring and improve their skills by exchange, peer-to-peer learning, and they will have developed a better view on the structures and the forms of expression in other countries. Parallel and very important is of course is the connection between the partner organisations which will be established in this project.The method which will be used will unroll itself in three steps.First the youngsters will get it to contact with each other in an informal way via social media, e-mail.A first meeting before all will be held to create the project design, timing and to set the first dates of visits and meetings.On the first visit there will be communal dance, theater and music sessions. In this way there’ll arise spontaneous exchange between the youngsters.In a second step the youngsters will work together with a choreographer on a first assignement. During this assignement there’ll be created, experimented and played with music, moving and choreography. They’ll explore different styles, work methods and will have time to exchange ideas and try them out; there’ll also be support and coaching in this phase. The project want to create a working environment which challenges the youngsters to explore and extend their boundaries, to be open for new contexts, to learn new forms of expressions. They will be triggered to re-new themselves, to break through to a higher level. No static identities, but continously evoluating and merging identities.In the next step they’ll work on the creation and get the chance to create their own choreography and to teach his to each other.They’ll work intensively with the choreographer on the production with different try outs and a presentation on the Urban Sport & Art Festival.The making of and the result will be filmed and printed on dvd for further use and future projects."