daCi and WDA announce World Dance Congress for 2018

How can dance help in transforming society? This and many more questions will be a focus in 2018 at one of the world’s largest gatherings of dance educators and young artists in Adelaide, Australia. 

During the week of 11–15 July 2016, delegates from daCi (dance and the Child international) and WDA (World Dance Alliance Education and Training Network) met in Adelaide, Australia to collaborate in planning for a joint congress to be held from 8–13 July 2018. How to connect with UNESCO and initiate global advocacy informed our planning. 

We will work with local and international communities to examine how dance can help to make our world a better place. We aim to use and develop the Copenhagen Declaration (see daCi's November 2015 newsletter) and advance this action through some of the following topics:

  • How might we learn from dance traditions and diverse perspectives for sustainable living?
  • How can we explore innovative and inclusive ways forward that address UNESCO’s aims for quality dance teaching and learning using a 21st-century social justice lens?
  • What are issues and aspirations informing access to dance within early childhood and across the lifespan?
  • How may we better advocate for dance across diverse teaching and learning contexts?
  • How may dance connect with and learn from diverse disciplines?

The 2018 Congress will be centred on four interwoven concepts: dance, generations, connecting, and learning. Participants will include infants, young people and adults, from countries all over the world and from diverse backgrounds and experiences. While in Adelaide they will participate in intergenerational and intercultural forms of presentations, social engagement through dance and generate new thoughts and ideas for dance learning and teaching in the 21st century.

To register interest in the 2018 congress, email Jeff Meiners.