ERASMUS+

KA1 - Learning Mobility of Individuals / KA105 - Youth Mobility

National Agency: FR02 - Agence du Service Civique

Project code: 2019-3-FR02-KA105-016867

Participants: 23 France-based and 23 Greece-based participants

Participating organisations: Association Act’DEM (France), Echodrama Cultural Group (Greece)

Skiathos, Greece, 21/08/2022 – 02/09/2022

SKIATHOS 2022 (CIDAM):

This Youth Exchange project was based on a transnational cooperation between young people in France and Greece with the support of two partners: ASSOCIATION ACT’DEM (France) and ECHODRAMA CULTURAL GROUP (Greece) and took place in Skiathos, Greece.

The main reasons behind the participants’ decision to carry out this project were to develop, through peer learning and methods of non-formal education, the following:

- the enhancement of the participants’ professional competences,

- their awareness of cultural integration issues,

- the process of discovering new cultural elements in music and dance,

- the empowerment of marginalised people through music and dance activities.

By implementing this project, the participants (dancers and musicians) explored ways to incorporate traditional elements from the music and dance of other cultures (including immigrants’ and refugees’ cultures in Europe) in contemporary European music and dance. This incorporation led to the development of new music and dance creations and activities which integrated elements from different cultures, including the immigrants’ and refugees’ cultures. Music and dance creations and activities, being borderless by nature and including elements from the immigrants’ and refugees’ cultures, facilitate their cultural integration while shaping their cultural identity.

The main needs that the participants were seeking to address through this project were:

- the need for cultural integration in Europe,

- the need for the promotion of diversity and intercultural dialogue using as a tool the borderless language of the arts of music and dance,

- the need to increase their capacities in creating new music and dance pieces incorporating elements from different cultures, including immigrants’ and refugees’ cultures, in European culture, thus facilitating the integration of immigrants and refugees and giving them a unique identity.

The objectives of this project were:

1. to enhance peer learning and cooperation between young people and organisations in the youth field,
2. to foster an intercultural dialogue as an inspiration for learning about diversity issues,
3. to develop the participants’ professional competences, making them competitive in the cultural labour market,
4. to improve the capacities of the participants in developing dance and music creations and activities incorporating elements of other cultures (including elements of the refugees’ and immigrants’ cultures) in European culture,
5. to facilitate the integration of young refugees in Europe, to give them a unique identity and to help them keep their identity by exposing them to dance and music creations and activities which integrate elements from their own cultures in European contemporary culture,
6. to provide respect for cultural diversity, to challenge viewpoints that perpetuate inequality and discrimination and to offer participants the opportunity to identify common values with persons from different countries in spite of their cultural differences.

The youth mobility activity took place at the Cultural Hall of the Gymnasium-Lyceum of Skiathos. The presentation of the case studies created by the participants during the mobility activity took place at the Cultural Hall of the Gymnasium-Lyceum of Skiathos and at Skiathos Garden Theatre, owned by a social enterprise and offered to the partner ECHODRAMA CULTURAL GROUP for this project.

The participants had already planned and prepared this mobility project and they contributed to the activities with their own skills.

This youth exchange program had been designed by the participants to include the following basic elements of the planned activities:

- workshops and exercises,

- case studies which included the development of music and dance creations and activities integrating elements from different cultures,

- parallel activities and events,

- daily reports by the participants,

- a final presentation of the developed music and dance creations and activities,

- evaluations.

A summary video of the project:

To see photographs from the mobility activity, click here

Link to the official site: http://cidam-project-2022.com/