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Dance your way to other cultures
Dance your way to other cultures
Start date: Oct 1, 2015,
End date: Sep 30, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
The Oportunidance Project aims at improving adults’ competences in foreign languages and intercultural communication in a creative and re-creative manner, through dance lessons and transnational social dance events, reinforcing linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe. It is proposed in the context where more and more adults feel the need to involve in social, relaxing activities via which they can also develop valuable transferable skills.
The Oportunidance specific objectives are to get more adults from different European countries to: 1. improve skills in 1 to 6 languages at A1 to B1 levels, via participatory approaches and ICT-based methodologies; 2. involve more in dance activities, with all their benefits; 3. learn about other cultures by socialising with dance fans from different countries; 4. consolidate important skills, easily transferable to different professional and personal contexts, such as lead & follow, pay highly active attention to possibilities, rapid-fire decision making, using creativity and flexibility in different situations, expressing their personalities in an original way etc.
The project involves a minimum of 600 participants from at least 5 countries, adults interested in improving their foreign language skills in an innovative and motivating way, adult dance fans who want to share their hobby at European level.
We focus on 6 foreign languages (2 of which are less-widely spoken): French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Romanian and Catalan, taught through OER, CLIL and the action-oriented approach. Our methodology is based on Blended Mobility – virtual mobility (use of ICT, social media, video dance tutorials for modules of 40 hours of learning), followed by 6 face-to-face local workshops and then by short periods of physical mobility - for the 3 international multiplier events, which complement and test the learning outcomes. During the face-to-face and physical mobility activities, participants work together in multinational teams using the languages of the project in order to carry out different tasks, such as creating dance choreographies, shows, etc. These tasks are meant to consolidate dance and intercultural skills (eg. reacting in an appropriate manner when dealing with someone from a different cultural background; better understanding culturally determined values; raising awareness about the influence of one’s own language and cultural references on grasping reality and the others; having multiple perspectives; mediating intercultural exchange, etc.).
The results of the Oportunidance Project are 1. an online Platform containing learning modules focusing on foreign languages, intercultural communication and dance; 2. 7 transnational dance events aiming at consolidating & testing the skills and disseminating the Project (3 Multiplier Events and 6 local workshops, in the languages of the project); 3. minimum 7 research publications with international visibility on topics related to the project; 4. A transnational e-network of fans of dance, languages & intercultural communication, aiming at greater understanding of cultural diversity and sharing European values.
The added value of our project is related to its long-term benefits with the participants, with impact at community level - national, regional and European: healthy lifestyle, personal development and artistic expression, self-confidence, body consciousness, involvement in creative cultural activities. One of the long-term impacts of our project will be a greater cohesion among multinational dance communities, a good exercise for intercultural communication, as dance keeps mind and body active, it develops social interaction competences, it forms valuable transferable skills that can be applied to any career path and it offers insight into other cultures.