01. Festivals for Change

The Big Pulse partners reflect on the key learnings from the Scaling Up, the Open Air and Visiting Artist Programmes and the Big Pulse Intensives. They report on their personal experience of working closely with other artistic directors and artists, and the impact that the project has had on their programming, organisation and audiences.

Building Visibility, Collaboration and Community in Contemporary Dance

Join Gintarė Masteikaitė from New Baltic Dance, Stine Nilsen from CODA Oslo International Dance Festival, and Freddie Opoku-Addaie from Dance Umbrella as they discuss the project’s impact on visibility, collaboration and community-building in the contemporary dance scene. This video captures the insights, experiences and ambitions of those involved, illustrating Big Pulse’s supportive and forward-thinking environment for artists and organisers alike.

Expanding Horizons
Anita van Dolen of Julidans reflects on the benefits of being part of Big Pulse Dance Alliance. She highlights how the network has broadened artistic scope, diversified programming and enhanced audience recognition. By collaborating with international partners, the initiative has fostered continuity, elevated emerging artists, and helped shape Big Pulse into a recognised brand for innovative dance projects.

Achievements and Impact

In this video, Amy Fee of Danscentrum Sverige, reflects on the aims and achievements of the Big Pulse Dance Alliance project. She shares insights into how the project has worked towards diversifying programming on larger stages, reaching wider audiences through free outdoor productions, and building resilience in the dance sector through mentoring and leadership development. From co-productions and Visiting Artist Programmes to unexpected partnerships and new collaborations, Amy highlights how the project has exceeded expectations and strengthened the European dance network.

Diversity on the Big Stage

Jazmin Chiodi explores how Big Pulse Dance Alliance has helped Dublin Dance Festival deepen audience engagement and amplify diversity on the large stage, offering audiences new perspectives on what dance can be.

 

Supporting Artists

Listen to Yvona Kreuzmannová reflect on how Big Pulse Dance Alliance has encouraged festivals to focus on supporting artists throughout their creative processes, providing time, space, and resources to foster meaningful work for both artists and audiences.

 
Collaborative Insights

Discover Eduardo Bonito’s key insights on the transformative power of good relationships and collaboration in advancing festival networks. This video explores the significant outcomes and enhanced dialogues from the Big Pulse Intensives, highlighting the collective progress in the European dance festival scene.

Five Key Takeaways

Big Pulse Dance Alliance had capacity building as one of the main strands of the project. The idea was that by learning together as a community of artists, producers, agents and artistic directors, we could better find ways to address current challenges. Project activities such as mentoring for individual artists and Local Pulses for local dance communities were designed to enhance learning in different ways. These lessons are important as the network continues to develop and create new opportunities for engagement. Certain themes emerged throughout the discussions. Here are five of them:

  • Working with shared values of kindness, solidarity and respect has been central to making the dance festival sector more visible and place it in a stronger position to join other advocacy and lobbying forces.
  • Transparency in project management and knowledge sharing built trust between partners and between artists and artistic directors.
  • Sharing knowledge about local artists enabled partners to better serve their audiences by introducing new artistic voices, more diversity and bigger formats with less risk.
  • Free outdoor programming is a useful tool for democratising the artform and attracting new audiences.
  • The project has made the partners stronger in their local communities, in their cities and in their countries.

 
Timeline of Big Pulse

illustration of the Big Pulse time line

Illustration: Fanny Senocq

Big Pulse Dance

Bringing contemporary dance to the people of Europe.