TWV Summer Intensive Closing ceremony

We could start this letter by going through the marketing mottos that we created for us to condense our values, mission and message into catchy words that are easy to remember. We could start with the numbers, how many participants, how many classes, teachers, hours, emails (which by the way, Giacomo sent around 500 emails in the last 3 weeks to support this Summer intensive).

I am not going to start this ending in that way. We will have time for all of that later…

I am going to concentrate on the beginning, the middle and the end of these three weeks. The foundations, the reason, the motor, the initiations, the recipients and the most important aspect of these three weeks, the humans who have created, in the main sense of the word, this home that exists inside a tiny reality among the many others that are happening right now.

THE BEGINING 

The Towards Vivencia team.. those passionate souls of dedicated individuals who did a lot of work, a lot of heavy work, but in reflection, without struggle. 

It was like the team was sailing a whole, vast ocean. There were waves, sometimes a little bit of rain, sometimes the toilet of our ship stopped working or the cabin got a bit messy. It wasn't perfect, but the winds were steady. They were soft when we needed a break and strong at the same time when we needed to be pushed. Those winds, of which I will be talking very shortly about, have carried us across the ocean that has been this Summer intensive. And they carried us here, safe and sound, because we had a very clear direction.. A direction but not a destination. A structure, but not a selfish agenda. A direction, but not a destination.

We didn't know where we were going to arrive.. but here we are. Now it is time to discover this new land and take it from here…

THE MIDDLE

The journey was so well supported because of the teachers who were leading all those classes. Because they were more than just brilliant, generous, fun, cool, wise, exotic and exciting humans… They were themselves, and they were also their teachers, and the teachers of their teachers and so on and so forth. They are the accumulation and most current version of all the knowledge and practices, the hours and decades, the words and the sentences that have been created and put to use in order to articulate dance. They say the words and move the movements with the weight of time and the generations before us, once again carrying us swiftly through the sea of dance.

THE END

At the beginning of this journey, we talked about the house we would be building together, the people who would prepare each room and the masters of ceremonies who welcomed each of you to this space. But in this reflection, I leave the best and most important component of this journey till last, like a good dessert after a perfect meal.

You, the dancers, movers, and inhabitants of these rooms. With your sweat, your desires, your frustration and success have not only decorated each and every room in the most beautiful way, but have also planted a very solid foundation for the future of our home.

Movers, you do not wait for the favourable winds, you do not silently accept the systems that don't support you, you do not passively see how the world is shaped without your input. You literally create new systems, you support one another, and in that way you are best supported. You shape the world with your art because when you leave the dance studio you are transformed… you are stronger, you are more resilient, you are full of beauty and you are more human…. With your constant transformations, you transform the world…

You are creating the winds of change!!!

So here we are together: the TWV team, the teachers and the movers. Not different parts of a whole, but a whole in itself. Over the last 3 weeks, we sailed the seas of cyberspace, building home together in the space where none had existed before.  Gliding along, seamlessly floating, we have barely touched the surface of what we can do together. We just set the foundations of a future home for dance and dancers beyond geographical and time borders.

There is still loads to learn and plenty of space to grow, but we are confident that this is only the end of the beginning…

We live in a moment in time where dance cannot summon art makers and art lovers under one same physical roof. Where dance cannot be exhibited or practiced as it used to be. This is hopefully a short and temporary period. But in the meantime, my hopes and my efforts are geared towards building an alternative and borderless home to keep developing in a way that we will be able to serve the world at large with the tools that we have patiently developed through our daily practice: resilience, humour, drive and a long etcetera.

It is amazing what technology has provided us with over the last few months. We are in the midst of a re-invention of how we share dance and art. We are adapting each day, experimenting with new models. Little did we know that in our efforts to keep moving, we would suddenly be able to train with artists that we really admire, regardless of our geographical location or financial resources.

Thanks to technology, we have been able to connect dancers all around the world with the teachings of incredible humans. They have generously shared their unique approaches to movement and their wealth of knowledge and experience with us. As a result, our community remains connected, strong and inspired. 

In these strange and uncertain times, we have moved to technology in order to keep us moving. 

In the process though, we are at the risk of accidentally dehumanising those who we dance with. 

We have access to this incredible wealth of wisdom and inspiration in the comfort of our living room.

But we have to acknowledge these 3D human beings are somehow reduced to a 2D figure on a screen. Their voices become muffled through their microphones. And sometimes, we accidentally lose focus, getting distracted by the technology that connected us in the first place. 

Therefore, it is important that we do everything in our power to remind ourselves of the beauty of what it means to be human. What it means to be humans together.

Driven by the pursuit of creating our new dance home and celebrating our humanness,  we are launching the first ever Towards Vivencia Summer Intensive.

The core purpose of this intensive is to keep training what makes us human as well as dancers. The artists that generously have accepted my invitation to this first TWV Summer Intensive are, above everything else, human beings who I greatly admire. They exhibit qualities that encourage and inspire me and their colleagues to play fully and wholeheartedly in the world. Willpower, humility, compassion, wit, honesty and curiosity. These beautiful people infuse every part of their lives and work with these values. And I know that they will encourage you to do the same. 

Here is my deep gratitude to them for having said YES to this mad project.

Here is respect and admiration to the dancers who continue dancing. 

Here it is for a future full of Dance, where Dance will be the universal teacher of what it means to be human.

If you want to faster, go alone. If you want to go farther, go together. 

The TWV summer intensive is an extension of the dream we have regarding the future of the arts and arts management. We are doing even in our power to create a bridge between the dance community and the decision makers, so that our training, financial and creative needs are heard and met. 

We seek to be transparent in how we operate as well as breaking down barriers to make the training dancers need accessible. As we pursue this dream, our models have continued to evolve, adapting as we need to make it possible. Therefore, for the summer intensive, we are taking our financial model to a new level. 

When you go to register for the summer intensive classes, you will see that in order to secure your place, we are asking for a small fee per session. The fee is the equivalent of 5€/3-hour session. 

If you are able to do so, please consider contributing to our fantastic teachers via our PayPal link below. Please make sure you specify your donation is for the TWV Intensive.

Contributions Link

The total income will be distributed as follows:

• 70% of each workshop's proceed will go to the teacher of each workshop 

• 5% for TWV infrastructures necessary for these online classes: zoom, mailing list, etc

• The remaining 25% is used to pay the 4 freelance colleagues working to update daily our social media, newsletter, teachers liaison and finances, participants liaison, copywriting and scheduling.

Any spare donations will follow the same system of distribution between all teachers and team.
Introducing this fee means that we will be able cover the cost of running the intensive, paying our teachers and our team a fair salary for their time and hard work. However, we are still committed to supporting our community and removing financial barriers for dancers, relieving our participants of as much financial pressure as we can. 

As we launch this intensive, we are looking for funding and sponsorships. 

Our goal is to have the intensive subsidised by outside sources as much as possible. This means that whatever funding we manage to obtain will be used to either partially, or in the best case scenario, fully reimburse you.  

If we secure 50% of the total costs to run the intensive from outside sources, we will return 50% of registration fees to all participants. 

At this point, we cannot promise anything, except we will do our best to keep fighting for funding and will remain transparent with you every step of the way. 

In that case, if you know anyone who could support us, please get in touch.