About the project
In the past, through numerous exhibitions, workshops and events, the Weltmuseum Wien has joined with people from all over the world to experience the importance of dance in their daily and ritual lives. In doing so, learning dances has not always been of primary importance, but rather the dancers themselves.
Dancing as encounter: encounter with oneself, encounter with other people, ideas and perspectives. In this way, exchanges and cultural diversity arise – aspects which guide the Weltmuseum Wien in every area and for which we strive to be an open space. The joint workshops with “Dance the Tolerance” therefore focus on the current themes of our exhibitions. In addition to Aztec dance and Cumbia Sonidera Mexico City Style in Spring 2021, additional workshops are currently being planned.
Saturdance
Since 2007 the format Saturdance has been a fixed part of the programme Dance Tolerance in the Brunnenpassage. Every Saturday from 1 PM to 3PM, a time with high traffic in stores, a new dance form is presented in a two-hour workshop. The object of this format is to give people the most low-threshold access to dance and movement possible. It is meant most of all for those who have no opportunity to learn about this form of art and movement in their everyday lives.
Directed by professional dancers, interested parties of all age groups and different backgrounds should find a positive approach to motion and to each other. The broad spectrum of dance styles is meant to reflect the actual practice of dance in the widest possible variety of contexts.
Tanz die Toleranz
The mission of Tanz die Toleranz is to facilitate access to and participation in art and culture to everyone – regardless of talent and experience, age and sex, skin colour, religion, ethnic origin or social background. Through participation in artistic processes by way of specially designed projects, the participants get the chance to develop their own creative and artistic potential. The engagement with choreography, movement in time and space, serves as an instrument of social inclusion.
The intensive interaction in the practice rooms works against prejudices and provides a positive impulse forward for actively engaging with the social-political challenges of contemporary events such as the growth of immigration and refugee movements. The method and the conception of the diverse projects at the interface of art and society are critically illuminated and reflected in a process of continuous development. The goal is to create in which the variety of individual forms of expression, interaction and collaboration are promoted.
The first project was started in 2007, in the context of the Opening of the Vienna Festival Weeks, it had more 250 participants. Thirteen years later, more than 14,000 people could be actively reached by the project. Since the beginning in 2007, a sustainable and regular programme in dance formats has been established in ArtSocialSpace Brunnenpassage of Caritas Vienna in the 16th district of Vienna. A broad programme of dance projects has been realised in Vienna’s most populous 10th district, in 2016, in the Kulturhaus Brotfabrik. Additionally, through cooperative projects through all of Vienna, across Austria and even internationally. Today, Tanz die Toleranz is one of the most important and lasting community dance programmes in continental Europe.
