Beijing's educational alliance to dance across global stages

The Beijing Dance Academy has established the World Dance Education Alliance, with the aim of creating a collaborative platform for dance arts education, which will bring together leading institutions and experts from around the globe.

Nearly 70 institutions from 38 countries in five continents have joined. Member organizations represent a range of leading institutions in the field of dance and the broader arts, including the California Institute of the Arts and the New York University from the United States, the UK's Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and Australia's University of Melbourne, all of which are among the world's top-ranking universities.

"Every region and every culture play a crucial role in preserving the world's cultural diversity and bear a corresponding responsibility. This alliance highlights not only the professional representation of global dance education, but also geographical and cultural diversity, reflecting the alliance's aim of building a global community of dance arts," says Xu Rui, president of the Beijing Dance Academy.

The official launch of the alliance took place on the morning of Oct 18, with an online forum, coinciding with the 70th anniversary celebration of the Beijing Dance Academy.

The design of the alliance's logo has been inspired by Matisse's painting Dance, which features dancers embracing and radiating outward in a concentric circle, forming the letter "D". The five colors represent dance educators from the five continents, holding hands and dancing in a circle.

According to Xu, the alliance will be a platform for uniting global experts and scholars in dance education. Through this network, the alliance will foster collaborative talent development, joint artistic practices, academic research, and faculty exchange programs.

"China, with its long history and rich traditions, continues to contribute its unique philosophy, aesthetics and artistic expressions to the world. Chinese dance is a vivid manifestation of this cultural heritage," Xu said in his speech. "Since reform and opening-up in 1978, the interaction between Chinese and Western dance cultures through modern Western dance has profoundly influenced the concepts and methods of Chinese dance. It is within this cultural background, of the fusion of modern and traditional, the East and the West, that Chinese dance has developed a unique, contemporary style."

"We are responsible for teaching something beyond virtuosity and versatility so that our pedagogy prepares them for the multiple worlds that dance is now building and inhabiting. How do we train creativity? How do we teach authorship? We can invite and reward invention, collaboration and innovation," says Rosanna Gamson, choreographer and dance educator based in Los Angeles, who is a faculty member of the Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at the California Institute of the Arts, and also artistic director of the Rosanna Gamson/World Wide dance company.

Anna Maria Galeotti, director of Italy's Accademia Nazionale di Danza, emphasizes the importance of collaboration among global dance education institutions. She says that contemporary dancers need not only physical readiness, but also artistic sensitivity. Dance institutions in various countries should prepare students both psychologically and technically.

"The launch of the new alliance should aim to enhance the quality of dance talent development through close cooperation among dance eduction institutions, contributing to the flourishing of dance as an art form," she said in Beijing.