Urtasun presents the Dance Dissemination Office, a “milestone” so that the discipline is not “the poor brother” of Culture

The Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun presented this Wednesday at the National Music Auditorium the new Dance Diffusion Office (ODD)which he has defined as a “milestone” and “a cultural event of the first magnitude” for dance and interdisciplinary creation in Spain.

“The word milestone is not a banal description but a defining expression of the relevance of this office. A new dynamic agent that is, already in its conception, a cultural event of the first magnitude. This office also presents a singularity, that of being at the same time an ‘adage’ and the culmination of a story that on too many occasions has been unfair to dance, to the living and movement arts and to their representativeness and weight in our cultural, training and exhibition structures,” said the minister.

The head of Culture recalled that in one of his first conversations with the general director of INAEM, Paz Santa Cecilia, she urged him that this discipline he could not “continue being the poor brother” of Culture.

Urtasun has framed the creation of the Dance Diffusion Office within the INAEM reform that the Ministry of Culture is undertaking. “This Office of Dance Dissemination and the General Subdirectorate of Dance and Interdisciplinary Creation, a historical demand of the sector, will bet in a very prominent way with creative processes, artistic sciences and the economic support of companies and professionals“, he indicated.

For her part, the general director of the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM), Paz Santa Cecilia, explained that the ODD was born with three main objectives: to promote internationalization, develop training and professional transition projects and promote research and creation throughout the territory.

Santa Cecilia explained that one of the first challenges at the head of INAEM was to provide dance with a “specific weight“within the Ministry of Culture, which has led to the creation of its own structure dedicated exclusively to this area.”Dance already has a room in the Ministry“he stated.

GOALS

In the axis of internationalization, the ODD will launch as its first project a “Iberian focus” dedicated to the creation of Spain and Portugal at the Lyon Dance Biennaleone of the leading international events in the sector, with the participation of programmers, festival directors and young artists. The objective is to update the presence of the Spanish and Portuguese choreographic scene in this context and create a stable framework of collaboration with the French professional fabric.

The second major block of work will be training, understood as a complement to formal education and as accompaniment to dancers in their professional transition. To this end, the Office will promote creation laboratories and training programs in key areas for companies that “don’t see themselves on stage“, such as management, digitalization, communication, good practices or labor rights.

The third pillar of the ODD will be the promotion of research and creation, through artistic residencies and network projects with other centers and entities. The first network residency program will be developed next to La Caldera, in Barcelona.