| Summary of the project: | A number of countries today are divided by different social, religious or ethnic ‘walls’. Creative approaches can influence positively the building of inter-group relationships and also the fostering of coexistence initiatives. Performances, exhibitions, publications, films, festivals and cultural workshops can build bridges of understanding and respect among communities.
Artistic processes can give time to people to get to know each other, to communicate and build something more. The most important aspect of the artistic process is the creativity, the place ‘where the divine and the human meet’. The main outcome of this process is to produce something new and unexpected, something that requires creativity. Creative processes can restore and nourish people’s capacities to listen, to communicate, to hope, to imagine, to trust, and to act compassionately. These capacities are often severely compromised or damaged among people who have lived through violent conflict and are the ones that are required for sustainable coexistence and reconciliation.
‘Dancing Through the Walls’ training course aims to examine terms like conflict, walls, barriers, peace, creativity, art. Through mainly non-formal learning activities, the participants will be able to explore the nature of conflicts affecting their own and the others’ cities and societies, to gain more knowledge and better understanding on the subject, and to identify ways in which the conflict can be managed and confronted – conflict management and peacebuilding. The participants will have the opportunity to present their own ‘walls’ in their society and also find their own common creative approaches to ‘dance’ through these walls.
The training will be based mainly on the understanding and resolution suggestions of conflict. Our goal is not to purely provide a body of fixed knowledge but rather to focus on developing of critical and creative thinking skills and cultural understandings, for enhancing social integration in European and not only cities.
During the training, important visitors will prove the importance of the arts in the conflict management, such as, members of the bi-communal folk dance group ‘Dance for Peace’ that has been awarded the European Citizen’s Prize by the European Parliament and members of the choir ‘Bicommunal Choir for Peace in Cyprus’.
We wish that the training course will end with a small act out along the green line of Nicosia, where the participants will present their own creative approach, something that will bring them face to face with a living example of conflict. This action will also bring the participants closer and enhance their team working skills, and they will also have the opportunity to show the outcome of the training to the outside world and spread the message of social, religious or ethnic peace, ‘dancing through the walls’.
A drawing, a song, a rhythm, a movement: each of these is an expression of self, yet so different from a speech or a written text. This is where arts and culture can play a role, by opening up a nonthreatening space for expression that is nonverbal, that resonates not with the head, but the heart and spirit of the individual and his/her former adversary (Slachmuijler, S. L. 2005).
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