Casa África en Masdanza 2012

Casa África and its programme Africa in Movement continues supporting contemporary African dance through different performances. In this case supporting the presence of companies from this continent who have wanted to take part in the 2012 edition of the Festival Masdanza.

MASDANZA has continued consolidating itself year after year, going from a regional character in its first edition, to an international one after the sixth, acquiring a form that goes beyond our borders and opening itself to the participation of international artists.

MASDANZA has two official sections in the competition: A Solo contest and a Choreography contest, for which Casa África backed the African presence with an announcement and whose receipt for proposals ended on the 15th July 2012.

Different activities are also carried out parallel to the competition: Guest companies, Break-Dance Championship, Masdanza Showcase, Dance Marathons, Exhibitions, Dancing in Open Spaces, Conferences, Courses and Dance Workshops.

The África en Movimiento (Africa in Motion) programme is a Casa África initiative for promoting the presence of African stage artists in Spain, with the premises of public diplomacy for cultural cooperation events that are applied by the institution, avoiding paternalism and using these disciplines to bring Africa and Spain closer together.

Initially, the programme will be focused on contemporary African dance, although it does not exclude the idea of becoming involved with other arts. The confirmation that an enormous amount of choreographic wealth exists in the neighbouring continent, which has yet to be discovered by Spanish audiences, has been the deciding factor for setting this programme into motion.

Just as is stated in the 2nd Africa Plan, Africa en Movimiento addresses the desire to "contribute towards improving mutual knowledge between Spanish society and African societies by fostering the dissemination of a plural and contemporary image of both, and promoting exchange and collaboration processes between the two cultures." Following this principle, Casa África´s commitment to Pan-African stage arts rests on these objectives:

1. To bring Africa closer to public Spanish opinions by using stage arts to provide a real image of the continent, its potential and heterogeneity.

2. To work closely with the professional stage arts industry in Africa so as to understand its interests and priorities, contributing towards finding potential counterparts in Spain and promoting contact.

3. To act as a speaker of this industry´s interests and priorities for Spain and the European Union.

4. To promote creative residencies of African dancers/choreographers in Spain´s choreography centres. For 2011, Casa África has planned to collaborate with three choreography centres of reference in our country: the Centro Coreográfico de La Gomera, the Mercat de les Flors and the Centro Párraga.

Masdanza Rules: