Dancing Histor(y)ies – binding Communities and Heritage through dance is a European project aimed at linking communities and cultural heritage through dance.

Financed under the "Creative Europe" program (Project ID: 101099222), the project focuses on promoting archaeological sites through performing arts and aims to identify an innovative, effective, and replicable model for the enhancement of cultural sites actively involving local communities in artistic production and conscious heritage enjoyment, also promoting the international circulation of European artists. The project intends to create a common and adaptable general model to be disseminated and exploited at the European level, aiming to combine the tangible cultural heritage of the sites involved with the intangible heritage of local communities and their stories, fused together through the creativity of dance. 

ilDance’s role in the project is to facilitate workshops with the local community and to create artistics works to be performed at festivals organised by the institutional partners in five heritage sites located in Italy, Spain, Greece and Serbia. The works will be created in residencies in Sweden and the partner countries and artistically utilise knowledge which will be generated in a research process during the first stage of the project and through the community-workshops.

For both the artistic work and the community workshops, ilDance aims to feature the perspective of queer and other under-represented communities in this very sensitive context of cultural heritage.

The core objectives of Dancing Histor(y)ies are the design, testing and assessment of a model for the valorisation of heritage sites through performing arts, community engagement and territorial development. The project aims to promote and enhance international dialogue and cooperation amongst different cultural organisations; create an innovative model for the fruition and valorisation of heritage sites; involve local communities in the artistic production and in the heritage fruition and understanding; promote the international circulation of European artists.

The aspiration of  the Dancing Histor(y)ies model is to provide a tool that supports the fusion of the tangible heritage of local heritage sites with the intangible heritage of local communities and their stories, brought together creatively via dance. The project will combine these diverse experiences as they develop from different partners, towards an overall common, but demonstrably adaptable model, to be disseminated and exploited at EU level.