OPEN CALL DANCEMAP
OPEN CALL DANCEMAP
Within the scope of the Horizon Europe project DanceMap: Innovation Pathways and Policies to Promote European Dance Heritage at Home and Abroad, of which Culturgest is a partner, we are looking for a local researcher or research team specialised in dance heritage studies, who would be interested in collaborating with Culturgest in the Project.
This call for applications serves to select one researcher or research team, who will be involved in developing fieldwork research on the Portuguese case studies to be promoted by Culturgest and to contribute with respective key findings to data collection at the European level. The research or research team will also be responsible for producing one deliverable and to contribute to another two deliverables, in collaboration with other DanceMap partners and researchers.
The first case study will be the “Reply Project” Cafezinho, by Gaya de Medeiros, in response to one of the most famous pieces of the 20th century, Café Müller by German choreographer Pina Bausch.
We offer a fee of 20.945,00 € for the research collaboration.
Reimbursement of accommodation and travel expenses up to: 2.760 €. This amount refers to 1 or 2 international travels made in the context of the project – to be defined.
Collaboration starting on 1st April 2025 until 31st December 2027.
Independent researchers or research teams linked to a research centre.
Applications may be sent until the 23 rd March at 23:59 (Continental Portugal Time, UTC+1).
Send your CV and motivation letter in English to culturgest.rh@cgd.pt.
Availability for an online interview in the week of 24 th March.
1) To develop field-work research on the 3 Portuguese case studies “Reply Projects” in 2025, 2026 and 2027 (WP5)
“Reply projects” are a new form developed in the past years. They are about creating new work in response to, or inspired by, work from predecessors. How can dance heritage inspire new generations of artists? How can archival materials be activated and given new life? The transgenerational dimension here follows the opposite route or movement than in reconstruction of repertoire: the practice from the present travels in time to be inspired by traces from the past. This is a unique way of “doing heritage” and bringing features from the past into new contemporary contexts. In 2025, Culturgest will have Gaya de Medeiros respond to one of the most famous pieces of the 20th century, Café Müller by German choreographer Pina Bausch. Projects for 2026 and 2027 are under discussion.
2) To develop field-work research on the 2 Portuguese participatory projects – PEDRA, in 2026 and 2027 (WP6)
Participatory formats may include demonstrations, workshops and instructional films, inviting audiences to dance parts of artworks, scenes or dance phrases themselves. Dance amateurs can pick this up in their own living room, with their friends or in their own dance groups. These participatory formats can exist independently of professionally organised art contexts. However, they can serve as a tool to mobilise in the context of live events or festivals. Next to the toolboxes, we develop workshop formats that can be used by professionals and activated with different target groups in different contexts: children, young people, over-60s, and people with and without disabilities.
3) To contribute with key findings of the Portuguese fieldwork research to the European data collection processes conducted by the academic partners of the project (WP2 and WP3)
Coventry University (UK), in collaboration with DanceMap partners, will conduct a first round of an iterative qualitative analysis, to make connections between methods, terminologies, and technological infrastructures used within existing initiatives.
The academic partners of DanceMap – Coventry University (UK), Antwerp University (BE) and Hochschule Mainz University of Applied Sciences (DE) – will make an extensive quantitative and qualitative analysis of the survey data, to create a knowledge framework of motivations and values, contexts and conditions, methods and approaches. This framework will identify in a detailed way instances of best practice as well as what is missing (gaps and losses) and why. The framework will be converted in the Wikibase into a Knowledge Graph which will enable the envisioning of sustainable intangible heritage models also beyond dance, as well as extracting information to apply to policy level change.
The University of Antwerp will do an in-depth analysis of the working methods of dance heritage initiatives developed by the leading partners of WP5 and WP6 in Leuven, Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje, Berlin, Lisbon, Brussels and Tel Aviv. One of the unique features of this project is bringing together academic researchers, arts organisations and policy experts, which enables the overarching grounded theory approach that is at the centre of this project. A research on the European values as they can be cultivated and disseminated through dance heritages will also be developed in this context.
4) To produce the deliverable D6.2 Best practice report – before 31 May 2026.
Best practice report on inclusive digital and participatory formats for increasing audience engagement with European dance heritage, in collaboration with other DanceMap partners from the WP6 (Participatory formats).
5) To contribute with key findings of the Portuguese fieldwork research to deliverables produced by other DanceMap partners, such as:
D5.3 - Reply project protocol - Cooperative protocol between scholars, archivists and artists about inviting contemporary artistic replies to historic and archival movement material – before 31 August 2027.
D5.4 - Documentation: Reply project - Digital documentation of case study: "Reply Project" – before 31 May 2026.
11–23 MAR 2025
Funded by the European Union
