In the absence of cultural policies that support dance in Spain and take it out of its endemic precariousness, the María Pagés Foundation has launched to organize the I National Meeting of Choreographic Centers in which last Friday they participated, in their space in Fuenlabrada, on the outskirts of Madrid, representatives of eight public and private facilities. Centers, all of them, that promote dance creation in the different autonomous communities.
Representatives from El Graner in Barcelona, La Faktoria in Pamplona, Dantzagunea in Gipuzkoa, Canal in Madrid, La Nave del Duende in Casar in Cáceres, the Galician Choreographic Center in A Coruña, and the Center in La Gomera joined Pagés to get to know each other, exchange opinions, contrast experiences and analyze the current state of dance and the challenges of the sector.
Among the findings of the meeting, which wants to be annual and itinerant, it is worth mentioning the weakness of the structures, the perception of dance as an art of minorities, its exclusion from education, the lack of prospecting for the future in the policies and the need to dignify the profession of dancer.
"Now the usual thing is to work as a dancer without a proper employment contract, without receiving the corresponding salary and without being registered with Social Security," said David Pérez Hernando, whose multipurpose center (research, creation and exhibition) in Casar de Cáceres It emerged in 2007 at the initiative of the Karlik dance theater company.
The act was opened by Mónica Sebastián Pérez, second deputy mayor of Fuenlabrada and Councilor for Culture of the city, where she has lived since 2016 although she is from Badalona. In her speech she was proud to have a center like the one in Pagés, whose initiatives in favor of culture connect with the interests of the municipality.
"Dance must be taken into account in cultural policies so that its situation improves", was the unanimous conclusion of those gathered there: in addition to Pagés and Pérez Hernando, Marta Coronado and Laida Aldaz Arrieta, artists who have promoted and co-direct La Faktoria, attended ; Sonia Fernández Lage, artistic coordinator of the Graner; Sofía Alforja Sagone, coordinator of Dantzagunea; Beatriz Arzamendi, coordinator of the Channel; Pilar Portela Vázquez, director of the Galego and coordinator of the Department of Music and Dance of Agadic, who announced a National Dance Plan in Galicia, and Martín Padrón Guillén, from La Gomera, a center that deals with dance from its socio-sanitary aspect.
"One of the pieces of evidence lies in the absence of clear policies that define the spaces that host creation and its specific programming," said the bailaora recently awarded the Princess of Asturias for the Arts. "There are no dance theaters and there are very few choreographic centers dedicated to research, choreutic creation, programming and the promotion of creative projects", added the choreographer, for whom "dance is a perfect instrument to help society to a better coexistence”.
El Arbi El Harti, director of the Center, highlighted the “extraordinary wealth of Spain in the diversity of dances” and the vital importance of the role of choreographic centers, “which constitute the true lung of dance in this country”. The playwright proposed promoting a Culture Law that guarantees the interaction of the State, autonomous communities, provincial councils and city councils in cultural projects.
