iCoDaCo online conference "Working conditions in the dance field: in pursuit of fairness"

The third iCoDaCo conference, “Working conditions in the dance field: in pursuit of fairness”, will take place online on Tuesday, 03 November 2026 from 16:00 to 18:00 CET.

The online event is organised by FACE, in collaboration with HowlRound.

How to register

Registration for the conference is free and open to all. To secure your place, please register via this link. Upon registration, you will receive a Zoom link automatically.

For any questions or accessibility requests, please contact: Yohann Floch, info@fresh-europe.org.

To learn more about the conference framework and the structure, scroll below.

This online conference brings together dance artists, choreographers, researchers and cultural practitioners to examine the specific circumstances in which contemporary dance is practised, produced and presented. It considers how the field is absorbing a broader crisis of disinvestment across Europe, and how that crisis compounds existing and unresolved inequalities. Working conditions in the sector remain markedly uneven from one European context to another: access to unemployment insurance, health cover, pension contributions and minimum fee levels varies considerably.

Changing funding conditions across Europe have been reshaping artistic practice from within. As public funding schemes increasingly attach conditions to how projects are conceived, reported and justified, artists must adapt their proposals, timelines and even their working methods to requirements that originate outside their artistic intentions. Practitioners describe this as a quiet form of self-censorship, narrowing what is proposed, and to whom, in order to fit what limited and conditional resources allow. What is presented in policy language as flexibility or agility can, in practice, function as a form of attrition. This is compounded by a broader shift in what funding is designed to support: a move away from funding the production and touring of finished work towards funding artistic "practice" in the abstract, at the very moment when that practice has itself become the primary currency by which artists are asked to justify continued support. The effect, several practitioners argue, is a gradual erosion of collective artistic work – ensembles, companies, shared production structures – in favour of individualised practices that are easier to fund in small increments but harder to sustain, harder to pass on, and harder to build a career or an institution around.

These funding pressures interact directly with the structure of dance education and with the shape of a dancing career. Dance schools across Europe graduate substantial numbers of young practitioners each year who are seldom absorbed into stable employment as dancers, but are instead expected, often immediately, to become choreographers and independent entrepreneurs, frequently without the business skills, administrative support or capital that this transition requires. Funding schemes compound the difficulty by concentrating support on early-career artists, leaving comparatively little available once that initial window closes, and considerably less for practitioners with two or three decades of experience.

This unevenness falls hardest on those already structurally disadvantaged, including migrant artists, LGBTQIA+ practitioners, artists with disabilities, and others whose access to stable status, residency or recognition is already constrained. Social and cultural justice for underrepresented communities cannot, in other words, be separated from the question of working conditions: the two compound one another, and any credible European response has to treat them together rather than in parallel. To speak of a shared European cultural space while such disparities persist is to speak of an unfinished project. Fairness, understood in this way, is not an abstract value to be affirmed but something to be built, tested and defended differently in each national and institutional context – and this applies equally to the many arts and cultural workers, beyond performers alone, whose administrative, technical and organisational labour sustains the sector and too rarely enters the policy conversation.

Dance artists and cultural professionals responding to unfairness

The distance between prevailing policy ambitions and daily practice, however, is precisely where this conference positions itself, and where the principles of solidarity, transparency, sustainability and responsibility – articulated, for instance, in the Juist is Juist charter developed in Flanders – become practical rather than rhetorical questions.

Solidarity, in this context, is less a sentiment than a working method: it concerns whether collaborators are conscious of how their own choices – over budgets, credits, schedules – shape the position of others in a project, and whether fair compensation and a safe working environment are treated as a collective obligation rather than a matter for each individual to negotiate alone. Transparency follows closely: it asks whether all parties to a collaboration have equal access to information about a project's resources and constraints, and whether the value attributed to each contribution is made explicit rather than assumed. Sustainability, meanwhile, concerns whether the collaborations and bodies of knowledge that a project generates are able to outlast the project itself, and under what institutional conditions that becomes possible. Responsibility, finally, asks whether partners genuinely understand and value the risks and commitments each is taking on, at every level of a collaboration, or whether that understanding remains one-sided. None of these can be secured by good intentions alone: each depends on frameworks, funding conditions and institutional habits that currently vary enormously across Europe, and it is this variation, rather than any lack of goodwill within the field, that the conference sets out to interrogate.

The conference poses an important question alongside the diagnosis above: how might artistic practice itself, precisely because it is formed in response to contextual constraints, come to inform cultural policy rather than simply respond to it after the fact? It also asks how dance artists engage with the broader question of social and cultural justice within their own working practice, treating this not as a separate concern but as inseparable from the question of fair working conditions itself. Ultimately, the conference aims to foster critical dialogue on the sector's capacity to address these disparities directly, and to draw out recommendations that could support a fairer and more consistent baseline for artists and arts workers across European cultural cooperation.

Event structure

1. Introductory remarks (16:00 – 16:10 CET)

Welcome words by Yohann Floch, FACE – Fresh Arts Coalition Europe (he/his)

Yohann Floch is the Director of FACE, a resource platform that facilitates European capacity-building programmes in the contemporary performing arts field, and the Director of Operations at On the Move, the international network dedicated to artistic and cultural mobility. Throughout his career, Yohann has designed, coordinated, and contributed to numerous European cooperation projects and pilot international collaborations while working for independent arts organisations and cultural institutions. He serves governmental bodies and private foundations as an external expert and leads or co-authors cultural policy reports. Previously, Yohann held various leadership positions, including Secretary General of the European Dancehouse Network, Director of Skåne’s International Resource Office, Coordinator of Dansehallerne’s Nordic dance network, and Coordinator of the Circostrada network. https://fresh-europe.org/

2. Inspiring presentations (16:10 – 16:30 CET) Following the introduction to the conference, the opening segment will showcase two speakers – artists from iCoDaCo. Each will explore the concept of ‘fair working conditions’, offering unique insights into how they respond to opportunities and challenges through addressing solidarity, transparency, sustainability and responsibility.

Keynote by iCoDaCo artist AURA, Portugal (she / her)

AURA is a transdisciplinary artist interested in identity, futurity, and sustainability issues, and programmer of Asterisco, a space and festival for dissident artists. Her work has been presented at Municipal Theatre of Porto, Lisbon Municipal Galleries, Maia Contemporary Art Biennial, The Place, Nottingham Contemporary, Centre for Live Art Yorkshire, Stockholm Fringe Festival, schuur, Derida Dance Center, One Dance, among others. She holds a MA in Performance Making by Goldsmiths, a PG in Cultural Management and Sustainability by FLUC and a BA in Fine Arts and Intermedia by ESAP and ASP Gdansk. www.auradafonseca.com & https://asterisco-colectivo.com‍ ‍

Keynote by iCoDaCo artist Deborah Light, Wales, United Kingdom (she/her)

Deborah Light is an experienced dance artist, choreographer and movement director working across dance, theatre, film and site based practice. She creates work independently and collaboratively, regularly performs for others, movement directs for theatre and lectures in movement at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Deborah uses her expertise to support other artists and the freelance arts sector in Wales through mentoring and strategic roles. She is based in Cardiff and has 3 young children. An anti patriarchal perspective runs through Deborah’s creative practice, for her dancing is a site of personal and shared knowledge, pleasure and transformation. www.lightladdemberton.com & https://deborahlight.com Their presentations will set the tone for the broader discussions that follow, grounding the conference in real-world artistic experiences and critical reflections.

3. Breakout sessions (16:30 – 17:00 CET)

The second segment will be interactive, inviting participants to engage in smaller breakout discussions on key aspects emerging from the presentations. These discussions will be facilitated by moderators, with the goal of highlighting the diverse ways in which contemporary dance engages with the broader question of social and cultural justice within its own working practice, treating this not as a separate concern but as inseparable from the question of fair working conditions itself.

Facilitators:

iCoDaCo partner Signe Sandvej, CuntsCollective, Denmark (she/her)

Signe Sandvej is a producer in the agency ART & ABOUT, where she has been since 2021. She works with project management as well as production and tour planning. She has extensive experience with festivals, performing arts productions, and tours, both in Denmark and internationally, taking a hands-on approach throughout the entire process, from fundraising to execution. In addition, she has solid experience in promoting and presenting artistic works and representing artists at sales fairs and networking events. She is collaborating with CuntsCollective, the Danish partner in iCoDaCo and work as the project manager for the collective. www.cuntscollective.com & www.art-and-about.dk/en‍ ‍

iCoDaCo partner Inta Balode, Latvian Dance Information Centre, Dance.lv Journal & LAUKKU, Latvia (she / her)

Inta Balode is a Latvian dance critic, curator, dramaturge, writer and cultural practitioner. She has been active in the dance field since 2003, curating dance projects, festivals, seminars and other initiatives. Since 2017, she has headed the Latvian Dance Information Centre (LDIC), where she works on the development of the dance sector, international cooperation and dance policy. She is also a board member of the Latvian Dance Council, an advisory body to the Ministry of Culture. Inta was one of the initiators of Dance.lv Journal, established in 2011 as a platform for documenting and discussing contemporary dance. In 2017, she co-founded the international non-profit organisation LAUKKU, which promotes contemporary art and community engagement in regional areas. She contributes to the organisation of the Dance Award, Latvia’s national award for professional dance, and currently curates the Dejas māja KURTUVĒ / Dance House KURTUVE programme in Valmiera. In 2026, she received a recognition award from the Valmiera Zonta Club for her contribution to the local community, the accessibility of contemporary art, the development of the dance sector, and community engagement in Latvia’s regions. https://dance.lv/eng & https://laukku.lv

iCoDaCo partner Luca Kövécs, SÍN Arts, Hungary (she/her)

Luca Kövécs (she/her) is a Creative Producer and Cultural Manager based in Budapest, working across contemporary performing and visual arts. She has over 20 years of experience in developing, coordinating and producing international artistic projects, festivals and site-specific works. Her background includes management, international relations, audience development and logistics. She is experienced in mediating between artists, institutions and international partners, with a hands-on approach. https://en.sinarts.org

iCoDaCo partner Carolina Barbosa, Instável, Portugal (she/her)

Carolina Barbosa works as a producer across performing arts projects and events, as well as in production and cultural mediation within participatory artistic projects. She is currently responsible for training programmes and European projects at Instável – Centro Coreográfico. She holds a degree in Artistic Studies – Performing Arts from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon and is pursuing a master’s degree in Sociology, specialising in Contexts, Practices and Cultural Policies, at the University of Porto. Her academic and professional practice brings together the arts, humanities and social sciences, combining artistic practice with research and social and political engagement. www.instavel.pt

4. Interactive discussion (17:10 – 17:50 CET)

The guest rapporteurs will each share their takeaways from the breakout room they followed, drawing on their personal and professional experiences of engaging with body politics in their work. Facilitated by Yohann Floch, FACE.

Guest rapporteur Milica Ilić, freelance expert, Belgium (she/her)

Milica Ilić is a creative consultant and cultural worker working at the intersection of contemporary and socially engaged arts, cultural policy and transnational cooperation. Her work combines research, project development and the curation of discursive formats and public programmes. She investigates how artistic ecosystems evolve across borders, and how artists and cultural organisations develop alternative ways of producing and collaborating. Through publications, curated conversations and pedagogical initiatives, she contributes to collective reflection within the field. She previously coordinated the research project RESHAPE and worked with Onda and IETM on questions of artistic mobility, international circulation and network-building.

Guest rapporteur Jana Grünewald, Dachverband Tanz Deutschland, Germany (she/her)

Jana Grünewald has been working at the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland (German Dance Association) since 2013, where she co-manages the project Creative Cross Collaborations Berlin (CCCberlin) and oversees the informal producer network InfoPlus and the Europe-wide network PAMPA (Producers, Agents, Managers in the Performing Arts). From 2019 to 2025 she was part of the lead team of the Kreativ-Transfer funding programme and oversaw its predecessor project "Export Fund - Focus Dance" (20162018). From 2015 to May 2023, she was part of the editorial team at touring artists, the information and advice service for artists and cultural professionals working internationally. www.dachverband-tanz.de & www.pampa-network.org

Guest rapporteur Isabel Andreen, Théâtre National de Bretagne, France (she/her)

Isabel Andreen has been operating in European performing arts since 2000. She has held a verse number of positions such as production manager within dance, coordinator of European projects for emergent choreographers, artistic adviser for regional performing arts agencies… Since 2021 she has been working part-time as an independent consultant, regularly collaborating with the network On the Move for specific missions on international professional development programmes and is employed as international development manager at Theatre National de Bretagne. www.t-n-b.fr/en & https://on-the-move.org‍ ‍

Guest rapporteur Giuliana Ciancio, Liv.in.g., Italy (she/her)

Giuliana Ciancio is a researcher, cultural manager and lecturer working across performing arts, international cultural cooperation and cultural policy. Combining research and practice, she explores how culture intersects with politics and society. Over the years, she has conceived, curated and coordinated large-scale European and international projects. She has worked with foundations, cultural networks, public institutions and independent organisations across Europe, developing festivals, artistic programmes, co-creation labs, seminars and masterclasses. Actually, she is co-founder of the Italian social enterprise Liv.in.g – Live Internationalization Gateway, a board member of the international cultural mobility network On the Move, and a member of the Founders’ Council of Fondazione Fitzcarraldo. She regularly publishes on political emotions, cultural policy and politics and international cultural cooperation. www.livingnet.eu‍ ‍

5. Closing remarks (17:50 – 18:00 CET)