A responsible commitment
Our planet is facing an unprecedented environmental crisis affecting all living things. This global problem is reflected in climate change and global warming, as well as in the damage to the biosphere, the depletion of natural resources, the degradation of ecosystems due to artificialization and the dumping of pollutants, and the disappearance of species. Today, the scientific community is in no doubt that this crisis is due to our lifestyles, production and consumption patterns.
The biodiversity and natural heritage of the Basque coast, once rich in species and ecosystems, are also being profoundly impacted. The disappearance of economically valuable marine species due to over-exploitation was the first warning signal, and a glance at the accumulations of waste along the coastline shows that the situation is only getting worse.
Every day, we are alerted by a continuous and growing flow of news about the degradation of our environment. The vast majority of these messages appeal to our rationality, and perhaps we end up getting used to them without reacting.
It’s against this backdrop that the Art and the Environment programme is taking up the challenge of using a work of art to appeal directly to our emotions and try to provoke a reaction.
The chosen artistic discipline is dance, because it is a universal art that thwarts cultural and linguistic barriers. It’s also a primal art: anyone, whatever their age or physical condition, can dance. It is a formidable vehicle for “living together” and enables a group to understand in a simple and intuitive way, with just a few movements, the interdependent relationships that link us all.
Cristina Enea Foundation – San Sebastián
Set up in 2009 by the Donostia/San Sebastián City Council and the Guipúzcoa Provincial Council, this organisation implements the city and province’s environmental policy through awareness-raising initiatives aimed at all sections of the public, especially schoolchildren.
CCN Malandain Ballet Biarritz
Based in the Basque Country since it was founded in 1998, Malandain Ballet Biarritz is one of the 19 National Choreographic Centres (CCN) in France. The works of its director-choreographer, Thierry Malandain, are based on neo-classical aesthetics and are performed all over the world. The Ballet raises public awareness of dance through a variety of means. It also aims to serve its local community by taking up an environmental issue.
Planeta Dantzan
Since 2018, Malandain Ballet Biarritz has joined forces with the Cristina Enea Foundation in Donostia / San Sebastián to offer a choreographic programme to raise environmental awareness among secondary school pupils aged 12 to 15.
This innovative Dance and the Environment programme, ‘Planeta Dantzan’, uses ballet to appeal directly to the emotions and raise young people’s awareness of environmental issues.
Dance is a formidable vehicle for ‘living together’ and can help a group to understand in a simple and intuitive way, in just a few movements, the interdependent relationships that link us all to the Living World.
The 1st milestone was set with Martin Harriague’s ballet Sirènes, created for the Malandain Ballet Biarritz. Over the years, other works have been added to the programme’s repertoire, including Fossil by Martin Harriague, Noé and Les Saisons by Thierry Malandain.
7,000 children have already benefited from the ‘Planeta Dantzan’ programme since its creation in 2018.
For half of the children, this is their first encounter with dance and movement, and for some with live performance and theatre.
This has had a positive impact on the children and their families in terms of their relationship with consumerism and nature.
It’s also a cross-border project, bringing together French, Basque and Spanish schoolchildren to discuss ballet and the environment.
Objectives
– To raise awareness among pupils aged 12 to 15 of the impact of human activity on the environment and the future of ecosystems, and to encourage them to take action.
– To become a research platform for artistic and choreographic expression, offering schools innovative tools that encourage a different, sensitive vision of the environment and ecology.
– Disseminate a message to a wide audience inviting them to take action.
Expected results
The aim of the project is to encourage a change in pupils’ habits by encouraging them to become citizens who are aware of the fragility of the natural balance and the need to return to a greener economy that respects resources. We hope that the participants and their families will adopt one or more responsible actions in their daily lives.
Process
For the 2024-25 artistic season, based on Thierry Malandain’s latest creation, Les Saisons, Malandain Ballet Biarritz and the Cristina Enea Foundation are rolling out a programme combining education and art to help build a society that is more aware of and sensitive to current environmental issues.
It comprises 4 teaching units:
– A 2-hour contextualisation workshop: a participatory activity taking place at the school. An environmental educator and a professional dancer will raise pupils’ awareness of the impact of (current) human action on the world we live in. They will present the project and the world of a professional dance company to the pupils.
– Choreographic workshops lasting 1 hour 30 minutes each, to introduce pupils to choreographic movement using the artistic vocabulary used in Les Saisons.
– A school performance of Les Saisons, during which pupils will be able to talk to the choreographer and the dancers about the environmental message of the piece and the daily life of a professional dancer. On this occasion, all the pupils will be welcomed at the Théâtre de la Gare du Midi in Biarritz, where groups wishing to do so will be able to follow a cultural itinerary: a visit to the theatre, the Malandain Ballet Biarritz costume workshop and the temporary exhibitions, etc.
– Carrying out an activity listed in a digital teaching unit designed to raise pupils’ awareness of environmental protection, based on the arguments of the work. This unit will give rise to an individual or collective creation by the pupils, which will be presented on the project website and during the school performances at the Théâtre de la Gare du Midi in Biarritz in the form of a physical exhibition.
We will also be offering groups, the number of which will depend on the level of private funding obtained for the Planeta Dantzan project, the opportunity to take part in a 15-hour residency instead of the 1.5-hour choreographic workshops. The aim will be to transmit part of Thierry Malandain’s choreography to the students with a view to a performance in front of the students from the Planeta Dantzan project who have also taken part in a 15-hour residency.
Financial partnerships
Since its inception and thanks to the support of numerous public and private partners, the Planeta Dantzan project has been entirely free of charge for schools.
It received support from the New Aquitaine Euskadi Navarre Euroregion in 2018 and 2019 as part of the call for Euroregional Citizenship projects, then on 19 October 2020 a strategic partnership was signed for a 3-year period.
The Fondation d’Ici-Tokiko is a loyal partner and has been supporting the programme since 2021.
In 2022, Planeta Dantzan was supported by the Communauté d’Agglomération Pays Basque and the Friends of the Fondation de France.
Since 2023, Aline Foriel Destezet has generously supported the programme, as has the Lyra Foundation.
Contact
Carine Aguirregomezcorta – project administrator
Tél. +33 (0)5 59 24 87 65 – mobile : +33 (0)6 16 13 47 10
c.aguirregomezcorta@malandainballet.com
