Project Q&A with HFRC
The Hellenic Folklore Research Centre of the Academy of Athens (HFRC) is specialized in ethnographic, folklore, anthropological and ethnological research. HFRC has developed valuable experience through its activities framed in its intersectional approach. This has opened a “third space” of interaction in-between heritage communities in order to reveal and define the new role of the dance researcher, the dance teacher, the dance artistic director and choreographer, the dancer, and the dance archivist as facilitators for all kinds of dance heritage communities. We have asked HFRC four questions about their experience with the project so far.
What are your institution's goals for this project and how do you plan to achieve them?
Having as a starting point the nature and aim of the Hellenic Folklore Research Centre (HFRC) of the Academy of Athens (AA) and of the other cultural and academic institutions that participate in the consortium, our goal is to focus on ethnographic, academic and educational research, in order to analyse the significance of the implementation of the UNESCO’s Convention on Safeguarding ICH (2003) in the domain of dance and dancing as living cultural heritage. By focusing on the particular case of Greek dance and dance practices in several (local, supra-local, diasporic) dance heritage communities we aim to reveal, examine and define the new role of the dance researcher, the dance teacher, the dance artistic director and choreographer, the dancer and the dance archivist. More specifically, in collaboration with the School of Physical Education and Sport Science (SPESS) of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) we have planned a case study, that focuses on multicited applied ethnographic research so as to explore academic and educational, postmodern dance practices. Having as core community that of the students specialised in Greek traditional dance of the NKUA-SPESS, who interact with several dance heritage communities in Greece and abroad, we aim on exploring the new role of academics, researchers, dance teachers and stakeholders, that calls them to act as facilitators for all kinds of dance heritage communities while promoting a people-centred and participatory approach to cultural heritage. This way, we hope to underline and promote the diverse cultural, social, geopolitical, economic, environmental and other parameters that act in the customisation of sustainable safeguarding strategies in order to promote the necessary adaptation to the new post-Convention era, that gives priority to the role of people and heritage communities in cultural management.
What are your thoughts on the project per now?
The project till now has intrigued and enriched our scientific, academic, research and practical knowledge. Through the fruitful interaction among partners, a creative network has been created that ensured our continuous communication and collaboration. Thus, the project has offered several axes of thoughts on dance as living ICH. As well understood throughout projects WP, especially during Workshops 1 and 2, our international and multidisciplinary team has brought out several issues on the relationship between dance heritage communities, research, academic and cultural institutions and the public.
Have you learned something new?
The project, while promoting communication and interaction with partners, has intrigued and enriched our scientific, academic, research and practical knowledge. With this in perspective, the project has introduced several issues, especially in the domains of scientific methodological aspects and theoretical concepts and dance practical applied knowledge. While focusing on the creation of a participatory arena for dance and dancing as living cultural heritage, the project trigged new ways of acting and thinking about facilitation of ICH in terms of the UNESCO’s Convention. Thus, challenged by the participatory, people-centred, sustainable models of cultural heritage safeguarding and in close conjunction with the EU’s and UN’s Agendas and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) new and old methods were discussed in order to establish theoretical and practical knowledge exchange so as to develop a pilot, sustainable facilitator model developed through a bottom-up and co-creation approach.
What is your institution's contribution to this project and its consortium?
The Hellenic Folklore Research Centre (HFRC) of the Academy of Athens (AA) was established in 1918, originally as an independent institution and in 1926 when the Academy of Athens (Greek National Academy of Sciences) was founded was placed under its aegis. The HFRC, as the National Documentation Center for Popular Culture of Greece has been specialised in ethnographic, folklore, anthropological and ethnological research. So, its research operations and policies focus on the manifestations, uses and practices of popular culture in synchrony and diachrony. Thus, the HFRC is specialised in collecting and documenting tangible and intangible heritage cultural facets, in studying and analysing management practices and models applied a. by Public Administration and b. by local and supra-local communities in the attempt to preserve traditional knowledge and skills and transfer them to younger generations.
HFRC, as an academic institution, aims contributing to this consortium by providing its experience in the domain, in order to grasp and approach in a systematic way the diverse ideas and practices generated and collected through the years of ethnographic research, in the domain of dance and dancing as living ICH. Based on the long experience the HFRC has, developed through its activities (multi-sited ethnographic research ethnographic fieldwork, programmes, museums, publications, collaborations with heritage communities and public administration etc.) by using an intersectional approach, we can assure the creation of a “third space” of interaction in-between heritage communities in order to reveal and define the new role of the dance researcher, the dance teacher, the dance artistic director and choreographer, the dancer and the dance archivist. A new role that calls them to act as facilitators for all kinds of dance heritage communities and to introduce and put into practice an integrated and participatory approach to cultural heritage so as to contribute to its safeguarding and mainstreaming of ICH.