Project Q&A with ZRC SAZU
The Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts consists of 18 research units or institutes throughout Slovenia. In this project we are partnering with The Institute of Ethnomusicology of the ZRC, who specialize in historical and contemporary aspects of folk music and folk dance traditions in Slovenia. We have asked them four questions about their experience in the project so far.
What are your institution's goals for this project and how do you plan to achieve them?
Researchers from the Institute of ethnomusicology ZRC SAZU will get to know and cooperate with local community to raise awareness, ensure respect, and safeguard their dance traditions. There is a desire to raise people’s awareness about ICH, establish contacts with heritage bearers and to create interest in heritage stored in the Institute archives. There is a need for good tools and spaces for transmission from elders and heritage bearers to children and youths in schools, in folk dance groups and music schools.
The aim of this part of the project is to introduce the heritage of the local community from the archives (the case study), to “give them back” their music and dance as important identifiers of place and time, to research their past and contemporary dance culture, to co-create dance events for them and outsiders based on their expectations and needs, and to organize activities and the events of practice exhibition together. Additionally, the project also aims to discuss the role of the researcher in the heritagisation processes of local traditions.
What are your thoughts on the project per now?
Working on an international project always brings new knowledge and insights. For researchers, such a more applied ethnochoreological project is an incentive to think outside the established research box. The advantage of this project is the large number of institutions and experienced project partners - dance researchers, curators, archivists, professors, with whom we have shared our experiences, thoughts and knowledge so far. The international networks are open so that we can actively participate in each other's know-how methods and learn from each other in workshops and expert meetings. So far, we have discussed relevant dance, research, and institution-related terminology and guidelines of the UNESCO Convention, discussed community involvement, and reached some necessary agreements on project research, communication, and management.
Have you learned something new?
This project aims to develop innovative methods, processes, and arenas for participatory folk dancing as ICH of the 21st century and trigger new ways of acting and thinking about facilitation of ICH. Dance as ICH is calling for a renewal of the exhibition towards events of practice, that is why our »traditional role of researchers« is challenged. It became even clearer to us that, despite the same terminology (which we use in English), our thinking, concepts and practices regarding dance ICH are various in local settings. Even at the level of traditional dance, the diversity and richness of the European area is reflected.
What is your institution's contribution to this project and it's consortium?
The Institute of Ethnomusicology of the ZRC SAZU, which collaborates on this project, is concerned with historical and contemporary aspects of folk music and dance traditions in Slovenia. The Institute maintains an extensive sound collection of original field recordings of Slovenian folk music. Institute’s researchers serve on various working committees as ICH experts and cooperate with other educational and cultural institutions.