International Organization for the Transition of Professional Dancers’ (IOTPD) annual conference held in Warsaw, Poland and hosted by Teatr Wielki-Polish National Opera/Opera Narodowa on May 31, June 1 and 2, 2013.
Attending organizations representing their countries: Polish Opera/National Ballet, Poland; Association pour la Reconversion des Danseurs Professionnels, French speaking Switzerland; Centre National de la Danse, France; Dancers’ Career Development, UK; Dancer Transition Resource Center, Canada; Dancers Retraining Program, the Netherlands; Institute for Music and Dance, Poland; Polish Opera/National Ballet, Poland; Stiftung Tanz, Transition Zentrum, Germany; the Swiss Transition Fund, German speaking Switzerland; and Career Transition For Dancers, USA.
The agenda included: sharing statistics and trends regarding dancer transition support as it pertains to career counselling and grants for retraining; discussion of common career and socio-economic challenges facing professional dancers in member countries; the power of social media to strategically communicate the IOTPD’s mission; tactics to generate discussion of transition issues in other countries and to encourage other dance-related organizations to join the IOTPD; the creation of an on-line ‘tool kit’ to begin the process of establishing a transition program in one’s own country; fundraising in tough economic times; and making an IOPTD application for UNESCO membership.
The next annual meeting will be in Amsterdam, June 13, 14, 15, 2014, hosted by the Dancers Retraining Program, and the IOTPD’s President, Paul Bronkhorst.
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