The DanceMe UP project is focused on creative and innovative dance, choreography and collaborative possibilities with media/video arts.

Turku UAS Arts Academy participates in DanceMe UP by engaging the dance and media students and teachers. The project is based on audience development via digital means which aims to build an international production-oriented network of ten innovative European organizations based in Italy, Germany, Finland, France and Iceland (plus one Associated Partner from Switzerland).

The Turku UAS Arts Academy is the singular HEI/university partner in the DanceMe UP cohort, which also includes community dance programs, professional independent dance and media artists as well as an international dance festival. Turku UAS Arts Academy’s dance program hosts two dance artists, one from Iceland and one from Italy for a two week residency period. These artists lead creative exploration workshops with Arts Academy’s dance and media student participants, assisted by Arts Academy dance and media artist-teachers.

Turku UAS Arts Academy also offers a workshop on  “Physical Cinema / Screen Dance”  led by internationally recognized Finnish choreographer/film maker, Hanna Pajala-Assefa. Participants include dance and media students/teachers as well as DanceMe UP partners from Italy, Germany, France and Iceland.

Dance and media students and teachers from Turku UAS have the opportunity to participate in international workshops which focus upon a diverse area of applied artistic experiences. The students create a number of collaborative video Physical Cinema / Screen Dance productions that will be presented at the DanceMe international dance festival in Italy.

Turku UAS is responsible for issuing ECTS credits for the international participants in Germany, Iceland, France and Italy who desire such academic documentation.

In between these actions the digital DanceMe APP will be used. The DanceMe APP represents a virtual space where the DanceMe UP participants present their own research to the audience, discuss and debate with each other by using texts, images, videos and music, helping the artists working with greater ease and more speed towards the creation of the final live performance.