In 2013, a cultural mediation department was created at the Festival to further its mission of democratizing contemporary dance. Several activities were then developed in close collaboration with various community and cultural partners across the city of Montreal. Over time, FQD’s approach has been built on relationships of trust between organizations, targeted populations, and the artists/mediators. This has facilitated the sharing of expertise, democratized culture, created opportunities for cultural exchange, and expanded artistic knowledge for new audiences.
Over the past 10 years, FQD’s cultural mediation team has established a sustainable offering of regular workshops, allowing dance to reach a diverse population: En mouvement, Visite dansée, P’tites danses, and Dans l’univers de […]. In parallel, the department also works on the development of special projects targeting populations that are more marginalized in our society, such as Danse tes mots, designed for immigrants and/or individuals in the process of learning French, and Racines/Ohtè:ra, which aims to reach Indigenous and non-Indigenous people experiencing extreme precarity.
The year 2022 saw the highest number of cultural mediation workshops offered since the department’s founding in 2013—a total of 152 cultural mediation workshops and 12 informal performances. The activities reached 25 social, community, educational, and healthcare organizations, involved nearly 2,000 participants, and spanned 19 neighborhoods in 10 Montreal boroughs.
In 2023, to celebrate 10 years of cultural mediation at the Festival, the team chose to take things even further by adding several new dimensions to its work. During this 21st edition, FQD has supported various communities in diving into its inclusive and unifying activities, echoing the celebration of contemporary dance in all its forms and hybridities.
