In our day the concept of national identity has taken on a different relevance, compared to the first decades of the last century. Fortunately, the concept of nationalism as idolatry of the country has been replaced by the concept of national identity, as a set of cultures and traditions that represent our identity.
The knowledge of these traditions often helps us to be even better citizens because it roots us in our territory and pushes us to commit ourselves to it, transmitting a sense of belonging and love for our traditions.
At first, the opening of borders and the entry of many other countries into the EU has generated a considerable benefit, because it has allowed us to travel and get in touch directly with other cultures, creating a new generation of people: the Europeans!
At the same time, however, we did not dedicate resources and time to preserve our peculiarities, forgetting that the motto of the EU is: United in diversity Several questions are asked in this context, among which:
What is the content of the national identity?
What is the European identity?
What are the relations between the two identities?
To try to answer these questions we decided to select an element of our traditions that we think we have in common, structuring it as if it were a passe-partout: the folk dances. We chosed this art also because it makes it easier to attract a widen general public in numerous public events and because through music and dance people can more easily understand that cultural differences unite us in Europe.
To achieve our intent we thought that each partner will build or will involve a dance group who will teach two traditonal dances at the other groups. Furthermore in order to have a diversity of folk arts involved in the project, at each transnational meeting we will have besides the dances and the presentation of the representative traditions of the host countries (workshops). Thus, in Portugal – “Gigantone” workshops (traditional percussion instrument), in Germany we will do woodcut, in Turkey we will do a pottery workshop and in France Wickerwork workshop.
