Tanz die Toleranz (Vienna)

Concentrating on the relationships between the actual target group and the “others”, the majority population, offers one way of preventing the stigmatisation of a marginalised group. The aim of the Viennese project, Dancing Tolerance, is to create interaction between people in general. Since the opening of the Wiener Festwochen in 2007, dance has been the starting point for social change in this project. People from all sorts of backgrounds do something here that they have never done before – but they do it together. By working on choreography, they create something new together. What happens before, during and after the rehearsals is an important part of the project. Asylum seekers or “natives” cannot be told apart when they are on the stage. Since 2007, fifteen dance projects involving more than 2,600 dancers from different social backgrounds have been staged with the help of professional artists.