CDI’s principles of practice have evolved through the sharing and discussion of each member’s values and intentions for the group. As we progressed we took time to identify our shared values and experiment with putting them into practice consciously and sometimes unconsciously in our time together. We try to keep these alive between us. Our named principles in practice contribute to the tangible felt experience of our interactions, decision making and how we negotiate group dynamics.
Full Participation
We practice full participation. This means we come with our whole selves and help others to do the same. There is no casual membership of CDI.
In CDI all members are encouraged to speak up and say what’s on their minds; openly sharing aspirations, preoccupations and humour. CDI builds on a culture of participation with an equal emphasis placed on the content of conversations and the process of participation and meeting.
Sustainability
CDI is in it for the long run. We make decisions that have lasting impacts for ourselves and others, and take that responsibility seriously.
CDI is committed to creating structures of interaction and communication that feel sustainable. We are concerned for the sustainability of freelance dance artists careers locally and nationally. We are committed to building robust relational structures, creating and sustaining a respectful, supportive atmosphere.
Stewardship
We want a vibrant dance scene in Cork. We want to see dance at the heart of Cork’s cultural and artistic life across the breadth of the city and county.
CDI builds capacity for community stewardship and advocacy through attending to communal awareness around the historical, nuanced and distinct aspects of the cultural fabric and dance infrastructure of Cork past, present and future.
Community
We are a community. We are held together by the action of making-common what might be held alone.
We are committed to cultivating new ways of being together that nurture felt experiences of cooperation and solidarity. Whilst committing to this process, we endeavour to build capacity for collaboration and action. We are building community with an understanding that we are more interconnected, interdependent and cooperative than individualistic and competitive.
Support
We provide one another with felt support through listening and speaking up. We create a supportive context to act together and individually. We extend support to those who need it.
CDI is a supportive space and an open space for dance artists to meet. This space includes and welcomes asymmetries and difference of opinion and experience. It provides an opportunity to discover and acknowledge the diversity of opinions, artistic practices and backgrounds of all participants. CDI aims to create a web of supportive relationships in Cork where dance is valued and the professional and personal lives of dance artists are nurtured.
Responsibility
Response (ability)
We support each other to be able to respond to personal, artistic and professional need, challenge and difficulty. We have the capacity to respond as a local community of professional freelance dance artists.
Attuning to the skills and felt sensibility in dance improvisation, in CDI we create enough structure, space and support for each other. Individually and collectively we are present for each other. We move with care and consciousness in responding to needs that arise. We have the capacity for action. CDI aims for accountability around building healthier and more holistic working conditions for dance artists.
In this way the acts of care, action and advocacy add up to a whole, allowing the expertise and skills of each individual to be utilised to the full.
Our Principles in Practice are underpinned by participatory and co-operative principles, they are guidelines by which we put our values into practice.
