Roots

In 2025, the Dancing Families program celebrates its anniversary. Over the past fifteen years, we’ve held dozens of workshops for children and families and educators, presented performances from Poland and abroad, expanded the program’s multimedia archive, and, above all, invited thousands of families to dance together in cities across Poland. These activities have contributed to strengthening the field of dance and choreography for families in Poland – and we are proud of it!

In its early years, the initiative focused on presenting international performances for families. It was part of the Old Brewery New Dance program curated by Joanna Leśnierowska at Art Stations Foundation, and was coordinated by Alicja Morawska-Rubczak. In later years, under the guidance of Sandra Lewandowska, the project expanded to include regular family dance workshops and professional training sessions, while also supporting the creation of Polish dance productions. In recent years, under our current artistic and production leadership, the program has centred around family dance workshops, discussions on dance criticism for young audiences, the creation of the Media Library archive with 25 films and two publications and the program’s expansion to multiple cities. This marks a significant step toward building a national family dance scene.

Over the past fifteen years, Poland’s perspective on childhood and parenting has shifted. Awareness of children’s rights and respect for diverse perspectives of childhood have increased: more voices now speak about the importance of nurturing relationships, many local initiatives have emerged to support children and parents, and the division of caregiving responsibilities in households has become more flexible, and rigid family hierarchies are softening. At the same time, we’ve lived through a pandemic, experienced an unprecedented technological invasion into our homes, and witnessed new socio-political conflicts. These factors prompt us to rethink the relationships we form – both familial and societal.

Tissues

Over time, the program has seen changes in its coordinators, operators, partner institutions, and formats, always evolving in response to the changing reality. Yet its core focus has remained: family fun and shared movement. In creating Dancing Families, we believe that children and caregivers deserve support, as the broadly understood family is undoubtedly a culture-forming space.

It is within the family that, as infants, we first recognise ourselves in relation to others and the world. We gather our first sensory experiences, build deep intuitions and convictions. Childhood is full of formative moments: sharpening our vision, learning to trust our embodied intuition, discovering our capabilities and limitations – both in relation to gravity and in relationships. These early years are a tapestry of experiences that shape how we later move through the world. In these crucial moments, close adults are present with the child, forming an essential part of their world. And these adults, in turn, are able to reconnect with their own inner child – the part that feels deeply, creates freely, laughs uncontrollably, and embraces the world with their whole being.

We continue to see the need to create spaces, experiences, and structures that creatively nurture and support family relationships. After all, it is within the family – in whatever form it may take – and in our first relationships, that our psychophysical way of being in the world is largely shaped.

In Dancing Families, we view people as social beings, embedded in a web of relationships, physically present. With a richly complex nervous system (full of sparking, image-generating electricity), a wondrous ancient structure of lung alveoli, and the fascinating movement capacities of feet and eyebrows. We look at every person and every family with childlike curiosity, amazed by the variety of physical expressions.

Dance and choreography, with their focus on embodiment, are tools that allow us to create opportunities to be together: in joy, in movement, in connection, with emotions and curiosity, regardless of age. Through dance, we weave networks of relationships and create the present. We draw on all the everyday and extraordinary experiences stored in our bodies – such rich and diverse repertoires of movement! How many new choreographies we create when meeting others! How much power and agency lies in simple decisions: where, how, and with whom we choose to be physically present!