Colegio del Cuerpo - Colombia

El Colegio del Cuerpo's strategy is to work to create a plural, democratic cultural space with the potential to help people from conflict-ridden and marginalised areas through dance.

First, organisers engage in capacity-building efforts related to artistic development. El Colegio is premissed on the notion that modern dance has the potential to heal and socialise. Organisers focus on teaching young people from the marginal barrios of Cartagena - working-class areas that are outside historical and tourist centres or that have a high concentration of displaced persons - so that a career in the performing arts is open to them. One goal is to provide children with an alternative to school desertion. El Colegio combines secondary education with modern dance and vocational training in other areas of the 'scenic' arts. Contemporary dance training - some of which is at a professional level - is offered to children, youth, and adults. High school students at artistic schools may specialise in pedagogy, criticism, contemporary dance theory, and cultural promotion. Non-formal and formal programmes in lighting, wardrobe, sound, and stage machinery are available.

As part of these activities, the Pilot Experimental Group was established. The youth who are part of this group engage in contemporary dance classes as a wholly voluntary and vocational activity; their classes are not part of any academic studies programme. This group has performed at many venues and festivals, including El Colegio's own International Dance Festival - Memoria e Imaginación (Memory and Imagination). This cultural celebration involves workshops, open rehearsals, and meetings with the public. In addition, a residency programme enables international choreographers and artists to visit Colegio. Professional networking is a key strategy here.

Colegio's Investigation, Documentation, and Thought Production Center pursues research and documentation on contemporary dance as an interdisciplinary language. Traditional cultures are a focus of a library and video collection. An Editorial Project Department publishes a periodic newsletter that publicises Colegio's activities and shares its ideas.

Organisers are motivated by the fact that half of Cartagena's 700,000 live in very challenging conditions exacerbated by poverty and a war being waged between the paramilitary death squads and the leftist guerrilla movements in the rural areas close to the Caribbean coast. The name of the organisation comes from the Latin term 'colligere': to reunite, to reconcile, to cohere again.