Contemporary Dance Appreciation and Literacy Project

Contemporary Dance Appreciation and Literacy Project, launched in September 2020, is a three-year project aimed at actively expanding the audience for performing arts while fostering the humanistic qualities of Macao's youth, inspiring their creativity and innovation. Starting with primary and secondary school students, the program uses school tours combining live demonstrations, explanations, and interactive sessions to introduce how contemporary dance is transformed from life experiences. This encourages students to reflect on the relationship between dance and personal expression and the environment, while also providing opportunities for them to "read" dance, giving them the confidence and openness to appreciate it, laying a solid foundation for lifelong artistic appreciation.

Stella & Artists has successfully completed 60 school visits and interactive performances as planned, attracting a total audience of 2,046. This project has effectively promoted contemporary dance, often considered abstract, to various schools and dance education centers in Macau. Each performance received enthusiastic responses from audiences of all ages, with most expressing that the performances were helpful in their future appreciation of dance, particularly contemporary dance. This project aims to broaden the audience for performing arts and cultivate the humanistic qualities of Macau's youth, inspiring creativity and innovation. Even more unexpectedly, some teachers reported that some students expressed interest in pursuing artistic careers after watching the interactive performances. To further enhance students' experience of the aesthetic value of dance, the program included two performances of Stella & Artists' contemporary dance productions, as well as two live demonstration performances and contemporary dance workshops.