Battery Dance Company Promotional Video from Battery Dance on Vimeo.

Battery Dance Company has enjoyed the privilege of working in over 60 countries on 6 continents over the past two decades. The Cultural Diplomacy Toolkit is Battery Dance Company’s official online platform for disseminating its knowledge and expertise in the field of international cultural engagement. Created through a generous grant from the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and with means devised by our partners, Dancing Ink Productions, this toolkit provides guide posts, best practices, and information on venues, partners, and locations. The site also provides background stories so that context is understood and experiences can be compared.

The objectives of the toolkit are two-fold: to prevent other like-minded organizations from making the same mistakes experienced by Battery Dance Company, and to motivate others to think differently about the meaning of bilateral engagement and what the arts can achieve.

The Cultural Diplomacy Toolkit is available free to the public.

Instructions

There are multiple ways to use the Cultural Diplomacy Toolkit. You can use the interactive map above to zoom in and click on your country or city of interest to be directed to the country pages.

Alternatively, you can click on the Countries tab to see a list of all countries Battery Dance Company has visited. On the country pages, you can interact with a more specific map which shows venue, accommodation, and partner locations. As you roam, you will want to access venue technical specifications, and pictures, and video from the program.

To see an overview of lessons learned and important insights from around the globe, click on the Guide Posts tab at the top. Finally, use the search box to search for your topic or location of interest.

The Cultural Diplomacy Toolkit is a work in progress and is currently in beta version. 

BDC Director, Jonathan Hollander talks about Battery Dance Company and Cultural diplomacy