dogma09 - for contemporary theater & art projects in schools

Manifesto
The dogma09 manifesto advocates educational practices that place greater emphasis on creativity and physicality. Bureaucracy, pusillanimity, selfishness, pressure to achieve results, thinking in narrow categories and negativity of any sort were banished for the duration of the project.

Instruction-immanent
Projects are part of regular classroom instruction and not an after-school activity, elective subject, etc.

Intensity
Projects are held on two schooldays a week over seven weeks. All hours of classroom instruction during the entire eighth week are set aside for work on the project.

Competent Experts from Outside the School System
The extramural perspective brought in by artists is an essential component of the project. They ought to be selected by an objective, well-thought-out process. Each should have at least 10 years experience as a contemporary artist.

System Relevance
The aim of the intervention is the atmosphere and climate of the respective school as a whole, which is why it is important to get the entire faculty involved. This can be accomplished by organizing accompanying teacher workshops. Receiving participation commitments from at least 12 teachers is a prerequisite for the project.

Process Orientation
No predetermined elements prior to the beginning of the process, no rough drafts of plays or prescribed pieces of music, no pressure to perform, no grading, no coercion to structure the activities in a certain way.

Fairness / Respect
Artists are paid the same as teachers. Mutual respect among all project participants has utmost priority.

Team Orientation
Each project is led by at least two artists and two teachers. The two teachers and the two artists work together.

Class as Community
All students in a class are involved in the project; there are no selection or exclusion procedures. Students are free to choose the form of their input into the project.

Minimal Bureaucracy
Avoidance of applications and reports; no forms; reduction of bureaucracy to the bare necessities.

Source of Funding
Funding to cover the project’s expenses is to come from the educational budget and not the arts budget.