Expanded Habitats
Across cultures and throughout history, dance builds connection. Connection to oneself, to others and to one’s environment. This project unites CoisCéim with highly experienced European partners to foster the practises of three distinctive dance artists Sara Ariotti (Italy), Despina Sanida Crezia (Greece), Alexandra Vostokova (Ireland), their local communities and extensive networks – to collectively address the strategic alliance between three key themes: CHOREOGRAPHY, NATURE and CARE.
The aim is to give time, space and imagination to pioneer new ways to forge sustainable environments - ecologically, socially and professionally – and actively direct us all to rethink the very notion of “care” and new creative processes that can coherently connect this “care” across borders. It builds on CHOREOGRAPHY CONNECTS, which began in Bassano in July 2022, running until summer 2024. Accompanied by one of Europe's leading dramaturgs, Monica Gillette, project learnings were documented through the publication, NOTES FOR THE FUTURE. This project, EXPANDED HABITATS builds on these learnings in a new collaboration between Ireland's CoisCéim Dance Theatre, Italy’s Arte Sella and DAN.CE.E Unitiva in Greece.
Rooted in nature, it will bring together three dance artists, one from each country, with a record of socially engaged practice to rigorously interrogate processes and ideas that can advance reciprocal enrichment and spark horizontal conversations between artist and audience/participant. Unbounded by studio walls, residencies will also take place outdoors in wild and urban landscapes as well as dance studio settings. "Home" residency artists will act as "bridges" – peer guides connecting with local professionals /networks/ the public so that both communities are nourished. The visiting artist takes home local knowledge and adds their trace to the energy of the host community.
The project will begin with a facilitated gathering at Arte Sella on 28-29 September 2026 with Monica Gillette. This will be directly followed by a collective residency within the museum landscape to enable artists to engage directly with nature as they wish. The project will then move to Athens and Dublin in January and April 2027.
Credits
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
ABOUT OUR PROJECT PARTNERS
Arte Sella – the Contemporary Mountain

For more than thirty years Arte Sella has been synonymous with art in nature, a unique creative workshop in Italy and in the world, where art has woven a continuous dialogue with the surprising nature of the Val di Sella, a side valley of the Valsugana, in Trentino. Hundreds of international artists have alternated over time, invited to interpret the spirit of the place and to return to look at
the works of art in continuous transformation. The works created by these artists are characterized by the ability to preserve their own recognizable but not alien physiognomy, for a different arrangement with respect to time, which is no longer the rectilinear and conventional history of art, but, perishable, according to the natural mutations of the seasons Vittorio Fagone in 2009.
Since its foundation in 1986, Arte Sella has evolved by interpreting its role as a creative forge listening to nature and placing itself as a powerful tool initially available to a small Alpine community, later to a much wider world, to imagine possible future scenarios and possible dynamics of the man-nature relationship. In the aftermath of the Chernobyl tragedy the need to find a way to restore a new balance with nature was immediately born: at Arte Sella this need has declined, over the course of thirty-five years, through the gaze and vision of more than three hundred artists who, having abandoned the role of absolute protagonists of the creative act, have joined nature, their ally in the creation and transformation of the work. The mutation of Arte Sella's works is continuous, constant and subject to weather conditions and the passing of the seasons.
Arte Sella has thus become an open-air museum that includes a considerable portion of the Val di Sella. There are two routes that can be visited throughout the year, with different times that change depending on the natural variation of the daylight hours. The first route begins at Villa Strobele, one of the many historic houses in the valley, birthplace of Arte Sella and the first exhibitions. With the project of the Arte Sella Architettura which started in 2017, Villa Strobele has become a fundamental place for reflection on the question of living and landscape and therefore, ultimately, to what relationship man and humanity, may have in the future with the places where they settle, and which are crossed by a continuous process of change. Architects such as Kengo Kuma, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Michele de Lucchi.
From Villa Strobele, the Montura path, enriched by a series of benches designed by artists and designers such as Alberto Meda, Aldo Cibic, Matteo Poli and Giulio Iacchetti, encourages visitors to admire the peculiarities of the landscape of the valley. At the end of the route the Malga Costa Area welcomes the visitors. The building of the Malga once dedicated to the mountain pasture, is now an exhibition hall and a meeting place. Around it unfolds an exhibition area that contemplates some of the most monumental works known to the public, such as the Tree Cathedral by Giuliano Mauri, Third Paradise – The Trench of Peace by Michelangelo Pistoletto, Symbiosis by Edoardo Tresoldi, Common Root by Henrique Oliveira, Mountain Trebucco by Arne Quinze , Liquid Landscape by Daan Roosegaarde, Physis by Arcangelo Sassolino, fonda.menti by ivan, Proserpina #A_S4 by Quayola and Sabìr by Velasco Vitali.
Over time at Arte Sella, art in nature, music, dance, photography, poetry and literature have found a place for research and common reflection. Their vision, together with that of the artists who will cross Arte Sella with an increasingly interdisciplinary look, will continue to investigate the complexity of the contemporaneity in which we are immersed.
DAN.C.CE Unitiva

Τhe non-profit organization DAN.C.CE Unitiva was established in 2008, under the artistic direction of Frosso Trousa, with the aim of promoting contemporary Greek choreographic creation, both in Greece and internationally.
Throughout its dynamic trajectory, the organization has played an active role in empowering professional and emerging dancers and choreographers, as well as engaging amateur practitioners, by fostering the exchange of experiences, knowledge, and artistic practices rooted in contemporary dance. DAN.C.CE Unitiva develops and presents dance festivals, seminars, and workshops, while also supporting artistic mobility through residency programs dedicated to creation and research.
ABOUT IRIS
This project is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland's INTERNATIONAL RESIDENCY INITIATIVES SCHEME (IRIS). This scheme supports art organisations, across all artforms, in the delivery of residency initiatives and to create opportunities for transnational exchange and cooperation. It focuses on enabling art organisations to initiate or consolidate collaborative frameworks with partners based abroad. Visit artscouncil.ie to find out more.
