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Today’s B>Log article has been written by Shu-Chun, one of the participants of B>Meeting 2026. Drawing from her experience as a cultural manager and international arts professional, she shares her personal perspective on the meeting, the B>Lab methodology, the value of collective learning and the connections that emerged throughout the week.
I am Shu-Chun, and I am very happy to participate in the 2026 B>meeting. I joined the 2026 B>meeting with Hsiao-mei the choreographer of MeimageDance to experience and understand the B-meeting methodology for choreography and movement in order to explore future collaboration between the Dance Now Asia festival in Taipei and BIDE in Barcelona, with the hope to promote the dance exchange between Asia and Europe. I have worked in the cultural management profession in the areas of cultural diplomacy, festival programming, theatre planning and international touring among Asia, Europe and the Americas.
When I arrived at BIDE, the bright studio, warm smile and communication from the fellow dancers & artists as well as the easy orientation from the BIDE team made me feel welcomed and safe to bring my curiosity and input from a cultural manager’s perspective into the creative sessions in the B-lab. It’s very stimulating to exchange with artists and dancers from such diverse cultures in different parts of Europe as well as Latin America about the dance-making process.
As the sessions are carried out in English and Spanish, it’s very interesting to also observe the experience of creative development with interpretation from both languages as well as the non-verbal body languages. B-lab movement sessions brought me more understanding about the artistic process of choreography, the relationship between choreographer and performers, guest musicians and the production team.
The feedback sessions each day provided participants the opportunities to contribute their thoughts and responses to the creative thinking of the session lead-artist and BIDE team. It is a space for open and constructive dialogues with a goal for session groups to stage the presentation over 4 days of experimentation and collaboration. It is practical, full of peer learning, but not competitive nor judgmental. I think this reflects a great spirit of performing art-making.
I truly feel inspired by the theme of cultural management B>lab in 2026 -“F*ckUp Experience” led by the expert facilitator Olga. The lab invited the dancers, artists, curators and cultural managers together to explore the connection between failure and learning and the values of sharing on vulnerability to enhance competency.
I enjoyed the feeling of psychological safety when I shared my fuckup experience with fellow Biders and listened to her stories. When we reflect on the lessons learned from our own experiences, we not only build empathy and kindness in our communication but also get fresh perspectives from each other, a chance to look at the scenario from a different angle. This gives us such positive energy in our work and our belief in the self.
The session of forming different work groups to create Failure Museum in different challenges such as “the residency that went wrong”, “the grant that never came” and “the impossible collaboration” is also very stimulating. These scenarios happen a lot in our professional life as an artist, a curator or a cultural manager. When our fellows from different backgrounds and roles come together to share “what happened?”, “what did nobody see?” and “what did I learn?”, we exchanged different cultures, analyzed different mindset and built collective knowledge to face the challenge.
I felt this really a humanistic process for professional development of a resilient mind, creating a warm community to support each other with companionship and understanding, even more importantly, to share resources to potential collaboration.
The dance-making session by Katja Butković let us to explore how we listen to our body, how we connect memories with movement, walking outside of the studio to observe the trees and tell a story of what we see and what we don’t see, drawing a picture, writing a poem of how we felt and reciting the work in the choreography we created together
The movement session by Camila Jazmin Almeida led us to create a choreography from memory, to experiment the relation between air, space and dance by making a giant balloon/bubble space to dance in, out and around, to development performance with bass clarinetist Daniel for an improvisation of sound and movement
During the B>lab movement, I had several times of physical exhaustion due to my asthma condition. I was blessed by the care of the session lead-artists, fellow dancers and guest musicians. Their understanding of my need for occasional rest, encouragement and companionship for my participation, and openness to my idea sharing during the feedback process. A truly rewarding experience for me is also get to know the musicians who are with us in the B>lab. Their dedication and openness for sound-making and music improvisation showed me many beautiful moments of interdisciplinary collaboration.
I felt the B>meeting has brought such a positive impact on my understanding of performance-making methodology, strengthening my self-confidence in this profession and building valuable networks and collections with performance professionals from diverse cultures. The WhatsApp community and sharing of professional contact information open up many collaboration opportunities in the future. I felt also very honored to be able to share the Asian cultural happenings and experiences with my fellow Biders in Europe and Latin America. I would definitely hope to stay connected with the BIDE community, and also hope to have a chance to participate in B>meeting and B>lab in the future. Thank you BIDE!
