A programme highlighting integrity, co-creation and safe space: curator Rafaela Sahyoun tells us more about Out of the Toolbox 2025
How can you keep reinventing dance? How do you create space for difference without causing division? And how do you teach without standing above your students? Curator Rafaela Sahyoun puts these questions at the heart of the new edition of Out of the Toolbox, our annual workshop festival that returns to Ghent this summer. Her carefully curated program focuses on integrity, co-creation, and the idea of a safe space.
What was your starting point for curating this festival?
“Context. Where will the festival be held? What is already going on there? Out of the Toolbox has its own story and history. The fact that there is a different curator every year means that the festival takes a new form each time. I wanted to embrace that story and treat it with care. How can you bring people together in a changing space like this and also reinvent dance every time?”
You talk about ‘reinventing’ dance. What do you mean by that?
“I bring teachers who won’t come and tell you what dance is. They open a space in which you can explore that together. For me dance is not a fixed, linear thing. It’s a spectrum of differences. We pay attention to the diversity in the space, in everyone’s body, background and energy. We don’t want to erase those differences: in fact, we try to give them strength. It’s all about co-creation: together we create a space where ideas can shift.”
Why do the selected teachers fit that vision?
“They all work from a place of profound integrity. They start with their own bodies, their own experiences. For them, dance doesn’t arise out of form, but out of what is going on inside. And that is different for everybody. For example, Marina Tsartsara starts with anatomy and sensory perception, and she builds improvisation on that. Elisabete Finger works with touch and objects. Marco Torrice, Piny Orchidaceae and Leo Soulflow use rhythms and what the body feels when it experiences them. Jacob Storer takes a more technical approach but asks fundamental questions: can gravity mean the same to everyone? How does it feel for your body to stand up straight? I think that’s important. This means that technique is not a standard you have to follow, but becomes an encounter with your body, your experience. What arises from that is constantly new.”
“I believe that teaching does not need to be hierarchical. In my generation, we were supposed to follow the teacher. Now I want to create spaces where knowledge is shared in both directions. Students also carry knowledge inside them. As a teacher, you are always learning from those in front of you. I see education as something that is constantly changing shape, depending on the context: social, political and corporeal. In the group, we co-create a space in which different voices, experiences and sensitivities can exist. It’s not about symmetry or consensus, but respectful exchange. I also see that approach in the teachers I have invited.”
How do you actually know all these teachers?
“In many different ways. Some used to be my teachers, such as Theo Clinkard and Marco. I met others in workshops or classes we took together. Marina and I once taught an intensive course together, which was a really nice way to meet. I’ve been following Piny and Leo’s work for a long time. I love it when the roles shift. At one point I’m a student, then a colleague or curator. That exchange is essential for me.”
What is your role during the festival itself?
“I will be doing the warm-up every morning, but apart from that I’m not on the programme as a teacher. I want to be available for what is going on. I see myself as a connecting figure between the participants, the teachers and the Danspunt team. I enter the spaces, but never from a hierarchical position. If I want to defend a safe space, I have to help make it possible. That requires engagement, proximity and, above all, listening.”
You emphasise the importance of a safe space. What exactly does that mean for you?
“For me, a safe space is not a given. You build it together, starting again each time. It’s a shared responsibility between everyone in the space. I don’t want a space where you have to be something or follow something, not even with your energy. You don’t have to reach the teacher’s level. Someone like Paola Madrid is as energetic as a spicy burrito, but you don’t have to be like her. It’s up to you how you are present, how you modulate your energy. That isn’t decided for you. Some people are subtle, others high in energy. All of that is allowed to exist alongside the rest. I don’t see energy as a binary thing, high or low, but as a spectrum.”
“The same applies to the body. We all come with our own body, full of experiences, sensory perceptions and emotions. I want to open a space where people can discover what they are feeling and what they desire, even if they don’t know yet. People often don’t know what they want until they have permission to feel it in their body. For me, a safe space is about the opportunity to be present in your own way, with no pre-imposed idea of how that should be. It’s a place where we can explore, move and attune together.”
Thank you for your lovely vision of our festival! What are you most looking forward to yourself?
“There’s so much I’m looking forward to. Especially to the feeling of really being present in the space. We often talk about ‘presence’, but it also means the ability to experience what is going on to the full. I want to be really present there, along with my team. Genuine encounters, joy and a moment of hope. Dance offers that possibility: hope and reimagining. My expectations are high.”
Want to take part too? There’s still time to register for Out of the Toolbox on the website.
- 20-24 August 2025
- Dok Noord, Ghent
- outofthetoolbox.be