The Welcoming dinner guest

Duration: May/July

Physical Mobility: 09/13 July 2022

​Hosting Organisation: Rosto Solidário – Associação de Desenvolvimento Social e Humano

Hosting Country: Portugal
​Participating Partners: Alytaus muzikos mokykla (10 people)

Asociacion cultural y medioambiental Permacultura Cantabria (8 people)

Associazione Culturale Valeria Martina (7 people)

Cross Culture International Foundation Cyprus Ltd (11 people)

Europe for Diversity Culture and Coexistence (10 people)

Foundation Art and Culture (8 people)

​Participating learners: artists, students, adults, refugees and migrants included, from Adult Education Centers and partner organizations

Other occasional participants: stakeholders, external people involved as experts

Description: “The Welcoming Dinner Guest” physical mobility took place in Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal, from the 09th to the 13th July 2022, counting on the participation of the 7 Erasmus+ KA204 I-TALES project partners: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Spain and the Portuguese hosting group of staff and learners, composed of local artists and migrants living in the host town.

The physical part of the blended mobility was preceded by the labs that each partner organized with local learners, following the virtual exchange of ideas, proposals and collaborations among partners. Each one was responsible for developing a theatrical presentation inspired by the theme of the chapter treated in this phase of the project, promoting an exchange of abilities in the creation of ceramic pieces traditional to each culture, and rewriting the lyrics of a Portuguese traditional song using words in their own languages.

The process culminated in the meeting in Santa Maria da Feira, where all participants (54 + 10 Portuguese team members) had the chance to take part in a Music workshop, designed to bring together the efforts ach group had made on their own regarding “Ó Rama, ó que linda Rama”, a Ceramics workshop, for the creation of a common piece representing the I-TALES logo using the traditional Portuguese tiles, and a Theatre/Movement workshop, aimed at including each national team in the theatrical presentation prepared by the Portuguese group, linking all creations developed for the previous phases in the one single narrative it was designed to be since the beginning. 

During the workshops the participants "blended" by working together, so giving the mobility its deepest meaning/goal, a communion of people different in linguistic and cultural identity who share and spread common values: dialogue, mutual understanding, intercultural integration, refuse of hate speech and racist attitudes, will to live in a Europe that doesn't build walls but opens its doors.

The final event had at its core the full “The Arrival Journey” acted out by the Portuguese group together with each of the partner teams, and followed with each international group’s contribution regarding the topic “The Welcoming dinner guest”, using musical, dance and theatrical languages, mainly. The event closed with the international and multilingual version of “Ó Rama, ó que linda Rama”, a song dedicated to something as simple and pure as what brings people together when they finally realize there’s not as much keeping us apart as there is bringing us together: an olive branch, symbol of hard working humble people and universal symbol of peace. The one all people in the world need and our projects aims to promote within each of our participants and the ones that somehow are touched by it.