“Mat Iech” is the title of a project launched in 2022, which embodies Elisabeth Schilling & Company’s passion for outreach and awareness-building. Today, this project has become an essential programme within the company Making Dances asbl, aiming to create a more flexible format that focuses on mediation and interaction, while preserving the performative aspect. It enables the presentation of Elisabeth’s larger-scale works to a different audience — one that does not have access to performances held in theatres or cultural institutions where these works are usually staged. The goal is to make dance accessible to a wide audience in diverse ways.

“Mat Iech” is structured around two key components:

• Mediation: For each production, the company develops tailor-made programmes designed to support a range of audience experiences. These programmes include post-performance discussions based on Elisabeth’s core methodology, as well as workshops, symposiums, and the publication of catalogues.

• Accessibility: “Mat Iech” brings the world of dance to two groups of people who are especially important to Elisabeth: on the one hand, children — regardless of age, background, language, or life path — and on the other, individuals who, due to financial, social, geographical, or health reasons, are no longer able to attend theatre performances.

The company’s vision is to offer performances — ideally with live music — accompanied by workshops and talks, in or around care homes, socially disadvantaged neighborhoods, hospitals, isolated rural areas, kindergartens, schools, and homes for particularly vulnerable children. These bespoke events are highly flexible and can be adapted to meet the specific needs of the institutions and their residents. For each performance, the team designs a customised workshop structure, taking into account the participants’ needs and age groups, and adjusts it based on the venue and duration.

Supported for two consecutive years as a project, “Mat Iech” has proven its value through the quality of its approach and the commitment of its contributors, notably an artist with whom a relationship of trust and long-term collaboration has been built. The educational component of the programme has shown strong relevance and yielded positive results in institutions working with children and young people in difficulty in Luxembourg, which has strengthened the Foundation’s commitment to continuing the partnership.

Thanks to this renewed support, the company will be able to ensure the sustainability of “Mat Iech” through 2027, organising one to two tours per year in specialised institutions. This funding will also help consolidate the project’s administrative structure, notably through the recruitment of a dedicated coordinator, responsible, among other things, for organising the logistics of the tours.