Dance Umbrella Residency Programme
We want to host a ten-day contemporary choreography residency during the festival for 10 young dance creators. We will offer young artists a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to discover, experience and enjoy contemporary dance on all levels.
– Develop Artistic Direction and the creation of outstanding dance performances by the selected young
choreographers.
– Enable the sustainability of free expression through contemporary dance by building capacity for the
Contemporary Dance Community.Offering dance practitioners from the contemporary dance sector in
Southern Africa an opportunity to work within a creative and secure structure.
– Offering dance practitioners from the contemporary dance sector in Southern Africa an opportunity to work
within a creative and secure structure.
– Creating and developing appreciation for new and diverse forms of artistic expression.
– Filling the current gap in the capacity to manage artistic expression from the regions and connecting them with
the main leaders of dance in South Africa.
Primary Objectives:
– To work with and train young selected choreographers to a level that will give them the tools to create and perform
contemporary dance work to an international standard
– To give the participants an opportunity to attend master classes and to attend the Dance Umbrella.
– To give young choreographers an opportunity to access space and create work within a secure environment and
administrative assistance.
– Sustainable long term dance development for artists who are working towards working on a professional level.
– Create synergy between contemporary dance and other art forms and media (film, visual art, literature, physical
theatre, poetry, music)
– Create youth empowerment through the programmes.
– Give the participants an opportunity to improve their life skills as well as develop their own dance expression.
– Exporting South African contemporary dance creations to an international market via Dance Umbrella.
Secondary Objectives:
– Create an opportunity for young choreographers to refine their tools.
– Give them the opportunity to experiment with dance and choreography focusing on their choices and patterns of life.
– Build new audiences through inviting people to attend the outcome of the residency and performances.
– Build appreciation of the arts, and performance and creative skills in under-resourced people of South Africa.
– To give the participants the opportunity to show their work within the structure of Dance Umbrella.
Methodology
Training is incorporated into residency programmes and conducted through practice rather than theory. Dance Forum will assist the process.
Offer the artists the assistance to work and create within the Dance Space.
Implementation Plan: Residency Programme at Dance Space
a) Invite applications for the Residency Programme which will be assessed by a group of dance professionals.
b) Select a maximum of twelve young choreographers.
The selected choreographers will be invited to a ten-day residency in the Dance Space.
The outcome will be presented at the Dance Umbrella final programme.
Target Groups: This residency programme will focus on:
We will ensure that the selected dance creators are interested in furthering their careers as choreographers as well as creating relationships within their own community to create a more sustainable environment.
Giving the young choreographers as much assistance as possible in their time in the Dance Space, ensuring they come out of the process with new ideas and tools to creating work.
Specific results:
Continue working with the group of young choreographers who have been in residency and assist them to continue creating.
Give the participants new ways of creating work. This will include:
– choreography, multi-media, composition and film.
– Give participants the opportunity of working within a professional structure to ensure they gain new ways of creating work.
Give the participants the opportunity to create a new work that will be presented at the Dance Umbrella as well as in their regions.
Show young dance practitioners ways of working within a environment that is not secure in the long run, but assist them to see alternative ways of creating a more sustainable way to work as artists.
Ultimately we will assist at least twelve choreographers, thirty dancers, twelve technicians and the Dance community in general to be able to work within a supported infrastructure and learn various aspects of the industry on another level. The experience can be taken back to their communities and the Dance Forum will continue to assist the artists in their endeavours.
THE TARGET PARTICIPANT:
A stronger connection with the dance community in general will be fostered. Dance Forum works closely with the dance community thus engaging with its target audience. Passion for the arts is very specific to a dance maker.
EXPOSURE and MEDIA COVERAGE:
Extensive media coverage will be the aim. The Dance Umbrella is already a well-know ‘brand’ and the media are keenly interested. Past festivals have garnered Print Media Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) rates of +- R7, 000,000.00 and coupled with extensive social media coverage the exposure is massive. Invitations will be sent to all local media (from all over South Africa) to write and/or review. During the festival media briefings could be held every two days or so where the artists who presented their work the previous night can speak/debate about their work.
LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL EXPOSURE (in the dance industry):
Tthe Dance Umbrella festival is an internationally renowned event that has attracted international programmers to attend for more than ten years. The intention would be to further foster that interest from international programmers to discover the uniqueness of South African dance with a touch of other African and European companies; the programmers see all the work presented and results in many of the South African choreographers and dancers being invited to festivals overseas, which in turn results in international careers for some. With up to as many as 15 programmes on the Festival one is assured that work being presented is unique and of an international standard and, most importantly, creates a space for young, emerging choreographers.
THE LOCAL COMPONENT:
Connecting with schools: special block booking packages will be set up for schools; connecting with the township dance communities – making them part of the event by creating programmes that will take place in the townships. These programmes would include Hip Hop, Pantsula etc and will enable the communities more access to the arts.
‘APPRECIATION’
This connection would automatically heighten the audiences involvement” with arts and culture and will be seen as having done the ‘right (good) thing’ by assisting the Dance Umbrella. This is of importance to the wider dance community. This is a very strong feature that can transform the attitudes of general festival audiences towards the arts in general. This in turn will enhance the value of the sponsorship – this is an “influence’ that is not usually generated from other forms of the more traditional marketing communications. The ‘gratitude’/appreciation of the local Dance community regarding this ‘connection’, should it come about, cannot be underestimated – our dance audiences are always emotionally engaged with such ‘partnerships’ in the arts.
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