Dear Friends, Practitioners, Scholars, Advocates, and Supporters of Dance World Wide,

This is a message of hope and aspiration.

As the world reels under the Covid-19 pandemic, we are all confronted with having to adapt to new-normal amidst great challenges to our dance community. Natural disasters such as the Amphan cyclone in South Asia, the bushfires in Brazil and Australia, the global Covid-19 pandemic continue to pose great uncertainties, destroying precious lives and livelihood, causing our robust economies to form into trickles, affecting the arts industry to reach an unprecedented low point.

Nonetheless, our resilience in responding to such calamities has been exceptional, as we engage our dance communities to adapt to the ever-changing landscapes. Our myriad backgrounds and culturally diverse communities have been our greatest reservoir of talent pools for our creative endeavors, time tested and fastidiously honored.

As an independent, non-profit, non-political organization that promotes the recognition, development and mutual understanding of all forms of dance, WDA stands as a united community against all forms of racial inequality, ethnic hegemony and cultural superiority. Dance is Life and lives lived in inequality matter.

Professor Mohd Anis Md Nor, PhD

Secretary General

World Dance Alliance

2019 International Young Choreographer Project Announcement

Eight choreographers have been selected for the 2019 International Young Choreographer Project. Congratulations to the following artists:

1. Emma Fishwick (Australia, WDA Asia Pacific)
2. Lau Beh Chin (Malaysia, WDA Asia Pacific)
3. Visaka Saeui (Thailand, WDA Asia Pacific)
4. J’Sun Howard (USA, WDA Americas)
5. Nikita Korotkiov (Slovak, WDA Europe)
6. Chun-Yu Lin (Taiwan)
7. Yung-Chen Yeh (Taiwan)
8. Pei-Shan Hsieh (Taiwan)

The total activity will be from June 30^th to July 21^st. Dancers audition is on June 30^th, and the rehearsal will start immediately after, ending with the performances are on July 20^th and July 21^st. The venue of the rehearsal and the performance are in the studios and the Experimental Theater at the Tsoying High School, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.

For more information, please contact 2019 IYCP Project Office: dance30@email.tyhs.edu.tw or dance@email.tyhs.edu.tw

Download the announcement of mandarin version

Want a shot at having your short films to be shown at a film festival on October 25th in London? Apply now! Our deadline for submissions is AUGUST 25th.

Project Trans(m)it is now accepting submissions for “Trans(m)it: Movement in Film.” Film submissions under 15 minutes are welcome, specifically works exploring the human body and/or movement in short films. All film styles – documentary, short story, animation, etc – will be considered, with an open mind of what “movement” espouses.

Link to submit: https://filmfreeway.com/festival/transmit

2017 International Young Choreographer Project Announcement

Eight choreographers have been selected for the 2017 International Young Choreographer Project. Congratulations to the following artists:

Scott Ewen (Australia, WDA Asia Pacific)
Tamaki Mizuno (Japan, WDA Asia Pacific)
Mohd Fauzi bin Amirudin (Malaysia, WDA Asia Pacific)
Yeajean Choi (WDA Americas)
Jan Möllmer (Germany, WDA Europe)
Hsin-I Huang (Taiwan)
Tien-Chiang Ku (Taiwan)
Lin-Yi Chien (Taiwan)

The total activity will be from July 2 nd to July 23 rd. Dancers audition is on July 2 nd , and the rehearsal will start immediately after, ending with the performances are on July 22 nd and July 23 rd. The venue of the rehearsal and the performance are in the studios and the Experimental Theater at the Tsoying High School, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.

For more information, please contact 2017 IYCP Project Office: dance30@email.tyhs.edu.tw or dance@email.tyhs.edu.tw

CHOROEGRAPHIC OPPORTUNITY IN TAIWAN –

Working with eight choreographers in July 2017 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Three to four choreographers recommended by WDA–Asian Pacific, one choreographer recommended by WDA-America, and one from Europe will be selected to attend the Young Choreographer Project in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. An additional three to four Taiwanese choreographers will also be selected to join the event. The funding is supported by National Endowment of Arts of Taiwan, Bureau Culture Affairs of Kaohsiung City Government, and the Chin-Lin Foundation for Culture and Arts in Taiwan. The project is located in the city of Kaohsiung, south of Taiwan. The tentative dates for the 2017 event are from July 2nd to July 23rd, with two performances taking place in the main stage of the theatre in the campus of Tsoying High School from July 22nd to 23rd.

Choreographers will be selected from lists of names recommended by WDA (Asian Pacific, America and Europe) country delegates. The deadline for the recommendation from each country delegate is January 20th with all documents required sent to Taiwan. Once selected, housing, local transportation, dancers, studios, publicity, production and office assistance will be offered. An honorarium will also be provided: US $800 for choreographers from Asian Pacific area and US $1,200 for choreographers from America and Europe. Participants are responsible for airfare and local transportation between the airport and the site..

The selected choreographers will set their dance on dancers who will be selected in Taiwan. It is recommended that only young choreographers who feel they can meet the challenges of producing a work under unfamiliar circumstances (and with unfamiliar dancers) should apply. The panel in each country and in Taiwan will also be making their selections based on the choreographer’s potential to become a significant contributor to the field in the future.

Each WDA (Asian Pacific, America and Europe) office will facilitate the selection process in its own country. The selection panel will be WDA network chair(s). Expressions of interest should address the following points:

1. What you would gain from a professional experience such as this?
2. Why you would like to work in Asia?
3. A brief concept of your work
4. A 200-word autobiography and a resume/CV

If you are short listed, you will be required to submit WDA (Asian Pacific, America and Europe) a link to an online video (YouTube or Vimeo) of a work sample of your recent choreography, either with a single dance piece or several excerpts (less than 20 minutes). You may also be invited to send up to three photos of your work, which is not compulsory, but will give WDA (Asian Pacific, America and Europe) selection board more ideas about your choreography.

Expressions of interest should BE EMAILED to the WDA (Asian Pacific, America and Europe) office of each country by January 10.

Choreographers list who are recommended by the WDA (Asian Pacific, America and Europe) will be sent to Taiwan Office by February 3rd. The result of the final selection will be announced by February 24, 2017 on the WDA-AP website at http://www.wda-ap.org and also through a letter from the office in Taiwan.  Download Registration Form

For information about the International Young Choreography Project, please visit http://www.wda-ap.org or contact the Project Office at Tso’s Dance Association (email:dance30@email.tyhs.edu.tw).

Mailing address:

Director/Ms. Su-ling Chou

Dance Division of Tsoying High School

55, Hai-gong Rd., Tsoying, Kaohsiung 813, Taiwan

World Dance Alliance Global Summit July 23–28, 2017

School of Music at Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland

Dancing from the Grassroots

CALL FOR SCHOLARLY PRESENTATIONS, MASTER CLASSES, AND PERFORMANCES

The deadline for all proposals is December 1, 2016

The 2017 World Dance Alliance Global Summit turns its focus to Dancing from the Grassroots to explore the ways in which grassroots dancing also counters, resists, supports and negotiates formations of power. Important links have been made between grassroots movements and social change. Grassroots dancing (interwoven with music and performance) can also be viewed in this activist sense as generating social change. From this perspective, examining the principles and practices of grassroots dancing through historical and contemporary lenses is important and crucial to understanding how and why the social moves.

Across Canada and in many parts of the globe, grassroots dancing is ubiquitous and diverse. Dancing from the grassroots—as self-governed, amateur, participatory, community-based: local, translocal and virtual—can be a public source of pleasure, inclusion, social networking, health and wellbeing, and intergenerational community building. Yet at differing times and places grassroots dancing has gone underground to avoid condemnation. What can a look at dancing from the grassroots tell us about how to sustain a movement, sustain an alternative idea and see it through to mainstream acceptance?

The selection committee seeks proposals that address the Summit’s broad and inclusive theme of Dancing from the Grassroots. We encourage submissions that explore the impacts, roles, and contributions of grassroots dancing. Recognizing this heterogenous group of organizations, which reaches into the domains of health and wellbeing, life course and ageing, social/activist movements, aesthetics, economics, education, and the environment, is a rich site for researching issues pertinent to the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, we invite scholars trained in a diverse range of [inter]disciplinary fields to make visible the contributions and impacts of grassroots dancing through research. These related fields might include (but are not be limited to) dance, theatre and performance studies, anthropology, kinesiology, cognitive science, equity studies, music, social work, medicine, life sciences, and gerontology.

This Summit will celebrate these groups, who continue to present innovative and daring work, by showcasing them along with international artists who are also transforming practices to further stimulate creativity and push boundaries by exploring new ideas both at home and abroad.

Topics and questions to consider:

• The role of grassroots dancing in life course and ageing/heath and wellbeing/biopolitics and neurotypicality.
• The small and large scale economic impacts of grassroots dancing paid and unpaid labour, tourism, volunteerism, donations, costs and in-kind donations for rehearsal space and costumes, etc.
• Theorizing the relationship between music, dance, performance Processes of creativity, imagination, and improvisation.
• Heritage, tradition, indigenous dance: How have amateur grassroots dance organizations transformed into professional paid employment in dance historically?
• What can the presence of grassroots dancing tell us about the larger economic and political climate of support for dance?
• What can processes of inclusion/exclusion/trans in grassroots dancing tell us about nation/nationalism, identity, colonial/postcolonial, sex, gender, abelism, ageism, race, ethnicity, and religion, etc.? How does grassroots dancing speak to issues of copyright and property rights?
• Social movement/social change: What are the principles and processes of organizing grassroots dancing in terms of leadership and sustainability? Why are some grassroots dancing initiatives so successful at sustaining themselves? What can such groups teach us about sustainability and social change? How are new information and communication technologies impacting grassroots dancing for individuals and/or communities: local, translocal, and virtual? What can grassroots dancing teach us about coalition building?

Submission requirements:

Proposals can be submitted in English, French or Spanish within the following formats: scholarly papers, pecha kucha presentations, panel discussions, master classes, performances in diverse spaces, and choreolabs. Interested individuals or groups may submit a maximum of two proposals in differing areas for the Global Summit. For example, an individual might propose both a paper presentation and a master class, but not two papers.

DEADLINE: The deadline for all proposals is December 1, 2016

Please note: In order to present in any of the formats at the conference, all participants must first become members of WDA, before their submissions will be reviewed. To become a member of WDA Americas, applicants can access the Membership site at http://www.wdaamericas.net/. Membership in other regions is available through your local WDA chapter and/or your national dance association.

Details about the various performance spaces and lecture halls at the conference site will be available on the WDAA website after November 1, 2016.

Papers and panel proposals:

All proposals may be submitted and delivered in English, French or Spanish. Individual scholarly presentations should be no more than 20 minutes with an additional 10 minutes available for questions and discussion. Groups of three or more individual presenters may propose a panel presentation of no more than 70 minutes total with 20 minutes additional time available for questions and discussion. Those intending to present solely in French or Spanish should indicate this on their application. There will be some translators available to assist with translation; however, these services cannot be guaranteed.

• Individual presentation proposals should be no more than 250 words in length.
• Proposals for organized panels require a 150-word description of the panel theme in addition to the individual abstracts submitted as a single document (100 word maximum).
• Proposals must be accompanied by the following information: each presenter’s name, title, institutional affiliation (if applicable), mailing address, e-mail address, and a brief bio of no more than 150 words.
• Proposals are due by December 1, 2016 and must be sent as a .doc or .docx file via e-mail to Linda Caldwell (lcaldwell2@twu.edu). Acceptances will be sent by February 15, 2017.

Pecha Kucha Presentations:

Pecha Kucha is a presentation format in which 20 slides are timed to be shown each for 20 seconds (no more than 7 minutes total). Scholars who have developed a strong research focus but are in the beginning processes of writing and presenting their research are encouraged to present in this format. This format is especially good for graduate students wanting to clarify research purpose statements and gather feedback and possible insights from other researchers. Initial submissions are in the form of a 250-word abstract in either English, French or Spanish in which the topic, methodology and importance of the research to the dance field is summarized.

• Proposals must be accompanied by the following information: each presenter’s name, title, institutional affiliation (if applicable), mailing address, e-mail address, a brief bio of no more than 150 words in English, French, or Spanish.
• Proposals are due by December 1, 2016 and must be sent as a .doc or .docx file via e-mail to Linda Caldwell (lcaldwell2@twu.edu. Acceptances will be sent by February 15, 2017. If selected, more detailed instructions on the Pecha Kucha format will be provided on the WDAA website after February 15, 2017.

Master class proposals:

Master classes provide conference participants with an opportunity to experience the expertise of selected teachers in terms of dance practice and dance making.

• Master classes are 90 minutes in length. Master class proposals should be no more than 250 words in length and can be submitted in English, French, or Spanish. Please note that the Global Summit facilities cannot guarantee specialized equipment (mats, physio balls, etc.) for use in classes. Details about music technology will be provided at a later date.
• Proposals must be accompanied by the following information: presenter’s name, title, institutional affiliation (if applicable), mailing address, e-mail address, and a brief bio of no more than 150 words.
• Proposals are due by December 1, 2016 and must be sent as a .doc or .docx file via e-mail to Ann Kipling Brown (ann.kipling-brown@uregina.ca). Acceptances will be sent by February 15, 2017.

Choreolab proposals:

Choreographic labs (choreolabs) are intended to provide a forum for choreographers to work collaboratively to create a work on selected conference participants within three 2-hour daily rehearsals (auditions and first rehearsal on July 24 with the final work or work-in-progress presented on July 28) in a site-specific space scheduled in consultation with the conference organizers. All rehearsals for the site-specific work should take place at the site. Choreographers/ dancers should prepare for all types of weather. Each work should fall within a minimum of 3 minutes or a maximum of 10 minutes. Preference will be given to the creation of new works.

• Proposals should include a description of the intended project and an explanation of methods in no more than 200 words. Each proposal must clearly state how the project can be accomplished in the limited time frame available and within a site-specific environment.
• Proposals may be submitted in English, French or Spanish.
• Each proposal must be accompanied by the following information: choreographer’s name, phone number, institutional affiliation (if appropriate), mailing address, e-mail address, and a bio of no more than 150 words.
• We suggest applicants submit a link to an online video (YouTube or Vimeo) of a work sample or the work to be reset (minimum of 3 minutes).
• Proposals are due by December 1, 2016 and must be sent as a .doc or .docx file via e-mail to Falon Baltzell (baltzelldance@gmail.com). Acceptances will be sent by February 15, 2017.

Performance Proposals:

• Accepted works will be performed once at locations determined by the selection committee (may be site-specific or on a recital hall stage with limited lighting availability). If the proposed choreography must be produced on stage or in a studio, the dance cannot exceed 12 minutes. Site-specific dances may be longer as long as a clear explanation of procedures and audience expectations are provided.
• Proposals for performance of each choreographic work or of a representative work must be submitted on YouTube or Vimeo. If submitting representative work, please also provide a brief statement of 200 words or less (in English, French or Spanish) describing the proposed performance including length and number of performers.
• Performance proposals must be accompanied by the following information in English, French or Spanish: each primary presenter’s name, title, institutional affiliation (if applicable), mailing address, e-mail address, and a brief bio of no more than 150 words.
• Proposals with YouTube or Vimeo links are due by December 1, 2016 and must be sent as a .doc or .docx file via e-mail to Melissa Sanderson (melissa.n.sanderson@gmail.com). Acceptances will be sent by February 15, 2017.

Digital Dance Concert:

The World Dance Alliance Americas will run its third annual WDA Digital Dance Concert, a double-blind reviewed online presentation of videoed choreographies and dance films created specifically for the camera. The Digital Dance Concert aims to offer a virtual platform for choreographers, companies, and dance filmmakers to present, promote, and disseminate their work. Selected dance-for-camera works will be featured online through a digital dance concert format on the WDA-A website. Select works will also be presented at the 2017 World Dance Alliance Global Summit at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada – July 23-28, 2017. Please visit the following WDA-A website link for details about video submissions: http://www.wda-americas.net/wda-projects/digital-danceconcert/ digital-dance-concert-application-process/.