Four of Scotland’s leading dance organisations, Citymoves Dance Agency, Dance Base Scotland, Dundee Rep & Scottish Dance Theatre and Tramway, teamed up again for #LoveDanceScotland Recovery Bursaries, a unique programme of support for artists as they return to their practice post-lockdown. These four can now announce the names of the twelve dance artists bursary recipients of a total fund of £70,000.
The support highlights the importance of working in partnership and enabling artists to take the lead by designing their own recovery programme in this nationwide programme of in-kind and financial support for Scotland-based professional dance artists, providing the time and space for them to re-engage with their creative practice after the challenge of the last 18 months.
Artists receiving the Bursary, devising and delivering a project either digitally or in-person will take place between October and January 2022 with each project involving an element of audience engagement to help artists, audiences and venues reconnect.
Joan Clevillé, Artistic Director of Scottish Dance Theatre said: “We are delighted to be working again with other dance organisations in Scotland to support the independent dance community. By collaborating and pooling our resources and expertise together, we want to support artists at this critical stage of reconnecting with audiences and their own practice. For me, the breadth of artists and practices supported by the programme is a real testimony to the richness and vibrancy of the dance ecology in Scotland.”
The twelve winning artists are Andre Anderson who will presents a new, interactive, performance aimed at children under the age of 5: Playing Together; Aniela Piasecka shares her work-in-progress, developing spatial strategies with two Scottish dance artists and sculptor Paloma Proudfoot; Dance Ihayami and Priya Shrikumar present A Happy Namaste that sees them working with older Asian women to explore key moments in their migration to the UK; Grace Turner with TurnAround Dance Theatre present REignite, an aerial dance and theatre piece focussing on how the pandemic has affected women’s views on their safety.
Jack Webb will be engaging in a 4-week solo project that focusses on the return to the dancing body as a choreographer and dancer; Jemma Stein plans to work with 3 other artists from across Scotland on the theme of coming home, with the project also involving workshops and developing new work; Jenna Corker is interested in the barriers in nature and between urban and natural spaces and will be working with pianist and composer Carla Sayers and actor and lecturer Stephanie Arsoka; KAM-RI Dance Theatre continue their digital and live preparation KILL ‘EM WITH LOVE – The Fury of ARI UP of THE SLITS to make it tour-ready with digital iterations.
Robbie Synge, based in Nethy Bridge in Badenoch & Strathspey, will be spending time moving and working with cameras on his own as well; Skye Reynolds plans to continue developing the ideas that arose whilst creating her site-responsive, family-friendly piece called #trolleyscores and saints; Tess Letham focuses on improvisational performance and will invite a collective of dancers to work collaboratively to share and discover each other’s practices; White & Givan, will continue to progress their creative practice in the development of their new creation Grace, allowing time to maintain a high level of integrity.
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 