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Open CALL : Shape-it LAB (Creating for young audiences)

Shape It Logo 2OPEN CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS : Online LAB on 19th-22nd April 2021 11am-3pm CET

Shape It is a project which aims to broaden the audience for contemporary dance in Europe. We are doing this by inviting early career dance makers in Europe to consider how an existing performance can be reconsidered for an audience of young people. Through development labs, residencies and over the next 18 months, we will support artists to reimagine the audience for their work. Together, through the partnerships we build, the conversations we have, and the audiences we meet, we seek to model a new approach to developing dance for young people.
Shape It is delivered by a partnership of The Place (UK), Annantalo (Finland), Comune di Bassano del Grappa (Italy) and Tanec Praha (Czech Republic) and funded by Creative Europe.

Shape-It LAB
Over four afternoons of talks, discussions and activities this LAB will connect the Project Artists Viktor Černický and Linda Hayford and a selected number of local artists from the four participating countries. The Shape It LAB offers a creative exchange opportunity for artists who have not yet created or presented work to children. Through speakers, bespoke workshops and conversation the participants will be facilitated through exchanges focused on understanding this audience and exploring themes of social complexity, representation and appropriate digital engagement. An aim of the experience is to allow a window into the possibilities of creating work for children and young people and encouraging more makers to consider this avenue.

Shape-it LAB is for artists who: 
- Have been creating performance work in a professional setting for a minimum of 3 years (occasionally less experienced artists are included) 
- Are based in the UK, Italy, Czech Republic or Finland 
- Have an idea for research or a piece that would be aimed at family audiences with children (this can be new work or adaptation of existing work)
- Are working with any kind of performance with movement at the core 
- Will be ready to share some of their ideas with us as part of the LAB 
- Can demonstrate how the LAB will benefit them as an artist 
- Are ambitious to challenge themselves, their peers and us 

In this project we cannot support: 
- Undergraduates 
- Those based outside the UK, Italy, Czech Republic or Finland  
- Artists with less than 3 years experience of making work
- Artists with a track record of making work for young audiences  

How do we select participants? 
From the applications we’ll invite a small number of artists for an informal conversation with us before we are able to offer out the place in the LAB. This selection is carried out by a team of producers who work at The Place, Annantalo, Comune di Bassano del Grappa and Tanec Praha. We are looking for all kinds of new ideas from many different areas of dance and choreography.

Deadline for applications:  23rd March 2021
Apply here for Shape-it Lab (for Italian-based artists only. Shall you be based in the UK, Czech Republic or Finland please check the partners' websites).

Ph.Tout Petit - 'Light' at The Place, 2019. Photo by Rob Greig

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