Australia-India Dance Exchange
In late 2019, selected Victorian dancers and dance film makers will take part in a six-week residency in Kolkata India.
Image by Jennifer Kishan: 'Caitlin' 2019 (Light Ladd and Emberton, for Pickle Dance Foundation, Calcutta)
Asialink Arts and The Pickle Factory will select two artists, a dancer and dance on film artist (or videographer), to jointly undertake a creative exchange residency with the Pickle Factory Dance Foundation in Kolkata from late October – mid December 2019.
Artists will experience a period of sustained engagement with their own practice in a context that poses global questions of connection and disconnection. Additionally, in ways relevant to their respective practices, both artists will engage with the local creative community fostered by Pickle Factory through unique community engagement models.
The selected dancer will work with the Pickle Factory and the local dance community to test ideas, collaborate, and experiment with new work and models of audience engagement over the course of the residency. The possibility of working with a small group of local movement artists to devise work in non-formal spaces and situations has been provided as an example of the type of engagement desired.
The film maker will create a film documenting the experience and will also have the opportunity to work with the Jadavpur University digital dance archive. Workshops about documenting and filming movement are proposed.
By embedding the creation of a film about the project Asialink Arts and the Pickle Factory hope to document the unique and the unexpected and create an artwork that endures, capturing the more ephemeral project elements and ideas developed and tested whilst in Kolkata.
Residency activities will be part of Pickle Factory’s Season Two in November 2019. This program has previously included performances, talks, workshops, dance in public spaces and exhibitions. Specifically, it is requested that both artists engage with a proposed site-specific work entitled INTERSECTIONS that is scheduled to take place intermittently between October and December. Pickle Factory will also arrange the opportunity for internal travel to work and collaborate with other creative communities in the region.
What will be provided
A grant of AUD$8,000 to each artist which is intended to cover airfares, ground travel in India and daily living expenses for six weeks.
Pickle Factory will provide accommodation in Kolkata, production support and connections with local creative communities.
Key Dates
- Submissions are due by 5pm May 24, 2019 and will be assessed by a curatorium of choreographers and dance producers.
- Project activity in Kolkata occurs across approximately six weeks between late October and mid-December 2019.
- The film outcome is to be completed within six weeks of the residency, ready for presentation and screening in multiple platforms from February 2020.
The Asialink Arts/Pickle Factory Dance Foundation Partnership
Together, the Pickle Factory Dance Foundation and Asialink Arts wish to strengthen the connection and exchange in the arts between Australian and India, and especially with Kolkata, a city with a history of cultural and artistic ferment. This initiative of Asialink Arts is designed to foster collaborative and cross disciplinary art making, site-specificity and artistic resilience.
- Asialink Arts’ collaboration with the Pickle Factory builds a platform for Victorian Artists
- To experiment with and expand their body of work in an international setting
- To engage global audiences with Australian work
- To participate in workshops and training involving local, national and international practitioners
- To engage with a diversity of perspectives and develop close and rewarding international partnerships
- To create & implement stimulating programs that develop interested audiences.
Applications have now closed. Please direct all enquires to (03) 8344 4800.
This project and Asialink Arts are supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.