Keir Choreographic Award calls for entries

Rebecca Jensen, semi-finalist of the 2016 Keir Choreographic Award. Photo by Gregory Lorenzutti, courtesy of Dancehouse.The Keir Foundation, Carriageworks and Dancehouse have opened the call for entries and announced the high-profile international jury for the 2018 Keir Choreographic Award. The biennial competition, dedicated to the commission, presentation, promotion and dissemination of new Australian choreography, will accept entries until August 11, 2017 for the third edition of the Keir Choreographic Award, to be presented in March 2018.

 

Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and launched in 2014 as Australia’s first major choreographic award, the Keir Choreographic Award looks to identify and illuminate experimental choreographic practices occurring in the Australian context today.

 

The 2018 jury that is tasked with the responsibility to decide which artists will be offered one of the eight new commissions includes: Anna Cy Chan, the head of dance and performing arts of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority in Hong Kong; local dance icon Lucy Guerin; Ishmael Houston-Jones, an American choreographer, author, performer and curator; Eszter Salamon, a Hungarian choreographer, dancer and performer; Christophe Slagmuylder, artistic director of international arts festival Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels; and Meg Stuart, acclaimed Brussels-based American choreographer and dancer.

 

The Keir Choreographic Award Public Program brings together panellists, guests and workshop leaders, and runs concurrently with the performance season, providing a vital context for related and relevant discourse, reflection and debate.

 

For the third edition of the Award, eight finalists will once again be selected by the jury to present their work at Melbourne’s Dancehouse on March 6–10, 2018. Then four will be chosen to go on to a season at Carriageworks in Sydney from March 15–17, 2018 to compete for the Award. 

 

The eight selected artists for 2018 will compete for the $30,000 Award and the $10,000 Audience Choice Award. The Keir Choreographic Award was presented to Melbourne-based artist Atlanta Eke in 2014 and to Sydney-based Torres Strait Islander choreographer and performer Ghenoa Gela in 2016. 

 

In making the announcement, Keir Choreographic Award Founder Phillip Keir stated, “It has been really satisfying to see the impact that these award commissions have had on past participants. I’m especially delighted to see the development of the eventual works that began as KCA commissions.”

 

Carriageworks Director Lisa Havilah commented, “Supporting artists to make new work is at the heart of the Carriageworks Artistic Program. Carriageworks is excited to again be partnering with Dancehouse, the Australia Council for the Arts and The Keir Foundation to support experimentation in Australian choreography.”

 

Dancehouse Artistic Director Angela Conquet said, “Dancehouse is very proud to announce the third incarnation of the Keir Choreographic Award (KCA). KCA has assumed a significant and dynamic place in the Australian dance landscape. It offers eight artists the time and space to create and present a fully funded new work, a remarkable context in which to engage with international perspectives and an opportunity to connect with new and ever expanding audiences for dance in Australia.”

 

Conquet continued, “With the KCA Public Program, Dancehouse is extremely committed to introducing an array of outstanding thinkers and practitioners to both the dance field and the community at large and thus provides a context to consider the deep, subtle ways in which dance, with its multiplicity of choreographed and embodied practices, connects to the social, the ethical and the political. The KCA is today an unmissable national mini festival, assembling an inspiring and diverse community of artists, international guests, audiences, and local and national stakeholders.”

 

The entry requirements for the Award call for professional artists with an established practice to enter by submitting a five-minute video pitch for a choreographic idea of 20 minutes in duration. The Keir Choreographic Award jury will assess the initial video applications and the eight short-listed works will be provided with commissioning funds to realise their idea. Each of the eight new works will be presented at Dancehouse where the jury will then select four works to go on and be presented at Carriageworks. The jury will deliberate for a second time having viewed the final works in a new space. The recipient of the 2018 Keir Choreographic Award will be announced along with the Audience Award on the closing night of the Carriageworks season. 

 

Participants can enter the competition by downloading and reading the full application, with regulations available at www.carriageworks.com.au or www.dancehouse.com.au.

 

KEY DATES AND DETAILS:

 

Submissions Close: August 11, 2017

 

Commissioned Choreographers Announced: October 3, 2017

 

Semi-Finals at Dancehouse, Melbourne: March 6–10, 2018

 

Finals at Carriageworks, Sydney: March 15–17, 2018

 

Photo: Rebecca Jensen, semi-finalist of the 2016 Keir Choreographic Award. Photo by Gregory Lorenzutti, courtesy of Dancehouse.