NEXT FEST NW: TOTAL CHAOS

Applications Due | APR 4 at 11:59 PM

Velocity Dance Center is proud to announce a call for three experimental performance artists from the Pacific Northwest Region to research and premiere a new, 20 minute work in Next Fest NW: Total Chaos. Selected artists will be paid $1000 to be Artists in Residence at Seattle Festival of Dance + Improvisation where they will research for one week and show their work in an informal showing at the end of their residency. The artists will also receive a $2000 stipend to premiere their work over two weekends in Seattle in December of 2024.

Next Fest NW is a Velocity Residency Program that supports two Seattle based artists and one artist from the greater PNW region. Contextualized by a new theme every year, this residency program incubates and presents new experimental dance and performance works in our region by providing artists with free rehearsal space, in process showings, regular meetings with Velocity Staff, and the full production and presentation of their 20 minute work in a festival style show over two weekends. This program is recommended for artists who have participated in festival style shows before and are looking to build regional audiences around their work and expand their skills on the following:

Artistic mentorship: mentorship and community support to make artistically innovative projects focusing on:

    • Managing Long-Term Artistic Goals
    • Creative Process + working with creative collaborators
    • Production + Technical Scopes of their Work 

Financial resources: fees to pay yourself, your collaborators, and your project expenses

Reciprocal Relationship building: understanding your part in the larger ecology, and how to work collaboratively to connect and sustain your career within your ecosystem of artistic collaborators, local and national presenters, funders, and audiences by meeting about:

    • Group Collaboration within a Vision
    • Relationship between Institution + Artist

Business development: how to manage projects and undertake long-term collaborations and career planning through:

    • Audience Cultivation
    • Meetings about Marketing as an extension of an Artist’s Work
    • Maintaining an Individual Project Budget

PROGRAM COMMITMENTS

Meeting 1: May 30 | 3 – 4:30PM – Grounding Introductions

Meeting 2: Jun 27 | 3 – 4:30PM – Residency Planning

Residency at SFD+I: Jul 14 – 19 | Must Rehearse Once a Day

Cohort Gathering at SFD+I: Jul 17 | 6 – 7:30PM

Cohort Residency Showing: July 19 | 5:30 – 7PM

Meeting 3: Aug 15 | 3 – 4:30PM – Finance + Budgeting

Meeting 4: Sep 12 | 3 – 4:30PM – Institutions + Artists

Individual Meetings: Sep | TBD – Long Term Artistic Goals

Meeting 5: Oct 10 | 3 – 4:30PM – Marketing + Audience Cultivation

Meeting 6: Oct 24 | 3 – 4:30PM – Production + Technical Scope

Meeting 7: Nov 7 | 3 – 4:30PM – Production Meeting

Meeting 8: Nov 14 | 3 – 5PM – Virtual Technical Showing

Meeting 9: Nov 28 | 3 – 4:30PM – Production Meeting

Seattle-Based Artist Technical Rehearsal: Dec 4 | 11AM – 2PM or 4 – 7PM

Out of Town Technical Rehearsal: Dec 5 | 1 – 4 PM

Dress Rehearsal: Dec 5 | 6:30 PM

6 Performances: Dec 6–7 | 7:30PM + Dec 12–14 | 7:30PM + 2PM on Sat

WHAT'S PROVIDED

2 NFNW Seattle-Based Artists will receive:

  • 1 Week of Residency Time with a Showing at SFD+I | July 14-19
  • $1000 Residency Stipend
  • Free Tuition to all SFD+I Programs
  • Mentorship and production support from Velocity staff and creative residents
  • 6 in-person, festival style performances that are fully produced 
  • Lighting design by Velocity technical staff
  • $2000 Presentation Fee

 

1 NFNW Out-of-Town Artist will receive:

  • 1 Week of Residency Time with a Showing at SFD+I | July 14-19
  • $1000 Residency Stipend
  • $500 Residency Travel Stipend
  • Free Tuition to all SFD+I Programs
  • Mentorship and production support from Velocity staff and creative residents
  • 6 in-person, festival style performances that are fully produced 
  • Lighting design by Velocity technical staff
  • $2000 Presentation Fee
  • $500 Residency Travel Stipend

Ok, but how will this work? We have set a few parameters. The show dates will be two weekends in December in the studio theater at 12th Ave Arts, and we will select the three artists through an open application. Velocity will provide a baseline of technical staff, administrative and marketing support, and the front of house staffing needed for the performances. Beyond that, we will provide resources, guidance through structured creative team meetings, a paid residency at SFD+I, production meetings, in-process showings, and press showings, so that the artists can collaboratively vision and plan the shared evening.

Our goal is to give local artists who have experience in festivals and shared programs the chance to co-lead a longer production and administrative process, while having more power and resources to make their vision happen. 

We welcome Pacific Northwest-based dance artists from all backgrounds and styles making experimental work to apply.

MEET THE CURATORIAL PANEL

Amy O'Neal

Amy O'Neal

[Velocity Curating Artist in Residence]

Amy O’Neal (she/they) is a dancer, choreographer, curator, and dance educator merging contemporary and hip-hop dance since 2000 to challenge notions of race, gender, and the sampling nature of innovation. She teaches and performs nationally and internationally and choreographs for concert dance, experimental performance, dance film, music video, and virtual reality. From 2000 to 2010, along with musician and composer Zeke Keeble, O’Neal co-directed locust, a dance/music/video hybrid performance company based in Seattle. From 2010 until now, she works project to project creating dance experiences merging practices and values of hip hop and house dance culture with experimental performance. O’Neal is a grantee of Creative Capital, National Performance Network, National Dance Project, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts among others. She is a two-time Artist Trust Fellow, DanceWEB/Impulstanz scholar, and Herb Alpert Award nominee with a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts, where she earned the first Distinguished Alumni Award in 2014. After 20 years in Seattle (15 of those teaching and creating at Velocity Dance Center) O’Neal moved to Los Angeles in 2016. She joined the faculty of the University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance in 2018 where she teaches hip-hop, house, contemporary, composition, improvisation techniques, Pilates mat, and lectures on Black social dance history, practices, and media literacy. She is currently working on her next evening length work A Trio and developing a research and performance platform called The Hybrid Lab: Conversations in Merging Dance Cultures.

Shane Donohue

Shane Donohue

[Velocity Creative Producer]

Shane Donohue (he/they) is a Seattle based dance artist currently working as co-top with Drama Tops and Creative Producer at Velocity Dance Center. He works closely with zoe | juniper as a dancer and rehearsal director. He has set work with, and for, Zoe Scofield at the University of Washington, Strictly Seattle, Whim W’him, Bard Summerscape’s production of “Le Roi Arthus” in 2021. His work has been seen in Next Fest Northwest. He also works as an artistic collaborator and performer with Kim Lusk, Kinesis Project, Scott Shoemaker’s “:PROBED”, and BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx Monsoon’s Holiday Special in the live, national tour and on Hulu. Shane graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point with a BA in Dance.

Allie Hankins

Allie Hankins

[Guest Curator]

Allie Hankins is a dancer and performance maker who has been creating performance work for over ten years. She is an inaugural Resident Artist and current steward of FLOCK Dance Center, a studio and creative home to Portland’s experimental dance artists, which was founded by Tahni Holt in 2013. In 2014, Allie co-founded Physical Education, a Queer performance research cooperative, with Lu Yim, keyon gaskin, and Takahiro Yamamoto. Physical Education hosts reading groups and lectures, curates festivals, and teaches workshops nationally. Most recently, Allie has danced for Milka Djordjevich (LA), Morgan Thorson (Minneapolis), and Linda Austin (PDX). Outside of Portland, her work has been presented in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Berlin, and Cork, Ireland. Her website is alliehankins.com.

Keyes Wiley

Keyes Wiley

[Guest Curator]

Multi-hyphenate art maker Keyes Wiley (they/them) is a designer of all things surrounding performance. Their next series of works will be in collaboration with Velocity Dance Center under the name NoGoodDoers. They will also be working with Dani Tirrell and crew on Dani’s next project LOL. Wiley has been an arts educator in Seattle since 2009 teaching various styles and genres all over the west coast. You can catch them in action as dj dark_wiley monthly at TUSH at the Clock-Out Lounge. Keyes has performed, collaborated or created work with Kitten N Lou (Jingle all the Gay, Atomic Bombshells) , Dani Tirrell (Black Bois, LOL), Keith Hennessy (Turbulence), On the Boards (Its Not Too Late), the CD Forum, Velocity Dance Center, Gibney Dance (NYC), Cal State San Luis Obispo and more.

APPLICATION + PANEL PROCESS

This application will close on April 4th, 2024 at 11:59pm, and we are not able to accept late applications. The curating team is comprised of Velocity Curating Artist in Residence Amy O’Neal, Creative Producer Shane Donohue, Allie Hankins, and Keyes Wiley. Panelists will review each application and score proposals using the below criteria, with scores from strongly meets criteria – somewhat meets criteria – does not meet criteria. 

The eight highest scoring applications will be advanced to a discussion stage, where the panel will curate three projects for this year’s performance, two from Seattle and one from the greater NW region. Beyond scoring, the curators’ will be selecting based on what three pieces together create a varied and exciting collection of works for the event. The Velocity Curating Artist in Residence and the Velocity Creative Producer will be available to provide feedback on unsuccessful applications. 

 

Eligibility
Proposal demonstrates that the artist is 

  1. A current residents of WA, OR, ID, MT, AK and BC over the age of 18 
  2. An artist from any disciplines working in movement performance 
  3. Available for all dates listed
  4. New Work. the proposed piece must be a new piece that has not been performed before. 


Artistry
Proposal articulates a concept that is compelling and shows artistic excellence.

Impact | Individual
Proposal demonstrates that artist has a strong foundation in making and sharing work, and that their involvement in Next Fest NW would help them to reach their current artistic and career goals.

Impact | Community 
Proposal articulates how the artist plans to work in collaboration with the cohort to vision and execute a shared program. This project will help build audiences for Velocity and for the artists involved, while inciting dialogue and exchange. This artist has articulated their experience with audience development

Feasibility
Proposal clearly articulates a concept for a new work that is achievable, given both the artist’s experience and skills and the time and resources available.

FURTHER CLARIFICATIONS

Within Criteria 1 –

  • “available for all dates” – We mean that you are available to be present either physically or in some cases virtually for the entire duration of the dates listed. Selected applicants will set their rehearsal schedule during the residency, but they must be available for all meetings, technical/dress rehearsals and performances. 
  • “New work” – this does not have to be a brand new idea that you have never explored in your work, but there should be something clearly distinct and new about the proposal. 

Within Criteria 2 – 

  • “Artistic Excellence”Artistic excellence is seen in those who bring curiosity and rigor to their work, have a process for refining their work, seek influence, and pursue feedback to improve their craft.

Within Criteria 5 –

  • “Feasibility” – Next Fest NW performances take place in mid-December, in a live theater context. We encourage you to think expansively about what your piece can be, but your proposal will be strongest if you articulate and help us understand how this proposal will exist within this context, and consider what is achievable given the resources and timeline.

A NOTE ON WORK SAMPLES

The goal of this work sample is to give panelists a chance to see some of what you write about expressed through your work. Your work sample can be a fully produced recording of a live performance, but it can also be a rehearsal video or other in-process footage. If you feel like your work sample isn’t representative of your current practice, we encourage you to create content that does feel connected to where you are and what you would create now, even if it’s filmed in your living room. Panelists will be looking more at your ideas and expression, and less at the production value of the performance or video.  Work samples can be dance film, documentation of live performance, other video content, spoken word, visual art, diagrams, sound or music, or any other sample that would help us to better understand you and your proposal. Help us to get a clearer sense of what your idea could be when materialized. Jump off the page!

SUMMER