OUT THERE APPLICATIONS
OUT THERE: call for west coast experimental dance makers
Application Due February 14, 2025 | 11:59PM
Velocity Dance Center is proud to announce a call for OUT THERE. OUT THERE is an annual, two week dance festival that bolsters West Coast movement artists for their lineage of making work that innovates our field. This festival is for artists that have the audacity, bravado, and experimental spirit, to vision their work to new scales.
OUT THERE showcases two different weekends with two different artists each weekend– a new, thirty minute work by a Seattle Artist which is made in residence at SFD+I and the Seattle premiere of an existing thirty minute work by an artist from the West Coast Region. This structure fills the need in our community for shared, regional discourse and connection to Seattle artists and touring opportunities for artists in the greater West Coast Region.
This festival is part of Velocity’s Regionally Emerging Creative Incubator and 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.
- 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.
- Business development: how to manage projects and undertake long-term collaborations and career planning.
As Velocity, we love to throw around the word experimentalism. But what does it mean? We are interested in experimentation as a context we provide to audiences and art makers to hold new, innovative ideas that push their form into new places. Experimentation can take place in any dance form and doesn’t have a singular look to us. If you have more questions about “experimentalism” feel free to reach out to Shane (shane@velocitydancecenter.org).
Application workshop 1 / JAN 22 12PM PST
CLICK HERE to sign up
Application workshop 2 / jan 31 5pm PST
CLICK HERE to sign up
Program Commitments
(meetings are all over zoom unless specified)
All four OUT THERE artists will work together as a cohort during scheduled meetings to collectively, with the Velocity Team, help vision the overall show and the artist’s work. We believe the cohort structure is for artists of all levels and experience and can lead to more meaningful community engagement, long lasting relationships, and more intentional festival curation.
Meeting Times
These meetings can be rescheduled to work with the needs of the cohort.
Individual Meetings | March | Individual Goal Setting
Meeting 1: May 29 | 3 – 4:30PM: Orientation
Meeting 2: Jun 26 | 3 – 4:30PM: Residency Planning (Seattle Artists)
Meeting 3: Aug 14 | 3 – 4:30PM: Marketing/Production
Meeting 4: Sep 11 | 3 – 4:30PM: Virtual Technical Showing
Individual Meetings: Sep | TBD: Long Term Artistic Goals
Tech + Show Commitments
2 Artists in WEEK I: Sep 29-Oct 5 2025
Seattle Artist Tech Time: Sep 30 | 3-7pm
Out of Town Tech Time: Oct 1 | 12:30-4:30pm
Dress Rehearsal: Oct 1 | 6-10pm
Show 1: Oct 2 | 7:30pm (call at 6:30pm)
Show 2: Oct 3 | 7:30pm (call at 6:30pm)
Show 3: Oct 4 | 7:30pm (call at 6:30pm)
2 Artists in WEEK II: Oct 6-12 2025
Seattle Artist Tech Time: Oct 7 | 3-7pm
Out of Town Tech Time: Oct 8 | 12:30-4:30pm
Dress Rehearsal: Oct 8 | 6-10pm
Show 1: Oct 9 | 7:30pm (call at 6:30pm)
Show 2: Oct 10 | 7:30pm (call at 6:30pm)
Show 3: Oct 11 | 7:30pm (call at 6:30pm)
Velocity will provide a Stage Manager, Lighting Designer, administrative and marketing support, and the front of house staffing for the performances.
about the application + panel process
This application will close on February 14th 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, Executive Director Erin Johnson, and Communications Manager Joseph Hernandez. 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 two from the greater West Coast 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.
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. Panelists will watch a total of five minutes of your video as indicated by a timestamp in the Work Sample Description.
For local Seattle Artists making a new work, we require two videos–a proof of concept of a complete work, and a video of movement research for the proposed work. While for Out of Town Artists, we require one, proof of concept video of the proposed existing work.
For the proof of concept video, it should show the work from beginning to end and can be a work of any length, you will indicate a timestamp for the video. If the video is longer than you would like to share, please note the timestamp you would like the panel to watch (five minutes per applicant). In the Work Sample Description section of the application, Out of Town Artists should note any proposed shifts to the work. For example, if the work is too long or would change in audience orientation. For Seattle Artists, please note how this work is related to your proposed, new work.
For the work in progress video, we encourage Seattle Artists to create content that feels 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.Help us to get a clearer sense of what your idea could be when materialized. Jump off the page!
Criteria
| Criteria | Description |
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Proposal demonstrates that the artist is
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Proposal articulates a 30 minute concept that is compelling and shows artistic excellence. |
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Proposal demonstrates that the artist has a strong foundation in making and sharing work, and that their involvement in OUT THERE would help them to reach their current artistic and career goals. |
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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. |
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Proposal clearly articulates a concept for a work that is achievable, given both the artist’s experience and skills, time, resources, and showing structure 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 or New Work to Seattle” – For artists residing in WA, the proposed piece must be a new piece that has not been performed before. For Artists who reside outside of WA, the work needs be an existing work that has never been performed in Seattle before.
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” – OUT THERE performances take place October, 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.
RESIDENCY
A valuable component of this program is that selected Seattle-based artists receive a residency to make their new works at the Seattle Festival of Dance + Improvisation. This is a required component for Seattle-based artists. Artists from outside of Seattle are not required to complete this residency but are welcome to have a residency as well.
Residency at SFD+I: Jul 13 – 20 | around 40 hours of rehearsal (Required for Seattle Artists)
Cohort Gathering at SFD+I: Jul 16 | 6 – 7:30PM (Required for Seattle Artists)
Cohort Residency Showing: July 18 | 5:30 – 7PM (Required for Seattle Artists)
PAYMENT
The fee for both Seattle Artists and out of town artists are the same, despite slightly different expectations. Seattle artists are expected to be in residence at SFD+I and out of town artists will need to to cover travel and housing expenses for their project.
Velocity is committed to helping artists vision funding structures for their work and are available to help OUT THERE Artists cultivate donors and apply for additional funding to support their work. During the duration of the residency, OUT THERE artists can be fiscally sponsored by Velocity to accept donations and grants on the artist’s behalf for a reduced administrative fee of 2%.
Seattle Artist Fee Payment Schedule:
July 2025: $1000
October 2025: $2000
Total of $3000
Out of Town Artist Fee Payment Schedule: (schedule can be negotiated)
October 2025: $3000
Total of $3000
West Coast Performance Festival Partners
West Coast Performance Festival Partners is a list of like minded festivals across the West Coast of the US who are interested in promoting the sharing of performance work in their regions. This goal of the partnership is to provide a scaffolding for West Coast, experimental performance artists to broaden the scope of their work, build more sustainable careers in the arts, and make long lasting, regional connections. Interested in becoming a partner? Email shane@velocitydancecenter.org
Risk/Reward's festival of new performance
Since 2008, Risk/Reward has been engaging in community curation of pieces that push the boundaries of performance. The Festival of New Performance presents 4 to 6 pieces as part of our Festival Mainstage production, alongside site specific, installation, and other non-traditional pieces. Performances for the festival are under 20 minutes, by creators residing in (or with deep ties to) the Pacific Northwest region, and are pieces in some form of development.
We pride ourselves on offering a high degree of professionalism and polish in our dealings with artists, and provide robust technical, administrative, and marketing support for artists. We provide photos and video of all mainstage pieces. We are hoping to provide some degree of rehearsal space in Portland for our mainstage artists in 2025.
How is this program curated?
Risk/Reward convenes a panel of approximately 6 regional artists, administrators, and taste-makers with experience in the contemporary art field to select the pieces for the Festival mainstage from among the applications. While the Festival Director and Producing Artistic Director for Risk/Reward serve on the panel, the rest of the panelists change each year.
What is the Application Schedule?
In 2025, applications will be open for the month of January.
Applications will be selected and all artists notified by the end of March.
Artists announced at the end of April.
The festival itself is in the second half of June.
All over the map
All Over The Map is a mini outdoor dance festival taking place at the Picnic Pavilion on Granville Island, Vancouver BC each summer. Building on New Works and CMHC Granville Island’s 20+ year partnership, All Over The Map is a fun, family-friendly performance series that features a mixed program of 10 – 12min works from a diversity of dance and movement artists. It is a great opportunity for emerging artists who are looking for new opportunities to share their work, and has a long history of supporting cultural practitioners who are exploring the bounds between cultural and contemporary forms.
All Over The Map is presented in a non-traditional performance space; work is performed in an outdoor, covered area, on a concrete floor. New Works is not able to support lighting or projection requests given the venue. A PA system will be set up to support playback and limited live music. The series will be presented one Sunday in July and one Sunday in August, featuring 8 artists who perform twice over the course of the afternoon. Both technical rehearsal and performances are wrapped into one day, making it a very manageable performance opportunity for local and out of town artists alike.
How is this program curated?
All Over The Map is a mini outdoor dance festival taking place at the Picnic Pavilion on Granville Island, Vancouver BC each summer. Building on New Works and CMHC Granville Island’s 20+ year partnership, All Over The Map is a fun, family-friendly performance series that features a mixed program of 10 – 12min works from a diversity of dance and movement artists. It is a great opportunity for emerging artists who are looking for new opportunities to share their work, and has a long history of supporting cultural practitioners who are exploring the bounds between cultural and contemporary forms.
All Over The Map is presented in a non-traditional performance space; work is performed in an outdoor, covered area, on a concrete floor. New Works is not able to support lighting or projection requests given the venue. A PA system will be set up to support playback and limited live music. The series will be presented one Sunday in July and one Sunday in August, featuring 8 artists who perform twice over the course of the afternoon. Both technical rehearsal and performances are wrapped into one day, making it a very manageable performance opportunity for local and out of town artists alike.
How is this program curated?
All Over The Map applications are curated by the New Works staff team following the advice of an independent Advisory Committee of professional Vancouver-based dance artists. Each application will be scored against selection criteria as detailed in the call for applications, and the highest scores will advance to a discussion stage. From there, the Advisory Committee will recommend 8 artists for selection, keeping in mind selection criteria and how they complement each other as a mixed program.
What is the Application Schedule?
Call for applications usually open in December and close in mid-January. We also aim to host an online info session within that time period for applicants who have questions.
Results will be communicated by end of March, and performance opportunities take place in July and August each year.
fact/sf summer dance festival
The FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival is one of FACT/SF’s Fieldwork programs. The Festival spans two weekends in mid-August in San Francisco, and brings together an array of contemporary dance works by choreographers from the Bay Area and beyond. The purpose of the Festival is to juxtapose a variety of works to spur dialogue, support artists and artistic growth, and present to audiences a range of perspectives.
In a typical year, FACT/SF invites six choreographers/groups to share work. One choreographer/group is often invited to share a longer work (in the 30-45 minute range) in the Festival’s first weekend, and five choreographers/groups are invited to share shorter works (in the 10-20 minute range) in the Festival’s second weekend. FACT/SF shares its own work on both weekends alongside the curated artists. All choreographers/groups are paid to participate, and FACT/SF provides a small travel stipend for choreographers/groups traveling from outside of the San Francisco Bay Area. Of the six curated choreographers/groups, 2-3 are typically from the Bay Area and 3-4 are typically from other regions.
How is this program curated?
The FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival is curated by an 8-person panel via an open application process. All applying artists are paid $30 to apply for approximately one hour of work. The application process is a simple Google form + a 30-minute conversation with two of the panel members.
What is the Application Schedule?
Applications typically open in September for the upcoming festival. The 30-minute conversations between the artist and the panel happens the first two weeks of October, the curatorial meeting happens right after the conversations have concluded, and notifications are sent out during the third week of October.
Curator Bios
Erin O’Reilly, executive director
Shane Donohue, creative producer
AMY O’NEAL, Curating Artist in residence
Joseph Hernandez, Communications manager
Amy O’Neal is a dancer, choreographer, curator, and dance educator. A sought-after artist for over two decades, she teaches and performs nationally and internationally and choreographs for live performance, dance film, music video and virtual reality. From 2000 to 2010, along with musician and composer Zeke Keeble, O’Neal co-directed locust, an experimental multidisciplinary video, music, and contemporary dance company. Inspired by hip-hop culture and experimental cinema, locust‘s work created social commentary with humor and heavy beats. From 2010 until now, she creates experimental dance work merging Black social dance practices from hip-hop and house culture and contemporary dance while directly addressing race, gender and the sampling nature of innovation. She premiered her first evening-length solo in 2012 where she examined her influences, questioned her relationship to Blackness as a white woman, and paid homage to her teachers and dance heroes. As a practicing guest of Black dance culture, she has participated in experimental and all-styles battles, co-organized and co-produced Seattle House Dance Project, and developed hip-hop curriculum for the University of Washington. Her passion and research meet at the intersection of the hip-hop, house and contemporary dance communities. Within this intersection she explores the complex differences, nuances and layers of hybridized movement vocabularies. For example, in her eighth evening-length work, Opposing Forces, O’Neal and five Seattle-based B-Boys explored fears of feminine qualities in our culture through the hyper-masculine form of Breaking. Opposing Forces toured from 2014 to 2017, and an award-winning documentary about the show called How it Feels premiered in 2019. City Arts Magazine wrote, “O’Neal synthesizes complex themes with a cohesive, penetrating aesthetic. Her latest work transcends disciplines and boundaries. It is a bridge between worlds, a translator for opposing points of view, a force for good.”
O’Neal is a grantee of Creative Capital, National Performance Network, National Dance Project, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Artist Trust, and 4 Culture. 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 was awarded the first Distinguished Alumni Award in 2014. While at Cornish, she danced and toured with the Pat Graney Company from 1998 to 2001and Scott/Powell Performance from 1997-2004. . O’Neal has been an Artist in Residence at Bates Dance Festival, Headlands Center for the Arts, the US/Japan Choreographer’s Exchange, and Velocity Dance Center. Since 2001, she has worked both on stage and screen with musician/comedian, Reggie Watts, former band leader for “Late Late Show with James Corden.” She has improvised with Watts in NYC comedy clubs, toured together in original stage shows, choreographed his iconic 2010 Comedy Central video F…, S… Stack, and in 24 hours, created an evening-length dance/music show with him. Along with NYC based artist Ani Taj, she co-choreographed Runnin’, a virtual reality music video for Watt’s Wajatta project with electronic music artist John Tejada. Runnin’ premiered at the New Frontier VR showcase at Sundance Film Festival and won Best Interactive at SXSW in 2019. Also in 2019, she choreographed a virtual reality project for Procter & Gamble promoting more diversity in productions for the advertising and film industries called Look Again which premiered at Cannes Lions Festival in France.
After 20 years in Seattle, O’Neal relocated to Los Angeles in 2016 and started The Rhythm Assembly, a freestyle techniques class merging the social and exploratory natures of hip-hop and contemporary dance at Ryan Heffington’s studio, The Sweat Spot, which closed in 2020. She joined the faculty of the University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance in 2018 where she teaches hip-hop, house and freestyle techniques, composition and improvisation, contemporary dance, and lectures on Black social dance history, practice, and media literacy. She feels the most at peace when she can embody her full human experience as an artist and is passionate about creating space for others to do the same.
“I am a creative producer, development professional, dance artist + arts advocate, committed to finding thoughtful ways to build structures of support and advocacy for Seattle’s diverse dance community. I have ten years of experience developing and producing dance work in Seattle, Portland and in the UK. Areas of expertise: artist-led community-driven programming, artist support + sustainability, incubation and project building, community partnerships, and coordinating experiences that bring people together in public spaces.”
Joseph Hernandez is a choreographer and writer based in Seattle, Washington. His work as a choreographer has been presented by The Joyce NYC, Festspielhaus Hellerau, The Semperoper Dresden, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Theatre St. Gallen, and Whim W’Him Contemporary Dance Seattle, Staatstheater Nürnberg among others. His work The Lavender Follies was filmed for European Television by ZDF Deutschland and has now been disseminated worldwide. He has taught at SUNY Purchase College, Dance Arts Faculty (Rome), and Cornish College of the Arts, well as the Royal Danish Ballet, and Artof (Zurich) summer courses. He served as a founder and jury member for Tanznetz Dresden’s STUDIO ROUND, curating showings and performances/discussions by creators from all over Europe. His installation series Nielsson Conversations was hosted by S T O R E Contemporary in Dresden, Germany. In addition to his freelance work, he was appointed Associate Choreographer at the Northwest Dance Project from 2022-2024. He left Portland in 2024 to work at Velocity Dance Center full time and to advocate for off-the-wall performance in the PNW.
www.bluescreencontemporary.com
*Photo By Alina Yang
Shane Donohue is a Seattle based dance artist currently working as co-top with Drama Tops. 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.