Step Up Dance Project is a programme of professional development for recent dance graduates or equivalent early-career dance professionals in partnership between the Arts Council, Dance Limerick, the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick and Dance Ireland.
Step Up is looking for five dancers born or resident in Ireland who are interested in being part of a paid professional development programme.
Who can apply:
– Dancers who graduated in 2020 or since then
– Dancers in the early stages of their careers that come through other training routes that didn’t involve graduation
– Previous Step Up participants who match the criteria above
– If you are only starting your career or graduating in 2023/24, you are not eligible
Step Up aims at connecting recent graduates to the range of practices and practitioners that make up Ireland’s dance ecology and to the international networks of dance in which we operate. Curated by Fearghus Ó Conchúir and delivered under the guidance of Rehearsal Director, Lucia Kickham, the programme is focused on developing artists as performers while recognising the creativity necessary in the performer’s work.
The 14th edition of Step Up will welcome choreographer Catherine Young to develop a new performance in context project. Catherine is a dance artist and choreographer who has created work for the Dublin Dance Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival, CoisCéim Dance Theatre, Féile Fáilte and her own company, Catherine Young Dance. She is co-curator of What Next Dance Festival and runs The Welcoming Project, a progamme that fosters cultural integration & social inclusion through dance. Her work responds to the questions and challenges we face today as humans; it is visceral, truthful, transcendent. Catherine will be bringing these values to her work with the Step Up dancers, connecting to communities and experiences in Limerick in ways that expand our humanity.
The participants will also enjoy the chance to train with guest teachers Finola Cronin and Mufutau Yusuf.
Step Up takes place in Limerick from 30 June to 10 August 2024. A further development week will take place at Dance Ireland, Dublin, from 9 – 13 September. Five selected dancers will receive a weekly fee of €650 over 7 weeks, along with accommodation for the period of 30 June – 8 August and 9 – 13 September.
Participants must be available on an exclusive basis to take advantage of the full programme.
To apply, please send your CV and a personal statement outlining your motivation to be involved in Step Up along with a weblink to a 1-minute improvisation to stepupdanceproject@gmail.com with Step Up Application in the subject line.
The closing date for receipt of applications is Tuesday 12 December 2023
Read full terms & conditions here
Photo credit | Riverine by Maria Nilsson Waller © Iara Pereira @iaramphotos
