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Guidelines for Participation as a Presenting Artist Deadline for proposals Saturday, October 26th, 2013 12 midnight Please read the following guidelines carefully. By submitting an application to participate in Performática you are agreeing to the conditions set forth below. Presentation This year's edition is co-directed by Carolina Tabares Mendoza, Cristina Goletti, and Ray Eliot Schwartz. The goal of Performática is the facilitation of engaged dialogue and collaboration between artists of all media with an interest in reflecting on the basic importance of their relationship to the movement arts. Together we strive towards a space for shared community responsibility, and a platform for realizing personal agency. Hierarchies between students, teachers, history, styles, and economics are destabilized in order to invite alternative ways of being in our practice. The event will begin on Sunday the 20th of April, 2014, with an opening circle and a movement jam. There will be four days of workshop and master classes, and one bridge day in which we change the dynamic and hold panels, paper presentations, jams, and screendance showings, along with other practices and group activities. In the evenings we will present performances either in an informal studio theater setting or in the main UDLAP auditorium. The event will close with a final circle on Saturday the 26th, 2014, followed by informal socializing and a party. Defining the Forum The operative languages for Performática are Spanish and English. If you are working in another language please have your written material translated into either English or Spanish before applying. We are asking that all participants in Performática 2014 be willing to adapt and evolve initial proposals in order to generate actions that emerge from the collective tendencies and needs of the event itself. We would like to imagine that Performática can be a living breathing temporal organism rather than a collection of prefabricated presentations of already proven notions. The 1st stage will consist of a selection committee reviewing the proposals and determining which projects lend themselves to participation within the model we are laying out. Criteria will include: viability, clarity of intent, contribution to diversity, and empathy with the mission of Performática. After the 1st stage, selected artists will have three weeks in which to email a signed commitment letter (provided by Performática) signalling your intention to participate. Participants who do not send this letter will be removed from consideration and their places offered to applicants on the waiting list. In January there will be deadline for any further publicity/program information or other administrative data that will aid the organizers in formulating the calendar for the forum. Students will then register for participation in classes and workshops in late February or early March. We would like to ask applicants to consider the following guiding questions when submitting proposals: How do we look at the world through movement and dance? What is the relation between theory and practice in your current movement and/or performance work? What is a physical practice? And what is a technique? Classes Each morning we will start the day with a series of short morning classes inviting embodiment, movement and physical presence (1h,15min). Proposals for this block could draw from practices like Yoga, BMC, Feldenkrais, Tai Chi, Alexander Technique, Pilates, Rolfing etc. but could also include taking a walk, baking a cake together, singing, or any other proposal that in essence invite us to consider how we might want to start the day. These morning practices will be followed by a second block of classes (1h 45min), which deepen the demands on the body and mind and take us into more alert and active physical challenges. Possible proposals for this block could investigate practices like contemporary dance, floor work, improvisation, Gaga, Contact Improvisation, modern dance, ballet, butoh, physical theater etc. Most importantly we are inviting proposals that embrace what it might mean to go deeper. You are welcome to propose a class either in the 1st or 2nd category, or both. Workshops Workshops are an opportunity to go engage deeply with a committed group. Instead of happening only once, a workshop will happen on two consecutive days. Past workshops have included: Improvisational Study, Composition, Performance, Dance and Technology, Bodywork and Somatic Studies, Voice and Movement, Physical Theater, and the creation of original choreography among others. We encourage proposals that explore collaborative processes and refer to the guiding questions of the 2014 forum. Performances If you are interested in performing, we encourage you to consider bringing work that would be enriched within the frame of the forum. The technical capabilities we provide are simple but adequate. If what you need is a state of the art, super fancy theater, with all the latest fashions in gimmicks and gizmos, please note that Performática might not be the best forum for your performance goals. Work that focuses on the body, its humanity, and communicative possibilities within a simple theatrical framework is the kind of work that can be best supported with our resources. Screendance If you would like to submit a film, we ask that all submissions be a maximum of 12 minutes, have been made in the last year, and are available for screening/review at the time of your application. Theory Platforms: Performing Theory/Theory in Community This activity is planned for the bridge day. Participants will gather for between and hour and an hour and a half to dialogue, in community, about various topics of concern or interest. In considering these topics, we would like to encourage scholars to imagine new models of presenting theory. Some ideas could be: performative lectures, actions followed by dialogue, creative conversations, etc. If you are interested in proposing something please let us know your topic and the format/model that you would like to try. Please be as specific as possible so we can get a sense of the viability and nature of your proposal. (250 words maximum) Conditions for Participation Depending on the number of applications we receive, we are envisioning a group of 40 artists who will come together to share* their work and presence (with one another and the population of participants who will inscribe in the spring) through teaching, studying, performing and other practices. *We would like to encourage the idea that everyone who attends Performática comes in the spirit of generous community. It has been our experience that attending each other's classes, being available for spur of the moment creative action or performance proposals, or chipping in to offer an eye or an ear to someone's current questions is part of what makes something like Performática so special. Before applying, please consider whether this type of environment is in line with your sensibilities. In the early years of Performática, we had a more flexible policy regarding assistance but over the last few editions we framed the requirements a bit differently and it contributed greatly to a successful experience. So...in order to optimize the potential of the gathering, to participate in Performática 2014 applicants must be able to commit to attending the entire forum (Sunday afternoon the 20th through Saturday afternoon the 26th). What We Can Offer For participants who are selected we offer:
What We Cannot Offer Stipends (financial assistance) for transportation, housing, teaching or performing, etc. Should you have any questions about funding, official invitations, or other matters relating to your participation - please get in touch with the Performática team though the contact page.
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