SACATAR FELLOWSHIPS 2014 in Dance and Choreography

Eight-week residencies in Itaparica, Bahia, Brazil

The Sacatar Foundation, a US 501c3 nonprofit corporation, administers an international arts residency program in Bahia, Brazil. In partnership with Dance/USA Philadelphia, Sacatar will offer eight-week residency Dance Fellowships throughout 2014 to its beachside estate, the Instituto Sacatar, on the island of Itaparica, across the bay from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

Individual dancer/choreographers and small ensembles of up to three dancers may apply. For this Application Process, all applicants must be legal residents of the United States.

Through this initiative, Sacatar intends to award Fellowships to up to eight dancer/choreographers in 2014. Philadelphia-based artists are encouraged to apply. Fellowships that are offered to Philadelphia artists will be supported in part by Dance/USA Philadelphia.

Casa Grande, the residency / home of Sacatar Fellows

Available to individual dancer/choreographers and to small ensembles of up to three dancers, the Fellowships will provide:

  • Roundtrip airfare between the USA and Salvador, Brazil
  • Private bedroom(s) with attached bathroom(s)
  • Exclusive use of the dance studio
  • All meals (except Saturday evenings, Sundays and Brazilian holidays)
  • Logisticsupport

ThroughthesupportofDance-USA Philadelphia, therewillbeanadditionalstipendof US$1000 (onethousanddollars)for eachparticipatingdancerbased in Philadelphia.

Estúdio AR – the beachside dance studio at the Instituto Sacatar, Itaparica, Bahia, Brazil

‘The studio is absolutely amazing. It could not possibly be any better. I will carry fond memories of dancing in this studio for a long time.’

--- Sacatar Dance Fellow, Amy Campion

October – December 2012

Bahia, Brazil is a potent place for dancer/choreographers to seek inspiration and knowledge. There are deep traditions in the African-based religions practiced in Brazil, in which dance is considered the incarnation of the gods, the earthly manifestation of the the divine through human movement. These religious traditions challenge and inspire contemporary dance. The island of Itaparica maintains strong manifestations of:

  • Candomblé, a matrilineal Afro-Brazilian religion practiced throughout Brazil in which individuals in trance dance the movements of the African gods known as orixás;
  • Egun-gum, a very different patrilineal African cult in which the incarnated ancestors take the form of towering puppet-like figures. The egum tradition emerged from Nigeria and is uniquely practiced in Brazil on the island of Itaparica.

In addition, through this project, selected dancer(s) will be provided additional support in order to participate in:

  • Vivadança, an annual month-long international contemporary dance festival to be held in April 2014;
  • PlataformaInternacional de Dança, a festival of experimental Latin American dance scheduled for Nov-Dec 2014.

PROPOSED RESIDENCY SESSIONS:

Sacatar intends to award Fellowships to qualified individuals and small ensembles of two to three dancers for the following eight-week sessions:

  • 17 March – 12 May 2014
  • with participation in the Vivadança International Dance Festival, held in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
  • 26 May – 21 July 2014
  • 4 August – 29 September 2014
  • 13 October – 8 December 2014
  • with participation in the PlataformaInternacional de Dança, an international festival of contemporary Latin American dance, held in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

At its discretion, Sacatar will award up to eight Dance Fellowships in 2014 from among the applications received through this initiative with Dance-USA Philadelphia. You do not need to be a resident of Philadelphia in order to apply.

HOW TO APPLY

Applicants for the Sacatar Fellowships 2014 in Dance and Choreography must be legal residents of the United States. Dancer / choreographers of other nationalities or US citizens residing outside the United States may not apply for these Fellowships.

TO APPLY, please submit the following materials to :

1.APPLICATION FORM for SACATAR FELLOWSHIPS 2014 in Dance and Choreography, available as a DOWNLOAD at under APPLICATION. Please fill out the PDF form electronically, or print and fill it out by hand, then sign, scan and email the signed application form with the application materials requested below.

2.PROFESSIONAL RESUME(S) (curriculum vitae) for each dancer under consideration, including significant achievements, awards, residencies, etc.

3.DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT you expect to work on while in residence at the Instituto Sacatar. If you have a specific community-oriented idea, please explain. In the first week of each residency session, Sacatar Fellows present work to local artists who may be interested in collaborating. Remember that once in Bahia, things may change. Flexibility and improvisation are essential! For the above-mentioned festivals, the awarded dancers will be provided additional support to administer workshops and present new works, potentially in collaboration with local dancers and in conjunction with the festival sponsors. Please note that the ‘PlataformaInternacional de Dança’ specifically supports experimental incursions into Latin American dance traditions. You may wish to propose a project specific to that theme.

4.Why Bahia? (and not Berlin or Beijing?): as a word document (.doc ) or as a .pdf please state, in fifty words or less, why this opportunity to work in Bahia, Brazil, is of interest to you and how you think an experience in Bahia might affect your professional development.

5.Samples of recent representative work: Please submit up to four videos of recent choreographic work, dance videos or dance performances. Each sample should not exceed five minutes.You may submit link(s) to video samples or upload video sample(s) directly.

  • To submit a link to video samples, list all links on a single pdf or doc file. For each site, list the URLs for pages to be shown. Include any necessary information on required plug-ins, passwords or navigation paths.
  • To upload a video file directly, acceptable file types are avi, flv, mov, mp4, mpeg, rm and wmv. You video sample(s) must be in one of these acceptable file types. File types such as VIDEO_TS.BUP, VIDEO_TS.IFO and VIDEO_TS.VOB will not work. Submit each video sample individually. In order to be uploaded, videos must meet the following minimum requirements:
  • Resolution: at least 480 x 360
  • Frames per second (fps): at least 12

While the above requirements are minimum, submitting your video in mp4 (H.264) format at 640 x 480 with mp3 audio will allow for efficient uploading while showing your clips to best advantage.

No matter how you submit your work samples, please include a written explanation in .pdf or .doc for each work sample submitted to contextualize the work and your participation and/or contribution to its realization. For small ensembles of up to three members, please specify the participation and/or contribution of each of the dancers under consideration. It will greatly facilitate the evaluation of the work samples if you include a ‘head shot’ of each applicant for ease of identification.

6.Two professional references – Please provide the names, current positions, email addresses and telephone numbers of two professional references whom Sacatar may contact to discuss your candidacy and qualifications.

7.Application fee: US$20.00 for individual dancer / choreographers; US$35.00 for ensembles of up to three dancers. Payable through Paypal at under PARTNERS or directly to .

PLEASE ADDRESS ANY QUESTIONS you may have regarding the Dance Fellowships and/or the application process .

Send application materials only to .

Deadline for submissions: 16 September 2013

by midnight Pacific Standard Time