INTERLACE, specialised open call!
Introduction
In 2024, together with two international collaborators, MARC (Sweden) and Multimedia Hut (Croatia), LACE Symposium won an Erasmus+ grant for the project INTERLACE: Art and Action in Contemporary Dance Education. As a result, the 2025 and 2026 symposium will dedicate a portion of its program to the themes explored in the context of the INTERLACE project.
The motivation to write the INTERLACE project comes from a need articulated by dance artists and educators who work with dancing in spaces of cultural and socio-political heterogeneity, who’ve observed a lack of opportunity to develop their specialty in the professional context. The INTERLACE project aims to provide opportunities for those artists and educators by creating a space for practice-based exchange dedicated to the issues of working with dance and dance-based practices under the condition of diversity, inclusivity, and accessibility in spaces of cultural and socio-political heterogeneity.
(for application rules and conditions, please scroll down)
With this specialised OPEN CALL we are inviting professional artists, researchers, activists, and educators, i.e., practitioners working with dance, the performing arts, or an adjacent body-based practice in spaces of cultural and socio-political heterogeneity to contribute to the INTERLACE portion of the LACE #3 Symposium by sharing work that addresses any of the following questions:
Examples:
nonverbal ∞ verbal
This question emerged in a conversation about a larger issue concerning the use of language in a somaticised space, or in the context of a somatic practice. The difference was named between practicing somatics in a professional context—where one can afford to assume that the meaning of a number of specialised words is going to be understood—and practicing somatics in a heterogeneous space—where one cannot afford to assume that the meaning of a number of specialised words is going to be understood. Focusing on the latter, we want to start a dialogue on the topic of working with language in a space in which we do not already share a language. One question that could be asked here is: “How does working with somatics in a space populated with a diversity of languages create the conditions for learning about the use of non-verbal communication?”. If your practice deals with any of the issues described in this chapter, this call is meant for you!
observation
- assuming that the experience of soma is shared between humans regardless of cultural origin, how does one’s growing into the experience of language (and/or culture) condition one’s growing experience of soma?;
INTERLACE
- what do you learn about the relationship between non-verbal and verbal experience by working with dancing in a culturally heterogeneous context that holds a diversity of language-based and cultural experience?;
- what challenges do you encounter when working with dancing in a culturally heterogeneous context?
cultural bias
This question emerged in a conversation about the larger issue of responsibility and accountability. One of the partners started this conversation by saying they sometimes feel like the job they’re doing ought to have been done by a social worker or a therapist. The question of artistic sensibility and its use in negotiating the experience of being part of a heterogeneous community came up. When, due to its sensitivity to detail, an artistic practice becomes specifically useful in a charged space, possibly a space of conflict, how do artists take accountability for their specific contribution? How do we communicate the specificity of our capacities and our offers? If your practice deals with any of the issues described in this chapter, this call is meant for you!
observation
- it is often an unusual, compromised, and challenging space that a heterogeneous community can be found in. often, this space was not meant for dancing. sometimes, this space was not even meant for gathering.
INTERLACE
- assuming that there is something as an ideal space for dancing, how does dancing in unusual, compromised, challenging spaces and environments inform or change our understanding of the unusual, the compromised, and the challenging? how can dealing with the unusual, the compromised, or the challenging create an opportunity for bonding?;
observation
- when asked to dress comfortably, in a heterogeneous community some will respond by wearing sweatpants, others by putting high heels on, and make up.
INTERLACE
- how does your practice change when you permit yourself not to expect comfort to look like what you’d expect it to look like?
environmentalism ∞ lived experience
This question emerged in the conversation about cultural bias. Specifically, when we were talking about unusual, compromised, and challenging environments. A question was asked: “What if we’d think about bodies as environments?“. Bodies, after all, are experts in making space. Just imagine how—at a cellular level, embryologically speaking—bodies create themselves, thereby creating their own space and the space of their immediate environment. Or if you prefer thinking evolutionarily, you can think about the way bodies design, and build, locate and relocate, maintain, destroy and create environments on a daily basis. How can thinking bodies as environments and environments as bodies sensitise the way we relate to the world, the way we observe it, or act within it? How can thinking bodies as environments and environments as bodies influence the way we choose to make spaces functional for heterogeneous communities under the condition of diversity, inclusivity, and accessibility? If your practice deals with any of the issues described in this chapter, this call is meant for you!
observation
- can we talk about spaces in terms of lived experience, the way we’re learning to talk about bodies as environment? can we talk about bodies in terms of environmentalism, the way we can talk about the environment?
INTERLACE
- how did history and migration and economics shape the body that is the environment in which a heterogenous community gathers? does your practice treat the environment as a body, and how does it do that?
Conditions
Contributors will be given up to 90 minutes to present their practice in a format we call the ‘deep dive’.
We are being deliberately uninstructive regarding the form your contribution ought to be presented in. The reason for that is very simple. Encouraged by our experience working with artists, activists, and academics who specialise in making-knowledge by making-art, we’re assuming that the form of your contribution will be articulated specifically in relation to the knowledge you’re documenting through your practice. Our questions are,
- How does your practice operate?;
- What conditions does it require?; and
- In what format do you imagine sharing your practice and your observations with the symposium participants?;
- What kind of point would you like to make? To what embodied conclusion do you hope to bring the temporary community to? And why?
Your response may take place in written language. You may send us a pdf document with your responses and reflections to the questions above at maximum length of 3 pages, excluding images. In case writing is not your preferred medium of expression, we welcome video material. Maximum duration of video material is set to 6 minutes via link.
For your application we also need the following information (in English): personal data, a CV, a portrait photo and optionally links to videos/online platforms of past works.
Please submit your proposal via www.education.impulstanz.com.
This OPEN CALL closes on February 9, 2025.
We will respond to all applicants by the end of February, 2025.
Those invited to contribute will be offered a travel allowance (up to EUR 300,-), accommodation, and a contracted fee of EUR 500,-. An official letter of invitation will be sent to those contributors who accept our invitation, which you can use to secure any additional funds.
If questions remain, please write to symposium@impulstanz.com.
Thank you for your contributions!
pavleheidler for Team Lace