Call for Portfolio: Sounding Motion

Portfolio is a Sound and Music artist development programme. Aimed at talented composers at an early stage in their career, Sound and Music’s Portfolio scheme provides a key development opportunity for composers to create new work with and for some of the UK’s leading ensembles and presenters of new music. Portfolio enables composers to develop their portfolio of work and gain vital artistic and practical insight and experience in working with professional ensembles and presenting organisations, and delivering new work to public audiences.

As part of the Portfolio programme, Sound and Music and Sounding Motion offer opportunities for up to three composers to develop new small-scale works for dance. An experimental and highly integrated development process lies at the heart of Sounding Motion’s work.

Participants will have the opportunity to develop their collaborative skills and creative practice in workshops as they work in close partnership with instrumentalists, choreographer and dancers to develop a new short dance work for presentation by the company in late 2016.

The work can be a study for a longer dance work or it might be a shorter stand-alone work. This residency provides a rich professional development opportunity for composers with a keen interest in dance – though not necessarily any personal experience of composing for it.

Details:
• The opportunity is to develop and deliver a new work of up to 15’ duration in collaboration with Sounding Motion: a choreographer, up to 3 contemporary dancers and duo Stephen Upshaw, viola and Calie Hough, percussion (vib, drum kit, toms, snare drum, wood blocks x4, temple block x4, cymbals, congas, bongos, toys/traps, all additional requests subject to budget).

• Although it is expected you will work with a minimum of one dancer, a choreographer and one musician it is not required that the work uses the complete forces available and Sounding Motion is actively looking to develop works using 1, 2 & 3 dancers.

• While work for this project should be exclusively acoustic (without technology), the style and scope of the final work is flexible and can be decided by the composer working closely with Sounding Motion.

• The opportunity will be scheduled around up to four workshops between winter and summer 2016. During these you will be able to test ideas and develop the work collaboratively. The first workshop will be an opportunity to meet & discuss sketches with your paired choreographer, the dancers and the musicians. The second workshop will be a meeting with the musicians only and the third and possible fourth workshop will offer an opportunity to develop more complete pieces, with scope for minor changes before final rehearsals and performance in autumn 2016. All works will be presented together in the same programme.

• Composer and choreographer pairs will be offered the opportunity for feedback from invited audience members. Involvement in this process is not compulsory.

• You will be supported by an experienced artist mentor.

• The proposal must be for a new work (not something already written or in development).

• Agreed travel and accommodation costs for the workshops and performance will be covered, as well as the costs of producing materials.
Eligibility:
• You must be resident in the UK at the time of application and for the duration of the scheme.

• You must not be in full time undergraduate education

• This must represent a significant development opportunity for you

• You must be available for interview on the appointed date (estimated 14 December 2015)

• You may apply for more than one Sound and Music professional development scheme residency (Embedded and Portfolio) simultaneously, but you may take up only one residency at any one time. If you choose to apply for more than one residency, please submit separate applications for each call.

Sound and Music actively seeks to encourage a diversity of applicants to its programmes. If you are selected, we will do our best to accommodate any particular needs you may have. A copy of our Equality Policy is available on our website here: www.soundandmusic.org/knowledge-hub/evidence-hub.

For more information about this opportunity, please go to: http://www.soundandmusic.org/projects/call-portfolio-sounding-motion

For more information visit http://www.soundandmusic.org/projects/call-portfolio-sounding-motion