Pina Bausch Fellowship 2019

“It is not about art, also not about pure technique. It is about life, and therefore it is about finding a language for life.“ - Pina Bausch

Finding a language for life – the Arts Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Pina Bausch Foundation have been following up on Pina Bausch’s credo since 2016 with a co-developed grant programme and award the Pina Bausch Fellowship for Dance and Choreography. The sponsorship is meant for:

• grants for a temporary residence at renowned institutions for dance and choreography abroad
• a non-paid participation in an ensemble or a placement with a choreographer at home or abroad
• the studies of dance techniques with renowned personalities at home or abroad

The scholarship holders are getting the chance to gain new experiences and are encouraged to develop their own artistic characteristics with new forms of expression. For that purpose you need to look for a partner in whose work you are interested in or with whom you would like to cooperate. The cooperating partner can be an ensemble, a choreographer, a renowned personality of dance or a training institution for dance or choreography. Each applicant needs to find a cooperating partner prior to the application for the fellowship. The applicants have to submit a confirmation by the cooperation partner to apply for the fellowship. The Pina Bausch Fellowship is not a residency programme to work on own artistic productions, but enables the scholarship holders to learn new ways of artistic expression and techniques by working with a cooperation partner.

The Pina Bausch Fellowship is not a project fund, nor is it aimed at the development of new pieces. Each fellowship can take a minimum of three months and no longer than six months. It includes a monthly allowance of 2.500 Euros and one-time travel expenses. Up to four fellowships are granted each year. The Fellowship is promoted internationally. It has no age-restrictions and aims at single artists from the fields of dance and choreography (dancers and choreographers). They can apply if they meet the personal requirements.

The application is online with deadline September 15th, 2018. The application procedure requires:

• letter of motivation (max. 1500 characters with blanks in ENGLISH)
• a brief statement on your planned stay (max. 800 characters with blanks in ENGLISH)
• CV in tabular form (max. 1500 characters with blanks in ENGLISH) and a portrait
• information on the planned date and duration of the stay
• letter of intent from the cooperating partner (e.g. an ensemble, a renowned person or institution from the field of dance or choreography, in ENGLISH)
• video material

For choreographers: a selection of public performances (no more than three videos).

For dancers: a selection of performances in artistic productions (no more than two videos) and a recording of an artistic performance based on a task that they set for themselves (one video, no longer than five minutes).

Please note that you need to provide the video-material online, e.g. by secure file upload to a video portal. You can specify the links and passwords (if any) in the application form. For technical reasons we do not recommend to use YouTube or Dailymotion for your upload. Videos, whose links are not functional, can unfortunately not be considered.

Personal requirements:

• For dancers: university/academic degree in dance and/or two years professional experience with a renowned ensemble
• For choreographers: independent creation of at least one production with a public performance in the last three years

In order to take part in the Fellowship programme, basic knowledge of the English language is required for purposes of communication among the Fellowship holders and the participation in formats such as the presentation of the project proposal, press meetings and public presentations. Organisational handling such as email contact and travel bookings are going to be in English.