SURGE: Call for Early Career Dance Artists
Seeking emerging and early career dance artists to participate in SURGE
WORKSHOP AUDITION: Wednesday, January 8th, 11:00am - 1:00pm at Halifax Dance
DEADLINE TO REGISTER: Monday, January 6th
Mocean Dance is seeking five Atlantic-based emerging and early career dance artists to participate in SURGE, a new creative development program intended to support the next generation of professional dance artists. Selected artists will take part in one of two parallel creation processes, either with guest choreographer Emma Kerson, or with Sara Coffin, Mocean’s co-Artistic Director. Artists are welcome to apply to work with either or both choreographers, however successful candidates will be selected for only one creation process.
Each choreographer will work with dancers for three weeks to explore and develop a new, short dance work, culminating in an informal sharing at the Halifax Central Library as part of Mocean’s Spring Blooms presentation. The project also includes dance training and career mentorship opportunities. For more information about the choreographer's work please see info provided at the bottom of this form.
Program Intention and Values: The intentions of SURGE are to offer early career and emerging professional dance artists an opportunity to develop their skills as nuanced performers and dance interpreters and to build support networks between emerging artists. We value working with dance artists who have a passion for experimentation and collaboration and who have a drive to expand their creative and interpretive skills. We value bringing together dance artists from a diversity of backgrounds and experiences.
HOW TO REGISTER:
- Complete the application form and attach a C.V. (max. 2 pages) or a short bio (150 words) - Deadline: Monday, January 6th, 2025
- Attend our in-person workshop audition on Wednesday, January 8th from 11:00-1:00 at Halifax Dance.
Workshop Audition Details: Wednesday, January 8th, 11:00am - 1:00pm at Halifax Dance (1505 Barrington Street, Halifax). The workshop is intended as a way for the choreographers and applying dancers to become more familiar with each other's working styles, skills, and artistic interests, etc. It will involve a guided warm-up and creative prompts by the project choreographers. For those unable to attend the in-person workshop please contact us to make alternate arrangements.
Eligibility: SURGE is open to Atlantic-based dance artists with an active dance practice who self-identify as emerging and/or early career. Suggested signifiers to determine if you are early career and/or emerging include (but are not limited to), that you are:
- Seeking to hone their practice as a dance artist
- Working to establish a presence in the arts/dance community
- Seeking professional experience and/or career mentorship
- Have a maximum of five years of performance experience
- Have completed formative or professional training
Contract Dates /Fees: Rehearsal dates: Tues-Fri. March 4-7; March 18-21; March 25-28 from 10:00-3:30. Rehearsals take place at Halifax Dance. Rehearsal rate $33/hr and $200 for public showing. Please note, there is no additional funds for travel, however we can provide support letters for travel grants.
Public Showing Dates/Location: Wednesday, April 2nd, 7pm | Halifax Central Library. Full schedule to be determined. This will be an informal, low production public showing as part of Spring Blooms.
Selection Process: Selection will be made by Mocean's artistic staff in consultation with the project choreographers, based on written application and in-person workshop. Notification by Friday, January 17, 2025.
For those unable to attend the in-person workshop audition please contact Susanne to make alternate arrangements: [email protected]
*** If you have any questions, or if the registration form or any aspect of the format presents a barrier for you, please connect with [email protected]. Options for a scheduled informal chat can be made available ***
We welcome and encourage people from all communities and intersecting identities to apply. This includes Indigenous people, LGBTQ+ & Two-Spirit people, Black people and people of colour.
About SURGE
SURGE is a new development and creative incubation program intended to serve the next generation of local dance artists by providing an opportunity to work with an established choreographer in a professional company setting. The work is intended to challenge emerging artists to push their technical and interpretive skills while also providing support and mentorship from seasoned artists and Mocean’s leadership. This program was developed in response to community feedback for more opportunities for emerging artists to expand their interpretive skills, and for established choreographers to develop work.
About the Choreographers
EMMA KERSON
“I'm interested in detailed movement mechanics and the dramaturgy of an idea. I don’t make on dancers, but with them. I'm searching for what is human, for each individual's voice and how we can affect one another in a creative process. As a general methodology I lean towards generating improvisational scores and tasks to source material, followed by lots of playing around, re-assessing, modifying, sharpening, and trying again.
I'd like to incorporate writing and voice; to explore improvisational games and tools to generate character and text; to embody imagery; and to explore repetition, absurdity, and transformation within physical group movement.”
BIO:
Raised by the sea in Kjipuktuk (Halifax), Emma Kerson is a dance artist, choreographer, outside eye, and teacher. Her work has been developed in residencies thanks to adelheid, Arts Orillia, Citadel + Compagnie, Halifax Dance, Mocean Dance, MOonhORsE Dance Theatre, the National Ballet of Canada, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, and Shawbrook Residential (Ireland). She has been commissioned and presented by platforms across Canada, and is the 2023 recipient of the Diane Moore Creation Award. In 2019 she founded Bare Nerve with Jane-Alison McKinney; their work “hard wire” has been presented across Ontario throughout 2023 and 2024. She is a graduate of Dalhousie University (B.A.), The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, and the University of Toronto (M.A.). Emma is the current Co-Artistic Director of Kinetic. https://emmakerson.ca/
SARA COFFIN
“In making, together we start with a seed of an idea and source from personal stories/experience, or decide the frame of the context to drive our tools for generating. I am drawn to tracking relationality within the interior landscape/body to drive our states of play and tone, especially celebrating each dancers’ unique physiology and palette of experience. I use the tool of task-based choreography; driven by courage and the humility of failure to reveal transformation. The sensation of falling and feeling off-centre, seeing weight flow travel through space, and watching space expand and compress are aesthetic that excite me.”
BIO
Sara (she/her) is an award-winning dance artist, choreographer, dance educator and Co-Artistic Director of Mocean Dance. Coffin has been teaching and creating interdisciplinary contemporary dance work for over twenty years. She received the NS Established Artist Award in 2018, her MFA in Choreography (Smith College), BFA in Dance (Simon Fraser University) and BSc Kinesiology Science (Dalhousie University). Coffin has created over 30 dance works and her choreographic work has been presented in many prominent Canadian dance festivals and in the United States. Her research interests include interdisciplinary collaboration, the tools and practice of contact improvisation as methodology for emergent forms, and the poetic junction between vulnerability, resiliency, and courage. https://www.saracoffin.ca/
