danceWEB Scholarship Programme 2017

The Austrian choreographer, performer and DJ Doris Uhlich is the danceWEB mentor 2017. Read more >>here

The danceWEB Scholarship Programme 2017 took place from July 13 to August 16 in the frame of ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival. It welcomed in total 67 participants from 31 countries world-wide that were selected by the Artistic Committee 2017 as well as the mentor of the program 2017, the Austrian choreographer Doris Uhlich. She was a danceWEB scholarship recipient herself in 2004 and is continuing the line of former danceWEB participants that became internationally reputed dance artists and were nominated danceWEB mentors.

Doris Uhlich is well known for her performances focusing on the emancipated body on an international level (such as more than naked, Universal Dancer, Boom Bodies etc.). This topic imprinted her work with the scholarship recipients 2017, especially during the first and the last days of the program, during which the danceWEBbers were solely working with Doris Uhlich. Additionally, she invited about 25 scholarship recipients to join her latest artistic project Seismic Session on the construction side of the famous Viennese Secession. This choreography was shown twice in the ImPulsTanz festival, on August 10 and 13, a choreography of building, melting and parasitical cohabitation of the famous art nouveau building’s skin.
During the five weeks of the danceWEB Programme, its recipients had the possibility to program their individual schedule from a variety of research projects, workshops and performances offered by the ImPulsTanz festival, according to their personal and artistic needs. Once during the program the whole danceWEB group came back together to work with Doris Uhlich in the so-called danceWEB Salon. During this session the group did not so much work physically but approached and discussed burning matters and desires within the group. One initiative that evolved of this meeting was a self-organised showing work session in the accommodation of the scholarship recipients. This session was met with such great interest that it was repeated three times and fulfilled the wish of getting to know each other’s works and artistic paths and interests. As such, the foundation for future collaborations could be laid.
Another initiative was that Doris Uhlich offered one-to-one conversations to the danceWEB participants throughout the five weeks of the program. During these so-called “(un)happy hours” anything could be discussed with this years’ mentor.
On July 28, midway through the ImPulsTanz Festival 2017, Florentina Holzinger, Michele Rizzo and Cecilia Bengolea (teachers in this year’s ImPulsTanz festival and previous scholarship recipients themselves) programmed a big public event in the Viennese Museumsquartier. Fight Club Dancehall Bolero gave insight in their workshop practices and welcomed around 20 danceWEB participants on stage as well. This spectacular evening attracted a huge Viennese audience that gathered in the Museumsquartier to attend this 2-½ hours show free of entry.
On July 26, the Viennese association and organiser of the Scholarship Programme, danceWEB, invited friends and funding institutions of the danceWEB Scholarship Programme to the so-called danceWEB reception 2017. This get-together evening in the Rote Bar of the Viennese Volkstheater welcomed further representatives of various embassies in Vienna, such as the ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia and the cultural attachés of the Argentinian and German embassy. During this evening one had the chance to meet the scholarship recipients 2017 personally and use this opportunity for networking. The evening was concluded with the mutual attendance of the performance DFS by Cecilia Bengolea and François Chaignaud in the Volkstheater, both danceWEB scholarship participants in 2008.
Beside its intensive focus on further training and knowledge transfer, the danceWEB Scholarship Programme fulfils another important layer: thanks to its frame of the ImPulsTanz festival, Europe’s biggest festival for contemporary dance and performance, it provides an unique ground for networking and getting to know other artists present in the festival. As such, successful collaborations where already established and danceWEB is very keen on following its scholarship participants 2017 and their further artistic initiatives that might evolve of their Scholarship Programme participation.

View the experience report from the danceWEB mentor 2017 Doris Uhlich in the right column.

Gallery pictures by Karolina Miernik & Emilia Milewska

12.07.17 - 16.08.17

Vienna (AT)

supported/organized by Danceweb

Downloads:
report_dW17_doris_uhlich.pdf

danceWEB Scholarship Programme 2017

GALLERY