ATLAS – create your dance trails 2023

Choreographic training programme

ATLAS – create your dance trails is a modular training programme in the scope of ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival. It offers both artists with first choreographic experience and artists in the middle of their career, including from other disciplines, a dynamic environment for their artistic development. The programme aims to meet two of their central needs: first, to have access to studio space to do research and work on pieces, and second, to receive new input through individual training programmes, by watching international productions and by exchanging ideas with artists from more than 100 countries, as well as through peer-to-peer exchanges among the ATLAS group. Dramaturgical advice is provided by a coach supervising the participants’ work during the course of the programme. For the first time in 2023 this will be dancer, choreographer and lecturer Angélique Willkie together with multidiciplinary artist Mélanie Demers.

ATLAS INCLUDES

Workshop and Research Module

• 3-day introductory session lead by ATLAS coaches Angélique Willkie and Mélanie Demers
• Participation in all workshops
• Participation in all research projects

Performance Module

• Free admission to all productions

Rehearsal and Workspace Module

• Studio space with 3 to 4 studios exclusively for the ATLAS group
• Personal artistic coaching (at least two individual sessions)
• Regular exchange and feedback sessions within the ATLAS group (depending on the needs of the participants)
• Meetings with choreographers from the [8:tension] Young Choreographers’ Series
• Peer showing(s) along the duration of the programme
• Final feedback talk with the ATLAS coaches and peers
• ATLAS certificate (with accompanying sparkly drinks)

Plus

• Accommodation in Vienna
• ImPulsTanz bike for the duration of the stay or alternatively a monthly ticket for public transport
• Free admission to the ImPulsTanz parties
• Discount on the dish of the day in the cafeteria at the ImPulsTanz workshop centre

FEES & APPLICATION

The participation fee is 2,600 euro.
To apply, please send the completed form, a CV, a letter of motivation (in English) and a portrait photo by email to atlas(at)impulstanz.com. Prospective participants are invited to describe in the letter of motivation the project they plan to work on during their stay.
We will inform applicants within 14 days of their acceptance or rejection. To formalise your participation in the ATLAS programme, a down payment of 800 euro must be made no later than four weeks after confirmation of acceptance. Participants must be of legal age.
After receiving the down payment or the total participation fee, we will send you an official invitation letter including confirmation of acceptance. This letter is intended to help with applications for travel subsidies, grants or other types of financial support. The ATLAS assistant will be happy to advise you on available funding opportunities.
*The participation fee does not include travel costs, visa fees, health insurance, food.

Application deadline
15 February 2023
(Subject to availability, applications are evaluated on an ongoing basis)

Contact
atlas(at)ipulstanz.com

Angélique Willkie
Performer, singer, pedagogue and dramaturg, Angélique Willkie completed a Master’s degree in Economics at McGill University before starting her dance training at the School of Toronto Dance Theater. Her career evolved in Europe over the following 25 years where she worked, amongst others, with Alain Platel, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Jan Lauwers / Needcompany, and as a singer with the Belgian world-music group, Zap Mama. Working as a dramaturg for dance and circus, and still on stage as a performer, Angélique is Assistant Professor in the Department of Contemporary Dance at Montreal’s Concordia University and is currently pursuing a PhD in dramaturgy at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).

Mélanie Demer
The multidisciplinary artist Mélanie Demers founded her dance company MAYDAY in 2007 in Montreal, exploring the powerful link between the poetical and the political. Her body of works has been created from this perspective. With each new creation, she deepened her engagement with cross-genre works and hybrid forms. Her fascination with the interplay between word and gesture crystallized with WOULD (2015), which won the CALQ Prize for best choreography. In 2016, Mélanie Demers began a new creation cycle with Animal Triste and Icône Pop; both works toured internationally. In 2017, she was invited alongside Laïla Diallo to work as a guest choreographer at the Skånes Dansteater in Malmö (Sweden) for the creation of Something About Wilderness. After the ambitious and international project, Danse Mutante hit the stage in 2019, La Goddam Voie Lactée (2021), Confession Publique (2021) and Cabaret Noir (2022) were entering the spotlight in various prestigious venues and festivals. In 2021, Mélanie Demers received the GRAND PRIX de la danse de Montréal which recognizes the unique mark she left on her era. The next year, she was awarded the CALQ Prize for best choreography for Confession Publique. For the same work, Angélique Willkie received Les Prix de la danse de Montréal 2022 for best performance.

Lastly, she turned towards theatre and directed the piece Déclarations by acclaimed author Jordan Tannahill. She teaches in the greatest theatre schools in Canada and is a regular contributor on radio and television shows. To date, she choreographed thirty works and was presented in about forty cities across Europe, America, Africa and Asia.