danceWEB Scholarship Programme 2018

The danceWEB Scholarship Programme 2018 took place from July 11 to August 15 in the frame of the
ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival. It welcomed in total 36 participants from 24 countries
world- wide that were selected by the Artistic Committee 2018 as well as the mentors of the program
2018, the Austrian choreographer Florentina Holzinger and Berlin based Choreographer Meg Stuart.
Florentina was a danceWEB scholarship recipient herself in 2010 and is continuing the line of former
danceWEB participants that became internationally reputed dance artists and were nominated danceWEB
mentors. Florentina Holzinger is well known for her performances were she consciously plays with a shifting of boundaries between high culture and entertainment in all her works. She has enriched the international performance scene with dizzying acrobatics, muscular women’s bodies and martial-arts fight scenes since 2011 – pop-cultural references and a penchant for trash included (such as „Kein Applaus für Scheiße“, „Apollon“, „Spirit”, “Wellness” and “Schönheitsabend”). Meg Stuart works have been widely performed internationally and with her company Damaged Goods, Stuart has created more than twenty productions, ranging from solos to large-scale choreographies and including site-specific creations and installations. Both mentors taught workshops during the first weeks of the ImPulsTanz Festival in which the danceWEB participants showed great interest and the majority of them participated.

Their different artistic handwritings imprinted the work with the scholarship recipients 2018, especially during the first and the last days of the program, where the danceWEBbers were solely working with Florentina Holzinger and Meg Stuart. During the opening days, the Mentors created an extended schedule for the rest of the program, with a large variety of actions and happenings such as a 2 minutes improvised solo on stage of Burgtheater, “performing spectatorship” at mumok – museum moderner kunst stiftung ludwig wien, lectures by Electric Indigo and “Omas gegen Rechts” and different physical working sessions.

During the five weeks of the danceWEB Programme, its recipients had the possibility to create their individual schedule from a variety of research projects, workshops and performances offered by the ImPulsTanz festival, according to their personal and artistic needs. Three times during the program the whole danceWEB group came back together with Florentina Holzinger in the so-called danceWEB Salon.

During these sessions, the group presented their individual artistic work to each other and approached and discussed burning matters and desires within the group. The self-organised showing work session took place in the accommodation of the scholarship recipients. This session was met with great interest 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 Florentina Holzinger and Meg Stuart offered one-to-one conversations to the danceWEB participants throughout the five weeks of the program. During these sessions anything could be discussed with this years’ mentors.

On August 3, 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 2018. This get-together evening in the Rote Bar of the Viennese Volkstheater further welcomed representatives of various embassies in Vienna. During this evening one had the chance to meet the scholarship recipients 2018 personally and use this opportunity for networking. The evening was concluded with the mutual attendance of the performance “Romances inciertos, un autre Orlando” by François Chaignaud & Nino Laisné in the Volkstheater. Chaignaud was as well a danceWEB scholarship participant 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 the further artistic initiatives of the scholarship participants 2018 that might evolve of their Scholarship Programme participation.

Fotocredits Gallery: Karolina Miernik, Emilia Milewska, Marlene Rosenthal