danceWEB Scholarship Programme 2021

The danceWEB Scholarship Programme 2021 was taking place from 14 July to 18 August 2021 in the frame of ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival.

The artistic mentors of the programme were Anne Juren (AT/FR) and Frédéric Gies (SE/FR). View their CVs >>here

The danceWEB Scholarship Programme 2021 took place from 14 July to 18 August in the frame of ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival. A total of 46 participants from 28 countries were welcomed, selected by the Artistic Committee 2020/2021 and the mentors of the Programme 2020/2021. The ImPulsTanz Festival 2020 had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the selected participants have been granted a spot in this year’s festival. This year's mentoring team consisted of the Viennese French choreographer and performer Anne Juren and Sweden based French dancer and choreographer Frédéric Gies. Anne Juren is a renowned choreographer, dancer and performer. She is currently developing choreographic works titled "Studies on Fantasmical Anatomy", an on-going research that extends the term choreography to include the body in various states of physical, poetic, fantasy, speculative, imaginative dimensions and experiences. Since 2013, she is also a certified Feldenkrais® practitioner. Frédéric Gies, who showed their work “Tribute” in collaboration with the Swedish Weld Company, reflects in their work experiences deriving from the techno and rave scene as well as somatic practices, which Gies themselves calls “Technosomatics”. With these means Gies creates a choreographic language and practice in which the topics of their own (dance) history, constructions of identity and socio-political topics are being reflected. Between 2012 and 2018 Frédérc Gies was director of the MA in Choreography at DOCU-SKH in Sweden. Anne Juren and Frédéric Gies share a long friendship as well as their artistic interest for somatic approaches, which are particular to their individual ways of working and artistic handwritings. A connection, which was also of great importance for these year’s scholarship holders. Gies and Juren offered the weekly two hours long “lunch break talks”, during which they were available for questions and talks with the danceWEBers. Often these talks were of artistic nature or reflected shared experiences on performances or workshops at the festival. These talks were frequently visited with a great interest of the participants. The conversations were furthermore strongly influenced by the first and last days of the scholarship programme during which the danceWEBers worked only with their mentors. A.o. they developed shared awareness formats like a collective “diary practice” during the whole festival, as well as somatic anatomical drawing practices.

In the course of two danceWEB salons, all participants finally came together as group with the mentors. The first salon took place on the rehearsal stage of the Volksoper Vienna and offered a platform to reflect the experiences of the first half of the festival in smaller groups. The second Salon took place at Arsenal in form of a poetic invitation of the main characters Solange and Delphine from the Movie “Les demoiselles de Rochefort” (1967).  The dramaturgy of this festivity and celebration was marked by various stations which were established in the studio space (chat corner, dance corner, feedback corner, …) and ended in a collective dance and celebrating.
            On 10^th August, the Viennese association and organizer of the scholarship programme invited friends and sponsors of the danceWEB Scholarship Programme to the foyer of the Odeon Theater for the so-called danceWEB reception and also welcomed representatives of various embassies in Vienna. This year for the first time the evening took place under the title of “danceWEB & ATLAS reception” in order to enhance the given synergies between the two educational programmes (danceWEB Scholarhsip Programme and ATLAS – create your dance trails). Furthermore, this occasion offered the opportunity to get to know the 2021 scholarship recipients in person and to network. Afterwards all invited guests had the chance to attend the performance “The Goldberg Variations” by Platform_K/Michiel Vandevelde/Philippe Turiot.

During the final days a Q&A-session took place with the [8:tension] Young Choreographers’ Series curator Christ Standfest. The two programmes danceWEB and ATLAS were once again reunited which led to a very enriching (almost) two hours long talk. Additionally a feedback and Q&A talk with Rio Rutzinger, artistic director workshops and research, and this year’s danceWEB coordination team, Lina Lev and Sara Lanner took place. Apart from the shared joy about the scholarship programme in general also a critical view was put on the festival. Topics that moved this year’s danceWEBers were: inclusion and exclusion based on impairment, postcolonial topics and cultural appropriation and how these are reflected in the workshop programmes, diversity, touch and its boundaries and the idea of an “awareness team” at the different festival locations (Workshops, Lounge). A great relief was the fact that the festival could have been implemented until the end and potential COVID-clusters were at all times brought under control effectively – especially thanks to the solidaric cooperation and heightened awareness of those present.

In addition to the intensive focus on training and further education, the danceWEB Scholarship Programme is aimed particularly at exchange and networking. Through the setting and structures of the ImPulsTanz Festival it offers a unique place to network with the artists present on an international level. Thus, there are always successful collaborations and initiatives that are initiated in the course of the Scholarship Programme and which the association danceWEB – as well as the individual artistic careers of the scholarship holders – continues to pursue with great interest, attention and joy.

danceWEB Scholarship Recipients 2021
(lives in … / comes from …)

Claire Lefèvre – Austria /France
Julia Müllner | Mwoyo Dziruni | Camilla Schielin – Austria
Sebastiano Sing – Austria /Germany
Kyungrim (Lim) Jang – Austria / South Korea
Julia Rubies – Belgium / Spain
Helena Dietrich – Belgium / Germany
Andreas Haglund – Denmark / Sweden
Antonia Harke – Denmark / Germany
Forough Fami – Germany / Iran
Onur Agbaba | Julek Kreutzer | Deva Schubert – Germany    
Liselotte Singer – Germany / France
Dorota Michalak – Germany / Poland
Nastya Dzyuban – Germany / Ukraine
Xenia Vlachou-Koghilaki – Germany / Greece
Corinne Mustonen – Finland
Simea Cavelti – France / Switzerland
Lucia Rosenfeld – France / Austria
Tilhenn Klapper – France
Julia Barrette-Laperrière – France / Canada
Aria Boumpaki – Greece
Gergo Farkas – Hungary
Masoumeh Jalalieh | Alireza Keymanesh – Iran
Yuval Finkelshtein – Israel
Juan Carlos Palma – Mexico
Vasco Mirine – Mozambique                                                                   
Mami Kang – Netherlands / Japan
Dominic Promise – Nigeria
Nemanja Bošković – Serbia
Richard Mascherin – Spain/Venezuela 
Elise Brewer | Tyra Wigg – Sweden
Klara Utke Acs – Sweden / Denmark
Sarah Bucher – Switzerland
Rafal Pierzynski – Switzerland / Poland
Dilan Onay –  Turkey
Haman Mpadire | Moses Ntege  – Uganda
Ogemdi Ude | Gabriel Christian DeLeon | Raja Kelly – USA
Miguel Alejandro Castillo Le Maitre – USA / Venezuela

Gallery pics © yako.one & Sonja Kuzmics