Keðja: STRE-TCH Creative Lab
Scotland, 20 – 27 March 2022
STRE-TCH Creative Lab is a professional development intensive for artists with an established community dance practice. The artist lab will be a space for sharing practice, creative collaboration and enabling connections. It is hosted by The Work Room (Scotland) on behalf of the Keðja network of European dance organisations.
STRE-TCH Creative Lab will delve into the themes of dance as a community practice and sustainability (both human & environmental). It will be a space for artists experienced in community dance work to exchange experiences and ideas. Through the lab, we are interested in collectively re-imaging a sustainable future for dance and international collaboration.
Keðja is an informal, international network of dance organisations. Together we aim to create open meeting places for those working in dance. Keðja facilitates events that gather individuals from dance communities to meet, share and learn together and empowers dance professionals to connect and collaborate.
The Work Room is a membership organisation, committed to creating a sustainable
environment for independent artists working in dance in Scotland.
STRE-TCH Creative Lab will be co-facilitated by independent dance artists and choreographers Janice Parker and Nadia Iftkhar. Janice is known for her collaborative performance projects with people of different ages and abilities, working locally, nationally and internationally. She works across art forms and believes in the value of diversity in the development of movement-based art-works. Janice’s work is informed by the believe that:
‘All art has the potential to be an act of quiet, or noisy, activism.’
Nadia is founding Artistic Director & CEO of Company of Others, a dance theatre company based in the North East of England. As a choreographer she is interested in how we physically unlearn, learn and share our stories. As an Artistic Director she is interested in how her work can create new realities and contribute to social justice movements. As a CEO she is interested in how we create organisations that are decolonized, hopeful and more human.
STRE-TCH Lab format:
The lab will bring together 12 artists from across the partner organisation countries. Artists will arrive in Glasgow on Sunday 20 March and depart on Sunday 27 March. We will spend the first four days at Wiston Lodge, a rural, residential centre providing facilities on-site to live, eat and practice together – both inside and out of doors.
On Friday 25, we will return to Glasgow and will be joined by representatives from the Kedja partner organisations. The final two days will involve round table discussions, presentations and opportunities to engage with the dance community in Scotland.
Who is it for:
The STRE-TCH Lab is targeted at independent choreographers with an established community dance or social engaged practice. By this we mean, artists who regularly collaborate with people and communities in research, creation and performance.
Participants will be drawn from the Keðja partner organisations’ countries, with one artist selected on-behalf each of the partner organisations.
Keðja and The Work Room are committed to ensuring an expansive range of dance artists and practices are visible and supported. We particularly recognise the rich potential for exchange between dance artists from different practices, perspectives and experiences. We have additional financial support available to meet any access requirements.
Each artist will receive:
- A bursary of 900 euros for participating in the project;
- Travel to/ from Scotland and all accommodation in Scotland
Practical Information:
During the STRE-TCH Lab, participants will stay in two locations:
- At Wiston Lodge a charity housed in a former Victorian Hunting Lodge built in the 1870s. Accommodation here is in dormitory-style, shared rooms. There will be full catering responding to different dietary requirements. Participating artists will work both inside and out of doors.
- In Glasgow, in hotel accommodation with meals provided.
We will work with the selected artists to meet any access requirements you may have.
Covid-19 RISKS:
Please be aware that all planned activity and dates may change due to the continued progress of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions to travel to Scotland. We will adhere to the current requirements for international travel from each country and will require the artists to work within this. You can see the current position for travel to Scotland here. If necessary, we will seek alternative dates or approaches in conversation with the participating artists.
STRE-TCH Lab is funded as part of the Connect & Collaborate programme by the British Council Scotland & Creative Scotland
