Dance Presentation Program: Support to Presenters
The Dance Section of the Canada Council for the Arts considers presenters of dance to be essential connectors in the Canadian dance ecology. The Dance Presentation Program offers financial support to organizations that present dance works to the Canadian public, with the aim of:
- encouraging creative risk-taking in dance programming and creating a more dynamic environment for dance presentation in Canada;
- contributing to the development and vitality of the art form;
- extending, deepening and enriching existing relationships and cultivating new partnerships among local, national, and international artists and presenters;
- increasing creation, performance and visibility opportunities for professional dance artists and companies; and
- enhancing audience engagement and appreciation of dance.
For more information, please see: http://canadacouncil.ca/council/grants/find-a-grant/grants/dance-presentation-program-support-to-presenters
The Dance Presentation Program has six components: Foreign Artists’ Tours, Commissions/Co-productions, Creative Residencies, Visiting Dance Professionals, Choreographic Workshops/Labs and Strategic Collaborations.
The Foreign Artists’ Tour component provides support to Canadian presenters of dance that host a Canadian tour of a foreign artist, company or collective. Over 10 foreign professional artists were able to tour in Canada through support from this program between 2010 and 2014. Among them were artists from Cuba, South Africa, and Taiwan.
The Visiting Dance Professionals component provides support for Canadian presenters of dance to invite out-of-province, out-of-territory, or international dance professionals to facilitate workshops or conduct master classes for professional artists.
The Dance Presentation Program is expected to help develop existing relationships and lead to new partnerships between Canadian and international artists and presenters by enabling Canadian presenters to invite foreign dancers to Canada. This will not only increase visibility and opportunities for foreign dancers, but also expose Canadian audiences to a greater variety of dance.
The goals of the program are to enhance programming options for Canadian presenters, encourage dialogue between members of the Canadian and international dance milieux, cultivate mutual exchange and collaboration between Canadian and foreign presenters, and ensure that international dance works are performed for the benefit of Canadian audiences.
As one example, in 2014, Vancouver-based presenter The Firehall Arts Centre coordinated a five-city tour of South African dance artist Vincent Mantsoe. The engagement reached multiple cities across Canada including Vancouver, Ottawa, Peterborough, Montreal and Toronto. Audience dialogue and talkback sessions were organized in Vancouver and Toronto, and special outreach was undertaken to reach the South African communities. This cross-Canada tour was important in offering Canadian audiences exposure to culturally diverse work. Amongst the Canadian presenters, Dance Immersion has a specific focus on dance from the African diaspora, and Montreal Arts Interculturels focuses on Indigenous and culturally diverse works. The other presenters are mainstream Western Contemporary presenters and this initiative diversified their programming.
The total grant amount for Support to Presenters program in the 2013-14 fiscal year was $420 250 CAD.