Want to expand your touring potential? For companies wishing to get their work in front of the world’s leading performing arts professionals, applications for ISPA’s Pitch New Works 2016 showcase close in just under a week on 30 Sep – so get your proposals in now.
For the 68th edition of ISPA’s New York Congress, taking place this forthcoming January, the theme is ‘performance’– quite simply that special relationship between the artist and the art.
‘The creation, curation and presentation of art and artists are at the heart of all we do. Across the globe approaches differ vastly and within single regions, new influences drive inspiring new practices,’ explained CEO David Baile. ‘Every day colleagues are discovering uncharted creative territory. What role do innovation, funding, training and technology play in our work? Are there fundamentals that exist across those approaches and practices?’
These issues and more will be explored across the conference schedule, and brought to life at the live performance pitch party on 13 January. For this ISPA selects just 10 submissions to step into limelight in front of more than 400 of the world’s leading performing arts professionals, representative of more than 50 countries.
At each of the biannual congresses (the mid-year gathering takes place 30 May – 4 June 2016 in Melbourne, Australia), applicants are given just seven minutes to sell their project, followed by three minutes to pad out their proposal at a Q&A session. Following this is the opportunity to interact with delegates during ISPA’s informal networking session; ProEx (Professional Exchange).
Past presenters in Pitch New Works have included AsiaNow and Noreum Machi (South Korea), Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, SITI Company, and Mark Morris Dance Group (United States), Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Imogen Heap, and Siobhan Davies Dance Company (Great Britain), Chinese Music Virtuosi (Hong Kong), Chunky Move and Force Majeure (Australia), Soundstreams, Tafelmusik and Toronto Dance Theatre (Canada), Opera Africa and Farber Foundry (South Africa), Tao Dance Theater (China), and Brussels Jazz Orchestra.
Recent success stories include Bandaloop, who expanded their autumn 2013 tour of seven cities to Monterrey, Mexico and Kitchener, Ontario. Force Majeure’s Never Did Me Any Harm attracted the interest of 20 presenters, and secured a UK tour for 2014-15. TAO Dance Theater’s new work 2, meanwhile, resulted in a co-commision and additional performance dates for the work as well as a Scandinavian touring agent.
- Prospective projects submitted for the 2016 edition must be in development, or have had minimal public exposure, and be ready to premiere within the next two years.
- Alternatively, work that has recently premiered, but is worthy of international touring, artistic enhancement and expansion outside its region of origin, is also welcomed.
- Works from the canon will only be considered only if they demonstrate a substantially new interpretation via a new production team.
- Multidisciplinary and/or cross-cultural projects are particularly attractive. Non-ISPA members are welcome to apply, full application details are available to download here on the website.
For a heads up on what is expected of pitch candidates, watch the presentation for Airport at the 2015 congress here. Created by Kristján Ingimarsson and produced by Neander (Denmark) and Reykjavik City Theater (Iceland), in co-production with REPUBLIQUE (Denmark). Airport will premiere at Copenhagen’s Republique theatre 12 – 28 November, thanks to meetings secured in NYC.
Candidates will be notified of their application status on Wednesday, 4 November, 2015.
