Grants to Aboriginal Dance Professionals
Deadline
1 November
If this date falls on a weekend or statutory holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day. Your completed application and all support material must be postmarked on or before the deadline date.
Program Description
This program provides support and assistance to Canadian Aboriginal dance professionals (individuals) to pursue projects involving professional development, research, and apprenticeship or mentorship. Individual professionals can identify themselves as being in one of the following categories:
- emerging
- mid-career
- established.
Professionals working in all dance world cultures and in a wide range of dance genres and specializations are eligible to apply for support (see Appendix A of the application form for a complete list of eligible specializations).
This program administers the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize, a $6,000 award given to the most deserving candidate (as judged by the peer assessment committee) from among the established dance professionals applying to this program.
The program also co-administers the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Awards, which provide a $15,000 award to an outstanding mid-career Canadian dance artist, as nominated by peer assessment committees in this and other programs for mid-career artists..
Eligibility
General Applicant Eligibility
You are eligible to apply to this program if you are a Canadian Aboriginal dance professional (individual); Aboriginal peoples include Status, non-Status, Métis and Inuit people.
If you are a dance professional working with a dance company or organization, you may only apply to this program for support of a project that is not included in the ongoing activities of the company or organization. If you are an established dance professional, you may only apply for support to take sabbatical leave from your professional responsibilities.
We recognize the dance profession involves many facets of activity that enhance the dance milieu. Creative, career, and professional activities are eligible in this program.
You must also be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada, as defined by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
The Canada Council for the Arts defines a professional artist as someone who:
- has specialized training in the field (not necessarily in academic institutions)
- is recognized as such by her or his peers (artists working in the same artistic tradition)
- is committed to devoting more time to the artistic activity, if financially feasible
- has a history of public presentation.
Note that meeting the eligibility criteria allows you to apply to the program. However, it does not guarantee that you will receive a grant.
Full-time undergraduate students enrolled at a dance academy, college or university are not eligible to apply.
Specific Applicant Eligibility
All Applicants
You must determine your status (as defined below) for this application.
You are considered to be an emerging dance professional if you have completed your basic training (as defined by the standards of your dance genre), are ready to undertake a professional career and have had some professional experience.
- For dancers, this means having performed in at least one professional public presentation (for example, you received payment for one engagement following graduation from a pre-professional training program).
- Choreographers must have presented at least three works publicly in a period of three consecutive years. The works choreographed must have been set and performed using paid professional artists.
- Recognized teachers can apply to this program for professional development of skills and knowledge to enhance the professional milieu. All teachers require a letter of support from an experienced dance professional.
- Designers must have been paid to work on at least one professional production.
- For apprenticeship or mentorship projects, applicants in their final year of a professional training program are not eligible to apply. They must meet the emerging dance professional criteria as described above.
- Professionals contributing to dance in a non-artistic capacity (for example, managers, producers, agents, writers and archivists) must have completed at least one significant project in professional dance.
You meet the program’s definition of a mid-career dance professional if you have had an active professional career for at least five years. You must also be recognized locally and/or regionally by your peers (those within the same artistic tradition and/or discipline) and be recognized for your contribution to the field of dance.
You are considered to be an established dance professional if you have had a substantial impact on the field of dance nationally and/or internationally. You must also have been actively engaged in professional dance and have sustained a career for a minimum of 15 years. In determining whether you meet these requirements, your entire body of work is taken into consideration, for example, choreography, interpretation and research.
Note: Established artists embarking on new specializations must indicate their status as emerging or mid-career artists for this application as indicated in PART B1 of the application form; and explain this in the artistic statement as indicated in PART B2 of the application form (for example, you might be an established dancer but an emerging choreographer).
Grant Amount
- Professional Development and Research Projects: $20,000 maximum
- Apprenticeship or Mentorship Projects: $10,000 maximum
Application Guidelines and Form
Further Information
Jerry Longboat
Dance Section Officer
Canada Council for the Arts
350 Albert Street, P.O. Box 1047
Ottawa ON K1P 5V8
Telephone: 1-800-263-5588 (toll-free) or 613-566-4414, ext. 5257
TTY: 1-866-585-5559
September 2009