Grants to Dance Professionals
Deadline
1 February
Program Description
This program provides support and assistance to Canadian 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
- Aboriginal, in any of the above categories.
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 co-administers the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize, a $6,000 award given to an established dance professional who has made a substantial difference for dance in Canada, as nominated by peer assessment committees in this program and the Grants to Aboriginal Dance Professionals program.
The program also co-administers the annual Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Awards, which provide a $15,000 award to an outstanding Canadian mid-career 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 dance professional (individual). 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.
This Canada Council program is accessible to Aboriginal artists and artists of diverse cultural and regional communities of Canada. Aboriginal peoples include Status, Non-Status, Métis and Inuit people.
Tip: The level of competition for this program is high. It is recommended that recent graduates from dance programs work and develop a professional portfolio prior to applying to this program.
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, school, college or university are not eligible to apply.
Graduate students at the masters and doctoral levels are eligible to apply providing they can demonstrate they have sufficient time to carry out the proposed project. They must have maintained an active professional dance career for at least one year in addition to their advanced studies while in academic settings or as part of specialize training programs. The Canada Council considers advanced studies to be those beyond a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent.
Are you an emerging, mid-career or established artist?
You must determine your status 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) and have gained 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 in a professional context (does not include school or pre-professional work). The works choreographed must have been set using paid professional artists.
- Recognized teachers can apply to this program for professional development of pedagogical skills and knowledge that will 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.
- Other professionals contributing to dance (including 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 maintained an active professional career for at least five years. You must be recognized by your peers within your artistic tradition for your contribution to the field of dance.
You are considered to be an established dance professional if you have sustained a professional dance career for a minimum of 15 years. Your entire body of work is taken into account, for example, choreography, interpretation and research.
Tip: Established artists embarking on new specializations must indicate their status as emerging or mid-career artists for this application, and explain this in the artistic statement in Part B of the application form (for example, you might be an established dancer but an emerging choreographer).
Eligible Activities
Professional Development
Your proposed project is eligible if it involves:
- periods of professional development or study (such as attending national or international dance festivals), within self-directed or established programs
- attendance at workshops or training courses that are above the level of basic training
- sabbatical periods for established and mid-career artists: for this program, a sabbatical is defined as a period of leave taken by a dance professional to carry out projects not otherwise associated with their regular duties; this leave of absence can be used for reflection, study or travel. Note that funding for sabbaticals is highly competitive and an average of one grant per year is awarded.
Research Projects
Your proposed project is eligible if it involves:
- self directed research that is not related to a specific creation or production
- investigation of technologies for dance, which may involve research to work with video, film or other media
- individual research for writing projects.
Apprenticeship or Mentorship Projects
You have an apprenticeship arrangement if you will be asking an individual or group (such as a company) to share its knowledge with you and it is a mutually beneficial experience. It is a mentorship arrangement if you will be “passing down” knowledge and sharing expertise with others (either one individual or a group) in a mentoring relationship.
An application for apprenticeship is initiated by the apprentice. An application for mentorship is initiated by the artist who will offer the mentorship.
To be eligible, your project must allow you to work closely with apprentices or mentors in order to exchange knowledge. You must establish written terms of agreement between yourself and the other party; that agreement should outline a well-developed project (refer to Part E1 of the application form for a template of an acceptable letter of agreement).
Examples of proposed apprenticeship or mentorship arrangements that are eligible for support include:
- a senior artist or elder wishes to mentor a dancer to provide specific knowledge and/or training
- a lighting designer wishes to apprentice with a senior lighting designer to further develop his or her skills
- an emerging dancer wishes to apprentice with a specific dance company and/or an established dance professional.
Ineligible Activities
The following are not eligible for support:
- commissions (refer to Production Project Grants program)
- the creation/production or remount of a dance work or works (refer to Production Project Grants program)
- project activity affiliated with the applicants’ company, collective or artistic associates
- full-time undergraduate education or equivalent training within an academy, school, college or university
- participation in dance competitions
- touring (refer instead to the Dance Touring Grants programs)
- production and dissemination of Canadian professional screen-based dance works in film or video (refer to the Dance on Screen Production Fund (Pilot Program) or contact the Media Arts Section about the Grants to Film and Video Artists or Grants to New Media and Audio Artists programs
- academic (degree-related) research (contact the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council about funding opportunities)
- any new proposal, if you have an outstanding final report due to the Canada Council.
Other Restrictions
An individual may apply to the Grants to Dance Professionals and the Production Project Grants in Dance program, for separate unrelated projects.
A project may begin anytime after the program deadline (1 February 2010). The Canada Council will not fund your project retroactively.
In a 48-month period, an individual may receive a maximum of two grants from Grants to Dance Professionals, or from other Council programs for individual artists (except Travel Grants to Dance Professionals).
Established dance artists who work in more than one discipline, and who meet the eligibility criteria as an established professional in both disciplines may apply to two different Grants to Professional Artists programs in the same fiscal year (from 1 April to 31 March). Note that the criteria for the status of established arts professionals are determined by each disciplinary section. You must accept or refuse the first grant offered to you by the Canada Council within two weeks of the date of the grant notification. If you accept the first grant that is offered, your second application will be withdrawn from competition.
Grant Amount
Professional Development and Research Projects
The maximum available is $20,000.
You may use grant funds from this program for travel, tuition, training materials, accommodation, subsistence (maximum of $2,000 a month) and attendance at performances and/or conferences. Eligible research expenses also include fees for a monitor, mentor, elder or invited choreographer; the cost of studio rental; books, documents (audiovisual) and documentation; and dancers’ fees.
You may use the travel portion of the grant to cover inter-city air, rail or bus travel and local transportation. Air travel costs must be based on the cheapest available airfare. You cannot use travel funds to cover the costs of insurance, travel by your spouse or dependants, or the shipment of personal items.
Apprenticeship or Mentorship Projects
The maximum available is $10,000.
Apprentices may use grant funds to pay their mentors and to cover subsistence, studio and dancers’ costs. If you will be apprenticing with an organization, institution or company, the host is expected to contribute at least 50 percent of the project costs in either cash or in-kind services.
Mentors may use grant funds to cover their subsistence, studio and documentation and to offset participants’ costs, if necessary.
For All Projects
The purchase of capital equipment is not eligible (such as computers or video cameras). However, rental of equipment is an eligible expense.
Application Form
Grants to Dance Professionals (PDF Acrobat format). This form cannot be filled out on line but can be printed.
Grants to Dance Professionals Financial Form (Excel Format)
OR
To apply for a grant online go to GO! Grants Online
Further Information
Bernard Sauvé, Program Officer
Dance Section
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. 5501
TTY: 1-866-585-5559
July 2009