A project designed to stimulate dialogue about dance and performance whilst striving to improve and promote written criticism online.
After Umeå, Barcelona, Pilsen, Aarhus, Sofia and Paris, Springback Academy will once again offer aspiring dance writers the chance to be mentored in the fundamentals of quality dance criticism in the action-packed environment of Spring Forward.
Aerowaves annual festival will take place this year in Rijeka, Croatia on Friday 24, Saturday 25, and Sunday 26 April 2020.
Under the guidance of four experienced dance writers, participants have the chance to create, shape and share conversations about dance and hone their critical writing skills for a number of different formats. It’s a fast-track way to gain experience and technique in responsible, effective, attractive dance criticism as well as to explore and understand the opportunities that digital publishing has to offer.
PLUS – Two years ago now, Springback Magazine was launched. The publication’s contributors are drawn exclusively from writers who have participated in the Springback Academy programme and who are part of the ever-growing community of Springback Academy ‘graduate’ writers.
If selected for the project, Aerowaves will provide mentorship, accommodation, hospitality, a pass to the festival and the opportunity to participate in future Springback activities.
Participants will be required to organise and fund their own return travel to Rijeka.
What Springback Academy 2020 will entail:
10 opinionated people with an interest in, or some prior experience of writing about dance. The participants will be mentored in critical writing by lead critics including Donald Hutera (The Times, London), Sanjoy Roy (The Guardian, London) Kelly Apter (The Scotsman) and Laura Cappelle (New York Times).
During the Spring Forward festival each participant will:
• Attend an introductory lecture about dance writing given by Sanjoy Roy followed by an extended Q & A session.
• Have the opportunity to meet informally with the 200 strong Spring Forward audience made up almost exclusively of dance professionals including Springback writers from previous years.
• Write short reviews in English (140 words) of several of the performances they see over the weekend. They will work to tight deadlines so that their reviews can be published each day on the Aerowaves/Springback website
• Generate ultra-short reviews, provocations, opinions and questions to share on Twitter – using #Springback to gather the conversations
• Participate in a round-table and/or panel discussions.
Contribute one longer, opinion-style piece for the Aerowaves website in the week after the festival — to allow for greater reflection or to draw themes and bigger ideas together.
How to apply:
• Send a summary of your experience in critical review writing (140 words or less)
• Send a sample review (in English) of a dance performance you have seen (140 words or less). This can be an existing review or one you’ve written especially for this application
• Tell in 140 words or less why you want to participate in Springback Academy 2020
• Tell in 140 words or less about your local dance scene
• Tell your potential arrival and departure date and time. If selected for the project, you would ideally need to arrive on the evening (if possible by 19:00) of Thursday 23 April and depart on Monday 27 April 2020
• Send all of this in an email to: SBapplications@aerowaves.org before 24:00 (GMT) on Sunday 17 January 2020
• Participants will be notified by email by Saturday 15 February 2020 whether they have been selected for the project
N.B. If you applied to participate in the Springback Academy in previous years and your submission was not accepted, we do encourage you to apply again.