Klub ŻAK, the cultural institution of the City of Gdansk, announces an Open Call for the international SOLO DANCE CONTEST 2024 in the field of contemporary dance. The contest will be organized from the 26th to 30th of August 2024 in the Klub ŻAK within the 16th Gdańsk Dance Festival. It will be 13th edition of the competition, thatuntil 2011 was known as the Baltic Movement Contest. 

The contest aims to support contemporary dancers and promotion of broadly understood contemporary dance. The Contest is open for dancers of contemporary dance who have a documented artistic activity or/and are professional dancers with a diploma of dance studies. 

Participation in the contest is permitted for solos, the premiere of which took place between 1.01.2022 and 13.05.2023 or prepared especially for the Contest. The solo should not be shorter than 5 minutes and no longer than 20 minutes. One dancer can submit a maximum of two solos.

Submitted solo pieces will be judged by the preselection committee, and selected works will be presented during the main contest where they will be judged by an international jury consisting of accomplished dancers and experts in the field of contemporary dance. The total pool of prizes is 6000 Euro total. 

The deadline for application is 17th May 2024 (see details in the regulations of the Contest - website www.gdanskdancefest.pl). All additional information: Contest Regulations, an application form can be found on the website www.gdanskdancefest.pl. We kindly ask you to read carefully the Regulations. Questions in Polish or English concerning the conditions of participation in the Contest may be sent to: gft@klubzak.com.pl

Solo pieces will be judged by the Jury consisting of: Agnija Šeiko, Uri Ivgi and Artur Grabarczyk. 

Agnija Šeiko

An award-winning Lithuanian contemporary dance choreographer, Agnija Šeiko is well-known in Europe and abroad for her interdisciplinary approach, unique aesthetics, treatment of sensitive social topics and use of a wide spectrum of forms. She is the author of more than 30 choreographed works which are and have been performed at various dance festivals and venues both in Lithuania and abroad.

She creates choreography for opera, musical and theater productions and works with most of major state and national theaters, she is an associate professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater, Klaipėda Faculty, Dance Department and a guest lecturer in other dance schools.

Uri Ivgi

He started his artistic career in the in the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. Uri created his first choreography, Isch-Ischa, in 1993 and is subsequently repeatedly invited to create new work for the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company as well as the Suzanne Dellal Centre (Tel Aviv, Israel).

Since 2003 Uri Ivgi works together with the choreographer Johan Greben. Ivgi&Greben created new works for Ballet am Rhein, DE; Szeged Contemporary Dance Company, HU; Dansgroep Amsterdam, Introdans and Scapino Ballet, NL; It dansa, ES; Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, KR; Modern Dance Turkey; National Theatre Ballet, CZ; Provincial Dances Theatre, RU; Scottish Dance Theatre, UK; Skânes Dansteater and Norrdans, SE and Tanzkompanie Theater St. Gallen, CH.

Artur Grabarczyk 

Dancer, choreographer, teacher, producer. Leader and founder of h.art company. Founder and president of the Grab Art Foundation. Graduate of the General Ballet School Janina Jarzynówna-Sobczak in Gdańsk and the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds (UK). He danced at the Scottish Dance Theater (UK), the Baltic Opera, and in many smaller groups and variable productions in Poland and abroad. He has collaborated with the most outstanding choreographers of contemporary theater stages, such as Sharon Eyal, Damien Jalet, Anton Lachky, Jo Strømgren, Fleur Darkin, Douglas Thorpe, and many others. He created choreographies for the vocalist Bovska, the Scottish Contemporary Dance School in Dundee (Great Britain), the Kielce Dance Theater, the Zawirowania Dance Theater, the Warsaw Dance Museum, and the General Ballet School in Gdańsk - where he works as a contemporary dance teacher.

§ 1

1.    Club ZAK with the headquarter: al. Grunwaldzka 195/197, 80-266 Gdańsk, NIP: 5830004739 is the Organiser of the Contest. The subject of the Contest is a short solo from the field of broadly understood contemporary dance (Contemporary Dance / Contemporary Ballet).

2.    The Contest takes place within the Gdansk Dance Festival organised by Club Zak and aims at supporting and promoting contemporary dance in European countries.

3.         The planned schedule of the Contest:

a.      announcement of the Contest: 4^th  March 2024

b.      announcement of the Jury by 12^th April 2024

c.       deadline for applications for the Contest: 17^th May 2024

d.      formal verification and preselection: until 3^rd June 2024

e.      announcement of the participants: until 17^th June 2024

f.        main Contest: 26^th – 30^th of August 2024

g.      finals, Jury’s verdict announcement, Audience Award announcement: 30^th of August 2024

§ 2

Rules of participation in the Contest.

1.    Participation in the Contest is possible for:

a.        dancers who are at least 18 years,

b.        dancers of contemporary dance with the documented artistic activity or/and are professional dancers with a diploma of dance studies.

2. The Contest allows application of solos (contemporary dance / contemporary ballet) that fulfil the following requirements:

a.      Solo that are autonomous performances;

b.      the solo premiered between 1^st of January 2023 and 3^rd of May 2024;

c.       or solo is prepared especially for the Solo Dance Contest 2024 (it will be premiered during the Contest);

d.      the solo is not shorter than 5 minutes and not longer than 20 minutes;

e.      solos without stage set (only small elements of set, that will be transported and organised by the dancer, are allowed), montage cuts, multimedia projections or changes in stage lighting;

f.        the solo is meant for being shown in public in the technical conditions of the Klub Żak stage (same for every participant width: 9m x depth: 8m, white floor; white backdrop screen; black side curtains).

3.      The participant of the Contest must be insured.

§ 3

The application

1. One dancer can submit a maximum of two solo pieces. Each solo piece should be submitted as a separate application.
2. Place, date and mode of submitting the applications:

a.      date: 17^th May 2024, till 4:00 pm (the date and time of submission at e-mail are taken into account)

b.      form of application: the application should be filled out correctly and submitted through web page www.gdanskdancefest.pl, in Polish or English

c.       the application must be submitted by the dancer who performs the solo.

3.      Questions in Polish or English concerning the conditions of participation in the Contest may be sent to: gft@klubzak.com.pl. The answers will be published on the above-mentioned websites.

4. Obligatory attachments to the application:

a.        the short solo piece should be submitted to the Contest in full length (the recording of the solo piece should be done without special effects, montage cuts and other editing methods that may obscure the real image of the piece);

b.        legible scan of signed statements (Attachment 1 – two pages);

5. The following applications will not be considered:

a.      incomplete applications and applications with formal defect. As formal defects we understand: lack of obligatory attachments, lack of obligatory signatures;

b.      applications failing to meet the requirements of paragraph 3, pt. 4a

c.       applications submitted after the deadline;

d.      applications of dancers that do not fulfil the conditions of participation in the Contest, in particular conditions mentioned in § 2 point 1;

e.      applications of solos that do not fulfil the conditions of participation in the Contest, in particular conditions mentioned in § 2 point 2;

f.        applications of dancers submitting more than two solos;

g.      applications submitted by the third party representing a dancer.

6. Information about applications sent before 26^nd April 2024, that do not comply with the conditions of participation in the Contest stated in § 2 point 1 and 2 will be sent via email to each applicant individually to the email address given in the application form.
7. The Organiser will publish the list of Contest participants by 17^th June 2024 on the following website: www.gdanskifestiwaltanca.pl / www.gdanskdancefest.pl (CONTEST) and will inform the participants via email.

§ 4

The Jury and way of judging

1. Solo pieces preselected by the Organiser will be judged by an international Jury appointed by the Organiser. For the Jury the Organiser will select professionals from the world of art, programmers of international dance festivals and contemporary dance experts.
2. The composition of the Jury will be officially presented on the website www.gdanskifestiwaltanca.pl / www.gdanskdancefest.pl (CONTEST) by the 12^th April 2023.
3. The members of the Jury will appoint among each other a chairman or chairwoman of the Jury.
4. The Jury will watch the preselected solos and judge them for artistic value, level of dance technique, originality, awareness of the performance space and dramaturgy.
5. The Jury will select 6 final performances and I, II and III prizes among them.
6. The Jury will divide the amount of total 5.500 Euro between the laureates of the I, II and III Prize. The Jury has no right to not award any of the participants and not to divide the total amount of 5.500 Euro among the winners. The prizes awarded by the jury cannot be more than 3000 EUR and  less than 500 EUR.
7. The Jury will present the verdict to the Organizer and send the protocol in English language.
8. The jury’s decisions are final and are not subject to any discussion.

§ 5

Audience Award

1. Amongst the presented solos the audience will choose the laureate of the Audience Award:

a.      each viewer who will buy a ticket for Solo Dance Contest 2024 will receive a voting card (1 ticket = 1 voting card);

b.      a viewers will be able to vote only for one solo, putting the title of the solo and the ticket number on the voting card (1ticket = 1 vote)

c.       The vote will end before announcing the list of 6 finalists qualified for the final stage of the contest by the Jury.

d.      the votes will be counted by the committee appointed by the director of the Club.

e.      the announcement of the laureate of the Audience Award will take place together with the announcement of the Jury’s verdict.

2. The Audience Award is 500 euro total.

§ 6

The schedule of the Contest and the Audience Award

1.      The preselected participants will be asked to present their solos live in Klub Zak from 26^th August 2024 to 29^th August 2024. The participants will show their solos on the stage of Klub Żak (same for each participant: width: 9m x depth: 8m, white floor, white backdrop screen, black side curtains).

2.      They jury will decide upon top 6 participants who will take part in the finals on 30^th August 2024. Then, amongst them laureates for I, II and III award will be selected.

3.       The finals of the Contest and the announcement of the final verdict of the Jury and the Audience: 30^th August 2024.

4.      The Organiser reserves the right to make any amendments in the schedule of the Contest. The information about the final schedule of the Contest will be published by the Organiser by 22^nd  August 2024 on the following website: www.gdanskifestiwaltanca.pl / www.gdanskdancefest.pl (CONTEST).

5.       The Organiser reserves the right to make use of any photo materials delivered by the participants and taken during the public presentations of the Contest in published paper materials, promotional materials and on the Organiser’s websites.

§ 7

The collection of the prize

1.      In the Contest there are to be 3 prizes: I, II and III prizes given by the Jury and the Audience Award.

2.      If the prize is awarded to a Polish performer, the prize will be a PLN equivalent of the sum in EUR, estimated in accordance to the average exchange rate of the National Bank of Poland from the day of issuing the verdict of Jury.

3.      The payment of the prize will take place after the Jury announces the verdict.

4.      The amount of the prize is gross amount and any taxes related to it should be deducted according to the appropriate tax law.

§ 8

Costs of stay and travel for competition participants

1.      These provisions of the Terms and Conditions of § 7 apply only to dancers qualified for the Competition who reside outside Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia.

2.      The Organizer will cover the travel costs of dancers qualified for the Competition according to the following principles:

a.      Polish citizens shall be reimbursed the costs of return trip within Poland, on the basis of submitted originalas of train or bus tickets. (The cost of traveling by car will not be reimbursed).

b.      Polish citizens residing outside Poland and citizens of other countries will receive reimbursement of the cost of a return trip on the basis of submitted tickets in total amount of maximum 180 euro per person. (The cost of traveling by car or local transport will not be reimbursed).

c.       The cost of traveling by public transport, taxi and car will not be reimbursed.

3.      The Organizer will provide all participants of the Competition with accommodation in hostel rooms throughout the duration of the Competition, starting from the day preceiding the first day of the contest.

4.      The organizer will provide 1 meal a day to all dancers who qualify for the Competition.                              

§ 9

Final resolutions

1. The act of submitting the application form is equal to Contest participant’s acceptance of the Contest conditions and Contest Regulations stated here.
2. The act of submitting the application form is equal to Contest participant’s consent to The Organiser making use of the personal data in order to organize and conduct the Contest. Appropriate statement together with the information right clause can be found in the application form on the Organizer’s website.
3. The Organizer is also Personal Data Administrator. The Organizer takes the responsibility for participants’ personal data processing and ensures personal data protection by using technical and organizational means appropriately and in accordance with the standards, contained in General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter referred to as GDPR) 2016/679 from the 27^th April 2016 for natural persons in the scope of the processing of their personal data and free movement of such data and superseding the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and other regulations of the national law.
4. The participant of the Contest has the right to access to their personal data as well as the right to rectification, erasure, restrict processing of the data, the right to data portability, to object to the processing of the data, the right to withdraw consent to the processing of the data at any time but not affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
5. The act of submitting the application form is equal to Contest participant’s consent to The Organiser processing of the personal data in order to perform registration process and to conduct the Contest.
6. Personal Data received by the Organizers shall be collected and processed solely for the purposes of the conducting of the Contest.
7. Each participant has the right to lodge a complaint to the supervisory authority (the President of the Personal Data Protection Office) when they consider their personal data protection rights according to GDPR from 27^th April 2016 have been breached.
8. Providing personal data is voluntary, but necessary and lack of consent for its processing in accordance with above stated purposes will result in disqualification of the applicant.
9. The Organizer reserves the right to publish participant’s name, surname, image and general information about the participant as well as the right to place the mentioned above information in advertising and informative materials, such as Organizer’s publications and websites and information profiles run by the Organizer.
10. In all cases not regulated by these Regulations the decisions are made by the Organizer.
11. The Organizer shall not be held responsible for the results of errors in application form made by the applicant.
12. The Organizer reserves the right to make any amendments in the Regulations during the Contest and takes an obligation to immediately publish the changed Regulations in the places where the Contest Regulations were published before.
13. The organizer reserves the right to cancel or discontinue the Contest at any time without providing any explanation.