Katarzyna Chmielewska - choreographer, dancer, producer and co-creator of the Dada von Bzdülöw theatre, which has been operating for 30 years. Graduate of OSB in Gdańsk and P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels. Among others, she led regular classes "Choreographic Mindfulness" at the nunart contemporary dance centre and "Dada Theatre Method" master classes at the Barcelona Dance Center. Winner of awards from the President of Gdańsk and the Marshal of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. Collaborates with many Polish and foreign performing and visual artists, including Roberto Olivan, María Papadopoulos and Joan Lavandeira.

Jivko Jeliazkov - artistic director and choreographer at the Bulgarian Derida Dance Centre. Graduated in theatre and dance from the National Academy of Theatre and Film and choreography from the Australian Victorian College of Arts. In 2015 he received an award for merits in the field of popularization of dance from the city of Sofia. His choreographies are shown all over Europe.

Fernando Roldan Ferrer In 2006 he was selected to take part in the training course of Compagnia Zappalà Danza, the "Modem Studio Atelier" in Catania (Italy). Since then he has been constantly collaborating with Compagnia Zappalà Danza as a dancer, dancing in almost all of Roberto Zappalà Danza's creations of the last 10 years. He has also collaborated as a dancer with various companies such as Petranura Danza led by Salvatore Romania and Laura Odierna, Déjà Donné led by Simone Sandroni and Compagnia Aiep led by Ariella Vidach and others. In recent years Fernando Roldán Ferrer has worked alongside Roberto Zappalà as an assistant and teacher of MoDem, the language of Compagnia Zappalà Danza.

Club ZAK hereby announces

The SOLO DANCE CONTEST 2025

a contest for a short contemporary dance solo (Contemporary Dance / Contemporary Ballet)

The international SOLO DANCE CONTEST 2025 is a part of Gdansk Dance Festival. The contest is aimed at professional contemporary dance artists.

Regulations of the SOLO DANCE CONTEST 2025

§ 1

1.    Club ZAK with the headquarter: al. Grunwaldzka 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 Klub Żak in Gdańsk and aims at supporting and promoting contemporary dance in European countries.

3.         The planned schedule of the Contest:

a.      announcement of the Contest: 7^th of January 2025;

b.      announcement of the Jury by the 7^th of February 2025;

c.       deadline for applications for the Contest: 31^st of March 2025;

d.      announcement of the participants invited to take part in the Polish elimination to the contest: 7^th of April 2025;

e.      Polish eliminations: 26^th -27^th  of April;

f.        announcement of the final list of the participants of the competition: 9^th of May 2025;

g.      main competition: 22^nd – 25^th  September 2025;

h.      finals, Jury’s verdict announcement, Audience Award announcement: 25^th of September 2025.

§ 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 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.      the solo premiered after the 1^st of January 2024 or will premiere during the Solo Dance Contest;  

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

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

d.      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 on one’s own.

§ 3

Polish preliminaries Solo Dance Contest.pl

1. Polish preliminaries for the competition will be As part of the Open Call for the competition, there will be Polish preliminaries, hereinafter referred to as the Preliminaries. From 10 to 12 dancers from Poland who submitted their works to the competition as part of an open call, the rules of which are specified in these regulations, will be invited to participate in the Preliminaries. The works presented during the Eliminations will be assessed by experts in the field of contemporary dance, and the authors of the works selected during the Eliminations will be invited to participate in the main competition, which will take place on September 22-25, 2025.

2. Preliminaries will take place at the Klub Żak on April 26-27, 2025.

3. The fee for participation in the competition will be 400 pln gross.

3. Polish dancers are understood to mean people who have Polish citizenship or have been living in Poland for at least two years at the time of submitting the application to the Competition.

4. During the Preliminaries, at least 5 works will be selected and qualified to participate in the main competition.

5. The Organizer will provide contestants of the Preliminaries living outside of Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia:

a. refund of transport costs based on submitted original train or bus tickets (2nd class) up to PLN 400,

b. accommodation on the day of the presentation,

c. food on the day of the sole presentation,

d. The organizer does not refund local transport costs: public transport, car or tax.

6. The list of people invited to participate in the Polish Preliminaries will be announced by April 7, 2025.

7. The list of people qualified to participate in the main competition as part of the Eliminations will be announced on April 27, 2025.

§ 4

The application

1. One dancer can submit a maximum of two solos piece
2. Place, date and mode of submitting the applications:

a.      date: from 7^th of January 2025 until  31^st of March 2025 23:59 of the Central European Time (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 the application form available on the: 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.

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 submitted by the third party representing a dancer.

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

d.      applications submitted after the deadline;

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

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

g.      applications of dancers submitting more than two solos;

6. The Organiser will publish the list of the participants of the Main Competition by 9^th May 2025 on the following website: www.gdanskifestiwaltanca.pl / www.gdanskdancefest.pl (CONTEST) and will inform the participants via email.

§ 5

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 7.02.2025.
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.
8. The jury’s decisions are final and are not subject to any discussion.

§ 6

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 (1 ticket = 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.

§ 7

The schedule of the Contest and the Audience Award

1.      The preselected participants will be asked to present their solos live in Klub Żak from 22^nd  September 2025 to 25^th  September 2025. 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 25^th September 2025. 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: 25^th September 2025.
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 15th  September 2025 on: www.gdanskifestiwaltanca.pl.
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.

§ 8

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.

§ 9

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 original train or bus tickets 2^nd class up to 400 PLN . (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.                                                           

§ 10

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.