Detour

In a spirit of mutuality and reciprocity, five leading Australian dance companies will host an Australian dance artist through an interconnected residency program. By working together, we will provide 15-weeks of paid work for an artist to spend time with us, engage with our communities, with no explicit ‘outcome’ in mind; to free an artist to develop in the context of our unique environs.

The five companies will host the selected artist for two weeks each, providing space and relationships (through a Community Connector, an active artist/arts-worker trusted locally) to facilitate their work.

As companies, we ask that the artist connect with our communities, in the spirit of exchange, on their terms. This would be negotiated with the selected artist based on their proposed activity and set of skills, and might for example result in forums, talks, sharings, classes, skills exchanges or workshops delivered by the artist.

The Detour Fellowship is a biennial program initiated in 2023, and is negotiated between the selected artist in response to their proposed activity, their availability, and the availability of each company.  It can be taken in consecutive periods or spread throughout the year as is most feasible.

To be considered for this fellowship you must complete an expression of interest. The expression of interest form is a digital form, however if this mode of response is not accessible to you, we accept video or audio responses, please contact us if you wish to express interest in an alternative format.

Representatives from each host company will assess the expressions of interest, meet and create a shortlist of candidates.  

Shortlisted applicants will be notified and will be offered an interview to discuss their proposal. Applicants who are not shortlisted will be notified separately.

The Detour fellow will be announced in November 2024, after the assessment process has been undertaken and all applicants notified.

What the companies are looking for

• A ‘4WD’ artist – a proactive practitioner who can get their hands dirty, someone with a self-directed proposal, a holistic and proactive creative.
• Someone who understands who the companies are and how they might align with them – this could be through engaging in their already existing programs or proposing activity that meets the values and aspirations of the host companies.
• Someone new to us, an artist who we may not have an existing or prior professional working relationship with.
• Someone who can demonstrate why the community/geographical engagement will be beneficial to them, or what they can bring to these spaces that is meaningful and mutually beneficial.
• An artist with the skills and capacity to be able to exchange, reciprocate, share with the communities we engage with, other artists and young people – ideally with a teaching or facilitating practice.

Our shared values in selecting the Detour Fellow

• We commit to granting the fellowship to an artist who needs an opportunity like this right now, someone who isn’t to our knowledge in receipt of other major support, such as another fellowship, at this present time (this might mean early career, hibernating, late career, submerged, unfunded or any other form of lesser visibility.)
• Financial status and level of education are not prohibiting factors in access to this opportunity (having a degree from a major institution is not a pre-requisite.)
• We will adapt to the needs of artists lives and champion flexibility with this fellowship – if you are a mother, a carer, have access needs, or other factors that would make an opportunity like this difficult for you, we will respond to them.
• We encourage artists with diverse movement practices to approach us, such as cultural dance practices, suburban/regional/remote, dance artists embedded within communities of practice, queer, fringe, underground, not working in major institutions but creating work on the peripheries – fiercely independent artists.