Dance Base (Scotland) and Yaraqa (Lebanon) launched an open call for PRECIPITATE: a bespoke creation Lab that connects dance artists from Scotland and Lebanon in a series of online and in-person encounters. The aim of this Lab is to facilitate opportunities for dance artists in Lebanon and Scotland to create, collaborate, and exchange. All this takes place between July and November 2022, and the Lab culminates into an in-person portion that will take place in Edinburgh - Scotland between October 3rd - 14th, 2022.

Supported through the British Council International Collaboration Fund, PRECIPITATE is the second round of initiative following the micro-forum*, as part of CATAPULT.body - a partnership pilot program between Yaraqa and British Council Lebanon for professionals in the field of dance and movement looking to identify and access opportunities for support, growth and development.

THE CONTEXT

The dance and movement sectors in Lebanon and Scotland have their differences and similarities: Lebanon faces an unprecedented economic collapse and shifts in the political landscape while Scotland faces socio-economic impacts resulting from Brexit and growing pressures on sustainable careers in the arts. These changes - uncertain and unpredictable - directly affect artists and their work by creating precarity around self-producing models and short term opportunities. In this specific context, both Yaraqa and Dance Base share a sense of duty to address sustainability in direct conversation with artists, by providing the time, space and people to strengthen their ecosystems to favour, reinforce & focus on long term creative processes and their outcomes now and in times of uncertainty. 

STAGE 1:
Candidate’s selection process and announcement

After launching PRECIPITATE on June 18th via our social media platforms, many candidates from both Lebanon and the UK showed great interest in our program, and consequently 37 successfully submitted their applications. Since places were limited, the number of candidates was narrowed down to 6 final participants: 3 from Lebanon and 3 from Scotland.
The selection process was carried out by a committee of panelists including Tony Thrills (Dance Base - Scotland), Romy Assouad & Jadd Tank (Yaraqa - Lebanon), and independent artist Emma Jayne Park (Scotland). This was challenging for us as we reviewed incredible talent from diverse backgrounds and skills while taking into account:

• The nature of the information provided in the application form; how they responded to every question in the application form and how that conveys their interest and need to participate in the program.

• The perceived impact this opportunity will have on the artist at this particular stage of their career.

• The range of interests and backgrounds that will create a diverse group of artists.

• The diversity of voices represented through Dance Base’s opportunities for professional artists.

Here’s the final list of candidates:

STAGE 2: Introduction meeting

Shortly after selecting our final participants, a remote introduction meeting was hosted via Zoom on July 18th. This meeting included the participants, team members of Yaraqa, DanceBase, and British Council, and our facilitator Emma Jayne Park.

In this first encounter, we introduced participants to the flow of the program and allowed everyone to get familiar with one another. Participants shared the reasons why they applied, what their access riders and interests are, what they’re thinking of working on throughout the Lab, and what they’re expecting out of this program.

STAGE 3:
The 1:1 & pairing

One-on-one consultations took place between July 19th and 25th and allowed us to further develop the overall program and the mentorship program based on the artists’ needs. These consultations also helped us pair up the artists: each pair would consist of one participant from Lebanon and one from Scotland. These meetings helped us better understand the duo’s needs, desires, hopes for and from PRECIPITATE and so we paired them up based on their interests, approaches or end-goals. Their mission: to support each other, hold each other accountable and create impactful work together. Here are the 3 pairs:

• Jian Yi & Natasha Karam

• Sarah Fadel & Liz Strange

• Kathryn Spence & Bassam Abou Diab

STAGE 4: Studio work, research and mentorship

This stage was set so that pairs could continue with their research linked to their theme, and begin to implement any movement/dance/ideas into practice. The participants were provided with studio spaces both in Lebanon and Scotland to complete their self-directed creation/experimentation/research in pairs. This phase was complemented with mentorship sessions, featuring:

STAGE 5: Online workshops

Throughout September, all 6 participants had weekly workshops with industry experts coming from various backgrounds, around subjects pertaining to their interests, and tools for sustainable practice.

STAGE 6:
Residency in Scotland

After a month of working online, artists and teams from Dancebase and Yaraqa got the chance to finally work together in person while being hosted at Dance Base. There were professional and cultural exchanges, further research and studio work, meeting local professionals, doing site visits, discovering the wider context of the arts in Scotland, and of course, food.

Artists, along with Yaraqa and Dance Base team, had a lot of time to bond and explore Scotland outside of studio hours. Communal breakfasts, lunches and dinners were organised in order for everyone to get to know each other in the flesh.

Some of the group made a journey to Platform in the East End of Glasgow for a tour of The Bridge, a centre for art and community. They then saw two shows - ‘Unbecoming’ by Company of Wolves and ‘The Time Machine: A Radical Feminist Re-telling’ by Jordan & Skinner (movement direction by Emma Jayne Park, our facilitator).

In the second week of the residency, most of the group traveled to Dundee and spent the day with Scottish Dance Theatre (SDT) at Dundee Rep, while others joined via zoom for some of the day. They also took a class with dancer Tom Goodwin and met Joan Clevillé, who gave a presentation about SDT and its history.

The team also went to see a show by SDT called ‘Ray’ at the University of Dundee, choreographed by Meytal Blanaru.

After 10+ days of in-person research, mentoring and hands-on work by the artists, each pair had the opportunity to share their research and process with audiences from the field and beyond, which allowed each artist to receive further insight into the work they’ve created. The event was streamed online and live through our partner, Basita.

STAGE 7:
Evaluation & next steps

Post residency, we had a follow up internal evaluation meeting with the participants of Precipitate. In addition, we looking into an extension to allow us & the artists to continue the work of Precipitate next year. We are also looking into further partnerships with Lebanese and Scottish entities interested in this work.

About CATAPULT.body

Supported through the British Council International Collaboration Fund, PRECIPITATE is the second round of initiative following the micro-forum*, as part of CATAPULT.body - a partnership pilot program between Yaraqa and British Council Lebanon for professionals in the field of dance and movement looking to identify and access opportunities for support, growth and development.

CATAPULT is a pilot initiative launched by British Council Lebanon’s Arts and Culture department. It is conceived as a talent development program in partnership with pre-existing hubs in different creative sectors. It aims to support creative talents from Lebanon while building strong connections with the UK, focusing on creative expression, exchange, and enterprise. The initiative involves recognizing potential in each of the sectors and developing programs that respond to the needs and ambitions of artists. CATAPULT is about upskilling, opportunity, and thriving.

About Dance Base

As Scotland’s National Centre for Dance the organisation exists to get the whole of Scotland to experience dance and to build national and international success for dance artists based here. It has an open and accessible public programme of classes that attracts people of all ages and abilities. It has a professional programme providing mentoring, facilities and creative guidance to dance artists across Scotland, along with performance and partnership opportunities during the Edinburgh Festivals. It also promotes dance for health and wellbeing through its engagement projects, bringing together dance artists, charities, community organisations and funders to use dance effectively to deliver health and social outcomes. Dance Base is committed to developing audiences for dance and celebrating the success of the dance sector in Scotland.