Culture Liverpool is searching for the city’s finest dancing talent as the Leap Dance Festival returns this May, following its triumphant return in 2024.
Culture Liverpool, Liverpool City Council and Chaos Arts CIC are inviting artists at all stages of their career in any style of dance to apply for a grant to commission a brand new piece of work that will be showcased as part of the festival.
In 2024, Leap captivated audiences with 781 performers delivering 165 individual performances across 15 days in venues and public spaces throughout Liverpool, attracting more than 37,000 spectators.
This year, festival favourites will be returning including Dancing In The Streets, which sees dance explode across Liverpool City Centre with pop up performances taking place in unexpected places, and Youth Dance Platform, which sees primary schools, secondary schools and sixth form colleges present work based on a central theme in an evening of dance performance.
The festival will also see the return of Liverpool Dance Prize, a showcasing opportunity for emerging artists developing new work with the chance to win a development fund to further the work. Previous participants include Tiegan Doyle, whose 15 minute piece for Leap developed into a full show for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Rowena Gander who went on to receive funding from Arts Council England to develop her work into a full length performance.
It is expected that four to five grants of up to £2000 each will be awarded. The grants have been made possible thanks to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. As such, submissions need to demonstrate they support some or all of the following aims:
- Support building a sense of pride for the people of Liverpool.
- Contribute to increasing life chances.
- Bring about positive social impact.
- Support a sense of belonging for both artists and audiences.
Last year’s commissions included RAWD | Patrick Bannon’s Movement Megaphone and Caroline Smith | Uncovering.
This year’s categories are:
- Burlesque/Cabaret/Jazz –inclusion in LEAP opening night cabaret
- Community commission – Artists/Companies working in community settings to be shared as part of Dancing at The Palm House.
- Outdoor commission – Dancing In The Streets
- Digital commission – Film to be screened at Unity Theatre and online
- Theatre based work – Shared as part of evening of works at Unity Theatre
Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing and Culture, Councillor Harry Doyle, said:
“We are delighted to welcome back Liverpool’s leading dance festival, which not only showcases local artists but also engages the local community through a series of workshops, allowing people to come together, share experiences and build connections.
“Dance festivals aren’t just celebrations of music and movement but they have proven mental and physical health and wellbeing benefits.
Director of Leap Dance Festival, Paul Doyle, said:
“We are delighted once again to be working with Culture Liverpool to feature the work of Liverpool based dance artists in this year’s festival. We greatly appreciate the continued support of Culture Liverpool and look forward to seeing the newly commissioned works this year. Last year we saw a diverse range of performances throughout the festival from the creation of dance films, durational works in immersive spaces and street cleaning seagulls entertaining crowds outdoors. From the initial investment from Culture Liverpool and Leap these commissions have secured further bookings or funding to develop their work further, and we hope to see more of that this year.
“The opportunity is open to artists at all stages of their career in any style of dance. We are particularly interested in hearing from people of colour, LGBTQIA+ and deaf/disabled artists.”
Submissions are welcome from Liverpool-based artists and organisations who work with local communities, as well as freelance artists and small collectives.
For more details or to submit an application, click here. The deadline for submissions is 10am, Thursday 20 February.
Photo Credit: Seagull Lake by Stephanie Greer © Jazamin Sinclair
