DANCER IN COMMUNITY RESIDENCE: CALL OUT

In Autumn 2022, Dancin’ Oxford dance festival will be launching a two-year ‘Dancer in Community Residence’ Pilot project.

We will recruit one or two dance practitioners who are committed to working at grassroots level with local communities. One will be resident in Barton and the other in Blackbird Leys. The artists will become fully embedded within their local community area. They will develop key partnerships with local groups and organisations in order to build relationship and trust, and will identify relevant opportunities in response to local needs and wants; to increase access to participation and engagement in dance.

Through building relationships and engaging with those ‘on the ground’, the project aims to remove barriers to participation. The role will involve working with people of all ages, from a diverse range of backgrounds to design and develop engagement programmes of high artistic quality (ranging from micro level to potentially larger-scale projects in year two). The two dance practitioners will directly link into the Locality Hubs in each area and will be embedded into the locality teams (including attending team meetings), supported by the Festival Director and Locality Hub Co-ordinators.

Applicant artists do not need to live in either of the areas, but ideally would have some knowledge of the area.

Key purposes of role:

• Identify and get to know specific groups within the community (community groups / gatekeepers etc). Link in with existing services (including youth provision)
• Advocate for Dance and its’ benefits, and outline options for engagement
• Explore ideas / needs / wants from within the local community
• Collectively identify opportunities for engagement projects (e.g. hyper-local ‘Doorstep dance’ to engaging wider groups of people)
• Assist in fundraising (with Dancin’ Oxford director & OCC Localities team) for additional projects
• Collaborate with Dancin’ Oxford’s Family Engagement Co-ordinator
• Explore opportunities for engagement with Dancin’ Oxford’s wider festival programme (including ‘Go & See’ / larger longer-term community engagement projects)

Residence areas:

• Barton (x 1 artist)
• Blackbird Leys (x 1 artist)

Key potential partners include:

• Locality Hubs – Locality Co-ordinators & teams
• Oxford Hub
• Neighbourhood, Community and Leisure Centres
• Youth Ambition
• Cultural partners already working in those areas

Timescale:

• September 2022 – Recruitment & Selection for up to 2 dance artists
• October – December 2022 – Identify and begin to develop key links in the community (getting-to-know & identify early opportunities / set up some bespoke taster sessions)
• January – December 2023 – Development and delivery of projects / Identify opportunities to link in with Dancin’ Oxford Festival programme
• December 2023 – Evaluation and forward planning for 2024 & fundraising for development of pilot & delivery activity

Dance Practitioner fee (per artist):

Artist time (0.5 day equivalent per wk x 40 wks @ £150 per day) – £3,000

Plus additional budget for contribution / match-funding for session delivery & activity, Travel and Evaluation.

Expression of interest:

We are inviting Expressions of interest from dance artists / practitioners by Monday 19^th September (9am)and shortlisted applicants will be notified by Thursday 22^nd September and invited to an in-person interview on Tuesday 27^th September.

To apply, please submit (on maximum 2 pages A4) your expression of interest outlining why you consider yourself suitable to the role / an outline of your past experience and skills and what you would bring to the role. Please also state if you have a preference for which area you would like to work in.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an interview for which they will be asked to prepare a 5-mins presentation based on a project idea they would like to implement as part of the role.

Please send Expressions of Interest to Claire Thompson at cthompson@oxford.gov.uk. (Applications can also be accepted in audio / video format).

If you have any queries, please contact Claire on the above e-mail address.

August 9, 2022