Calls to Artists

Call for Participants – Dance Artists Living with Chronic Illness

10am – 12pm PST, Sundays, March 24th  – May 26th Via Zoom

*NOTE: this program is now FULL. Due to the high volume of submissions we will be running it again in the future! If you would like to be added to the waitlist, please email futureleisure.info@gmail.com

We are seeking applicants for a cohort of ten Canadian dance artists living with chronic health conditions that are a barrier to a fulfilling and sustainable career in dance. Through three months of online meetings, participants will be invited to share their stories, strategies and challenges through a peer support structure. Program facilitators will respond to the topics and desires that come up in these conversations and bring in experts, guest speakers, and workshop leaders to address areas in the participants lives and artistic practices that they have identified as lacking in information or resources. In the final weeks of the program, participants will be asked to work toward a document or similar that could provide the dance community with a framework of how to better support and engage with artists working through chronic illness. Our hope is that this framework will allow choreographers, presenters and collaborators to better support dance artists dealing with chronic illness, and feel confident that they can engage them in projects that will allow for accommodations while adhering to timelines, budgets and agreed upon outcomes. This will also help to alleviate the burden of articulating specific medical conditions/physical challenges for the artists, as these difficult conversations can be made unnecessary when there is enough information available to the community at large. 

Applications open February 23rd

Application link here

Participants will be selected on a first-come first-serve basis, prioritizing artists with a current movement practice and health conditions that could be considered ‘invisible’ illnesses. 

Selected participants receive a $1000 honorarium 

Our programming is generously supported by the City of Vancouver and the Canada Council for the Arts.