2009 Audition Guidelines

Who Can Audition

The auditions are open to artists residing in Northern California. Guest artists from any location are welcome to perform with a local group.

Audition Location and Stage Set-up

Auditions will be held at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco.

Each group will be assigned a dressing room, and will be provided an unscheduled, communal warm-up space. This year, the warm-up space will not be for a run-through of your audition piece, but will be for limbering up only. The stage floor is hardwood and during the auditions the house lights are dimmed and the curtain remains open. The stage will be constantly well lit with no lighting changes. If special lighting effects are crucial to your piece, please indicate this in your application so that the audition panelists may be advised of this feature as they consider your piece.

Please keep your props at auditions to a minimum, since set-up time is limited. For insurance purposes, you must provide a detailed list of props you will be using on stage with your application, so that they can be cleared with the Production Manager. No glass or fire is allowed at the auditions, but arrangements can be made for inclusion for Festival performances. Please note any special prop circumstances on the application.

Audition Time Limits

*Groups have up to 10 minutes (A group is defined as having more than one dancer)

*Soloists have up to 5 minutes (A soloist is considered one dancer, regardless of the number of accompanying musicians)

Audition Application Deadline

Application must be submitted online or postmarked by 11:59pm November 10, 2008, or delivered to the World Arts West office by 5 pm that same day. The office address for World Arts West is: Fort Mason Center, Building D, San Francisco, CA 94123. We cannot accept faxed applications.

For all applications received by our Early Deadline of October 15, 2008, the application fee will be waived.

*Note that auditioning times are assigned as applications are received. This means that the applications received first will be given their first choice of audition times.

Audition Confirmation Package

Confirmation of your audition date and time will be mailed November 17, 2008. It will include your check-in time, warm-up time and audition time, as well as a map to the audition site and other pertinent information. Audition times are assigned on a first come, first serve basis and cannot be changed once assigned. Therefore, please indicate any specific times you are NOT available on your preference form in the application.

Please note: The auditions are open to the public. A $7 entrance fee allows audience members in and out privileges all day. Children under 12 are admitted free.

Feedback

World Arts West provides audition comments and critiques from the panelists as a service to performers who wish to receive feedback. This service is intended to strengthen artists’ future auditions and work and is not meant as an explanation of why a particular group was or was not accepted.

If you would like to receive this service, we ask that you indicate this on the application form, and include an additional $10 fee. All panelists’ comments will be compiled and sent to those groups requesting them within six weeks of the auditions.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE DEADLINE IS EARLIER THIS YEAR, November 10, 2008, IN ORDER TO GIVE THE PANELISTS MORE TIME TO PREPARE FOR THE AUDITIONS.

The application fee will be waived for all applications received by OCTOBER 15, 2008.

Submitting Applications Online

We accept electronic applications through our website at http://www.worldartswest.org/main/guidelines.asp, however, please be sure to print a copy of your application for your files. If you submit your application and do not receive a confirmation, please contact our office immediately.

Selecting Your Piece to Audition

The Artistic Directors for the 2009 San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival will be Carlos Carvajal and CK Ladzekpo, and they will be looking for the strongest work to showcase in June. They will be consulting with a panel of dance experts throughout the auditions, and will select the final roster within several weeks after the auditions conclude. Once the selections are made, we will notify all artists and issue a press release to announce the roster for the 2009 Festival by the end of February 2009. All dance groups selected will have a photo shoot with the extraordinary dance photographer RJ Muna, and Festival production preparations will begin.

Please note that during the preparations for the Festival, the Artistic Directors may work with you on transitions into and out of your piece to make a more artistically integrated overall performance for each 2-hour presentation.

Weekend 1:

Saturday, June 6: 2 pm & 8 pm, and Sunday, June 7: 2 pm

Weekend 2:

Saturday, June 13: 2 pm & 8 pm, and Sunday, June 14: 2 pm

Weekend 3:

Saturday, June 20: 2 pm & 8 pm, and Sunday, June 21: 2 pm

Weekend 4:

Saturday, June 27: 2 pm & 8 pm, and Sunday, June 28: 2 pm

As always, the goal at auditions is for you to present your best work.

What is the Festival Looking For?

The Festival’s producers are seeking work that is based on traditions with cultural origins. This includes dance genres that are rooted in ethnic, traditional, national, religious and/or cultural communities. We are interested in dances that reflect all aspects of culture, including sacred or spiritual dances, social dance, secular or vernacular dance, dances from life cycle events, and new work based on traditional roots.

The San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival seeks to present traditional forms of dance, as well as artists who are developing innovative pieces deeply rooted in cultural traditions. We strive to present pieces that respect and maintain the integrity of a culture-specific dance tradition as its primary element. World Arts West recognizes that tradition is a living, evolving process and that many dance forms stem from multiple roots, and may be influenced by the context of presentation on our stage.

Child Performers

The Festival welcomes children and youth performers of the highest caliber. However, we are not a children’s dance festival, nor are the auditions meant as a showcase for many solo recitals from the same school or company. Please note that the commitment to perform in the Festival requires a rigorous schedule of evening rehearsals and back-to-back performances in June. Please consider the stamina and parental supervision necessary for children who participate, before auditioning.

Live or Recorded Music

Live music is not a requirement, however we encourage you to incorporate live music when it is at all possible. We seek to maintain and present the unity of music and dance that is integral to so many traditions.

We are aware that the choice for dancers to use recorded music often comes from two factors: expense and availability of musicians in your specific genre. On our part, we are committed to providing audio reinforcement for high quality sound, and we will include your musicians’ group name in our publicity. If you are selected for the Festival, we will provide an additional fee for groups performing with live musicians. It is our hope that musicians and dancers will come together to perform cultural traditions in the best presentation possible. We have found that it is the groups performing with live music that receive the most booking requests following their performances from other presenters who attend the auditions and the Festival as a “booking showcase."

If you plan to perform with musicians in the Festival but they cannot be present at the auditions, it is important that the panel know this in advance. You must provide the names of the musicians who would perform with you on the Festival stage, and their instrumentation, with your application forms.

It is up to you to determine which combination of dancers and music presents the strongest representation of your work. If recorded music is used, it must be of the highest professional sound quality. In the past, poor sound quality has often been reflected in the panel’s response to pieces that have not been selected.

The Selection Process

Your audition will be performed before a group of panelists selected by the producers of the Festival, World Arts West. The panelists are noted for their dance backgrounds, cultural expertise, and reputation in the field. They are sensitive to world arts and cultures, and knowledgeable in dance/theater presentation. A panelist may have a specific expertise in one or more areas of world dance or may be a “generalist” with a broad background in dance presentation for the stage. In the event that there is a conflict of interest, the panelist will refrain from participating in the particular group or soloist’s assessment. A list of panelists and their biographies will be posted on our website, and will be available to performers at the auditions.

With approximately 75 cultural genres represented each year at auditions, it is impossible to have specific expertise in each dance style. The panelists and World Arts West do not claim to “judge” your piece or your company. The function of the panel is to assist the producers in selecting the lineup for the current year’s Festival.

Audition Panelists’ Reviewing Criteria

The piece you audition is the piece being considered for the Festival.

The audition panelists will be using the following guidelines to evaluate each audition:

Technical execution- Does the ensemble or soloist appear to be in command of the technique? How do the performers work with the stage space and audience? How smoothly are entrances, exits and transitions accomplished?

Choreography- Is there consistency throughout the piece? Is the patterning well adapted to the stage? Does the piece build effectively?

Ensemble dynamic- Does the group project a feeling of being connected? Do they relate to one another? Is there a feeling of cohesiveness or relationship? Are the dancers well matched?

Solo work- Does the soloist maintain one’s interest for the entire piece? How competent is the skill of the solo dancer?

Stage presence- Does the company or soloist project to the audience or engage their attention by some means, using energy, enthusiasm, dynamics, focus, concentration, virtuosity, wit or charm?

Music- What is the quality of the music? Do the dancers work well with the music and musicians? Is the music integral to the dance?

Attire and props- Are the costumes or regalia and props used with ease and confidence? Are they well constructed and appropriate to the dance genre and piece?

Appropriate to cultural origin- Is the movement vocabulary, choreographic structure, music and emotional expression distinctly connected to an art form of ethnic or cultural origin? If a hybrid genre, how well balanced or realized is the combination of elements, and is the integrity of the main cultural dance form maintained?

Deciding the Final Performance Lineup for the Season

The Festival producers are committed to presenting a varied, well-balanced, culturally sensitive and theatrically strong program, which represents a diversity of populations. The selection is based on the auditions and the panelists’ recommendations. Other factors that impact the producers’ decisions on the final bill are:

-Opportunity for New Artists: World Arts West is interested in bringing new performers to the Festival stage, in order to give artists access to a wider audience and to give audiences an opportunity to see new work or little seen cultures.

-Commissioned Work: The producers will commission several pieces for the 2009 season.

Decisions will be finalized 3-4 weeks after the audition. All artists will be notified of their status by mail.

Additional Opportunities

The World Arts West staff draws from the auditions to cast our arts education program, People Like Me. Please check the appropriate box on the audition application if a small group from your company would be available for a three to five week daytime run in Bay Area theaters during spring of 2010.

In addition, we are always developing new partnerships to be able to expand our presenting. We consult on many presenting series and local festivals, and as these opportunities arise, we will be drawing from your auditioned work and may be contacting you about your availability, even if you were not selected for the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival in June 2009. Availability for these additional opportunities has no bearing on whether or not a soloist or group is selected to perform in the Festival in June.

Also, please note that many other presenters attend the Festival auditions looking for groups for their seasons and venues, as well. Our staff will assist, as possible, with the facilitation of making connections with other presenters for all auditioning artists.

Partnerships and Mutual Support

World Arts West relies on the support of our constituents, both performing artists, and audiences. We are seeking new opportunities for collaboration, partnerships, and mutual support. We are actively looking for ways to share our resources, and to be strengthened by the resources of others. Here are some ways we can help each other in the year to come.

We invite you to learn more about our one-hour narrated adventure through world dance and music. People Like Me is performed in Bay Area theaters weekdays for children grades K-6, and this year we are presenting our 15^th Anniversary season in March and April 2009. Please call the World Arts West office at (415) 474-3914 if you would like more information about this program.

We also count on your efforts to help us spread the word about our activities. Distributing Festival or People Like Me posters, brochures, flyers, and helping us to get exposure in the mainstream and ethnic media are all ways that you can help us ensure the Festival’s survival. And we can help you spread the word about your upcoming dance performances via our Dance Community Events webpage at http://www.worldartswest.org/main/communityperformances.asp. Email us at info@worldartswest.org to get your dance event posted. Thank you for your participation in the auditions and beyond, and we look forward to building the future together.

World Arts West is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and needs to secure enormous financial support to make the continue each year. Donations are tax-deductible, and can be earmarked towards any particular aspect of our organization or the FestivalFestival that you would like to support. All donations will be acknowledged in our Festival program book, and you will know that you are helping World Arts West continue its work supporting ethnic dance and music and the dedicated artists who keep it alive.

Festival Artist Responsibilities

Photo Session

The Festival’s photo shoot is scheduled for late February 2009 at RJ Muna’s photo studio in San Francisco. All selected groups will be given a specific time slot and will have use of their photos after the Festival, with some restrictions to be discussed.

Production Meetings

Production meetings will be scheduled with company directors/soloists mid-April 2009 to discuss technical requirements, sound requirements and any additional information needed for the program book. All company directors will be required to attend these meetings and need to come prepared to discuss the piece and technical design ideas in detail at that time.

Technical and Dress Rehearsals

Participation in the Festival is a MANDATORY FOUR-DAY COMMITMENT. All company members, soloists, and musicians must attend a technical rehearsal held in the afternoon or evenings of the Wednesday or Thursday before the June weekend of their performance, as well as a dress rehearsal, which is the Friday night before each weekend’s performances. This is the only time the producers have with artists on stage to work out sound checks, lighting, spacing, exits and entrances, and make any necessary adjustments.