Photo Credit: Cosmic Sculptures, Lucy Suggate & Jack Webb, by Amy Sinead | Image description: two dancers perform on a wooden floor while an audience stands behind them

Throughout the year Dance Base offer a series of paid residencies to professional dance artists, choreographers and companies who are based in Scotland to develop their work in a supportive, well equipped, and welcoming space.

Each residency provides:  

• A studio space at our home in Edinburgh 
• Funds that cover the residency budget provided at application and an additional access budget to support any requirements
• The opportunity to share and discuss your practice with the Dance Base team, your peers and the wider dance sector.  

We strive to support artists at each stage of their career and welcome applications for proposals at all levels.

Have any questions or need some assistance with your application? Our Artist Support Programme is here to help!

Our Artist Support Programme provides 1-2-1 Producing Surgeries for all artists and our team are here to help with any questions you have about the opportunity and your application. This could range from chatting through your idea to proof reading your application. Please contact Kirsty Somerville, Head of Professional Programme, on Kirsty.Somerville@dancebase.co.uk to book in for a session and check out our website for more information.

Please also contact Kirsty if you require this information in an alternative format or have access requirements we need to meet to support you in making an application.

How it works: 

Our residency programme is structured around three terms: 

• Spring (January – April, 13 weeks)  
• Summer (April – July, 10 weeks) 
• Autumn (September – December, 13 weeks)  

Space is provided on a weekly basis (Monday – Friday) in two of our studio spaces, enabling a total offer of 72 weeks.  

Our average annual budget is £25,000 and this will be split between each term with approximately £8,500 per term. 

Applications are made three times a year through an open call process. Applicants are asked to answer a series of short questions and to provide a fully costed budget (support and templates available). All applications will be read by the Dance Base Artistic Director and members of the Artist Advisory Group (a group of artists who reflect the diversity of voices that make up the Scottish dance sector).

The panel will decide the allocation of residency places by assessing:  

• The information provided in the application, and how this gives a sense of the artistic process for the submitted idea
• How the artists will use, and ultimately benefit from, the space and resources provided. The benefit to the artist will be measured against what the perceived impact will be on the artists career and/or the trajectory of the work/idea submitted.
• Whether the scope of the residency is realistic and manageable in the time frame and resources available
• The diversity of voices represented through the residencies
• The distribution of opportunities across the sector

Residencies for Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) and d/Deaf and Disabled Artists: 

Dance Base recognise that there are significant barriers to working in the dance sector and that these challenges are experienced more acutely by those facing marginalisation and deep-rooted systemic injustice. As part of our on-going commitment to support artists who have this lived experience and ensuring that we support the full vibrancy of the dance sector in Scotland, we guarantee that at least one of our residencies each year will go to a lead artist who identifies as a member of the Black, Indigenous and People of Colour communities, and that at least one will go to a lead artist who identifies as d/Deaf or Disabled. This is a minimum but not a limit.   

Artists are invited to identify if they are part of these communities in their application form and this will be brought into the decision panel making as the residencies are allocated. 

What we are looking for: 

Our Residency programme is open to artists at any stage of their career and we welcome applications for proposals for works at all levels, from pure movement/experimental research to work that forms a step in a wider project.

What the Dance Base residency provides: 

• A clean, warm studio space Monday – Friday roughly 09:00 – 17:00 (times vary per studio) 
• The full funding that the artist requires to:  
  • Pay fair artist fees to themselves and their collaborators  
  • Cover travel & accommodation costs 
• Artistic mentoring from the Artistic Director (on request) 
• Basic studio sound equipment (See our equipment list)
• Free wireless internet
• Exclusive access to a shared Greenroom, changing rooms (including showers and lockers) and kitchen 
• An additional access budget to support the artist and their collaborators as they require

Applicants are asked to provide a budget and rationale for their expenditure.  Dance Base will not set a limit for what they can apply for but will provide clear best practice guidance on rates of pay and provide a list of what additional support Dance Base can offer in-kind (e.g. technical equipment). Dance Base will endeavour to cover the budget as proposed but if there are activities listed that we cannot fund we may ask for an amended budget to reflect this. 

As part of the week, each residency artist will be invited to share their practice with their peers, the public and the sector if this is suitable for them to do so. 

As an idea, sharings could take the form of:  

• A taught company class or sharing of practice for the dance sector 
• An artist led conversation 
• An open studio afternoon 
• A structured work-in-progress sharing at the end of the week 
• Or anything that compliments and enhances and artist’s residency experience.  

We understand that each project will be at a different stage and that the decision of if, and what, to share must be bespoke and beneficial to your project. The sharing element will be discussed with the artist and the Artistic Director and Head of Professional Programme once the residency has been offered. 

Who it is for: 

The Paid Residency programme is open to: 

• Artists who are predominantly based in Scotland (this applies to the lead artists - you can welcome collaborators from outside of Scotland but we may not be able to support travel & accommodation costs for these individuals) 
• Artists who see their work as based in physical or choreographic practices, working across a range of environments from professional to community

The Paid Residency programme is not open to: 

• Artists who are predominantly based outside of Scotland 
• Artists who are in full time academic study
• Artists who are already members of the DEBS scheme 

If you are ineligible for the paid residency but are interested in being part of our programme please see our In-Kind Studio Space & Support programme, or contact Kirsty Somerville, Head of Professional Programme, on Kirsty.Somerville@dancebase.co.uk  

The Budget: 

Dance Base commit to provide the full funding that the artist requires to pay themselves and their collaborators to deliver their residency. Applicants are asked to complete the Template Budget and submit this with their application. Our producing team will be on hand to support applicants who have questions about creating a budget.  

Dance Base have a total budget of £25,000 for the yearly Residency programme (approximately £8,500 per term) and this will be used to fund each successful residency as they require. This means that we will fund fewer residencies, but that the ones we do support will be fairly paid and valued. This does not represent an expectation for larger pieces of work or for ‘finished’ pieces, but rather a reflection of the work that is being undertaken during residencies (accounting for varying numbers of collaborators and expenses). 

When creating your budget, we ask you to ensure that your payment rates abide by fair pay standards as laid out by the ITC as a minimum. We anticipate that the weekly rate for artists will be between £500 - £1000, depending on experience. For context, the average weekly lead artist fee requested for the selected residencies in 2021/22 was £610.

• ITC Rates of Pay

Dance Base will support: 

• Artist fees for those taking part in the residency
• Travel & Accommodation expenses 

Dance Base are unable to support: 

• Additional technical hires (you can see our in-house provision here) 
• Hospitality expenses or per diems 
• Marketing or promotional fees 

Our annual budget of £25,000 will unfortunately not be able to support all the applications that we receive across the year. We therefore ask that when compiling your budget that you consider any additional funding that you have in place to support the project already and incorporate this into your request to Dance Base accordingly. For example, if you have Creative Scotland funding to support the lead artists time already, we do not expect this to appear in your ask from Dance Base. 

This will ensure that we can support the largest number of artists possible. 

For context, the average residency fee offered in 2021/22 was £2,300. The maximum awarded was £4,500 which supported a two week long project with a range of collaborators, while the lowest fee requested was £670 to support an artist who had additional funding in place already. 

How to apply: 

Applicants will be invited to complete and submit the following items: 

1. A Residency Application Form: The online application can be completed in a written or video/audio recording format. The form details work count and recording duration. Visual quality, camera and editing skills will not be taken into consideration for filmed submissions. Spelling and grammar will not form part of the consideration of written applications. Please also provide a link to more information about your practice - this could be a CV, personal statement or a link to your website. You will receive a copy of your application once you have submitted and edits can be made up until the deadline. (You can find a copy of the questions in a Word Document below for offline use before submitting via the online form)
2. A Residency Budget: Please use the template provided and attach this to the application form in the section at the end. The budget should detail the fee that you require to deliver the residency week. The template is just a guide so please do expand and edit as you need.
3. An Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Form: This is anonymous and will be used to capture who we are reaching with our call outs. 

The application form and EDI form are submitted online. If you have any problems or require the documents in an alternative format please contact Kirsty Somerville, Head of Professional Programme, at Kirsty.Somerville@dancebase.co.uk 

Submission Deadlines: 

The call out for our Autumn Residency Programme is now open and will close on Wednesday 4th May at 11:00am. The panel will meet to discuss applications on Thursday 12th May, and all applicants will be informed of the outcome by Friday 20th May at the very latest.

Applicants will be informed of the panel members after the closing date so that conflicts of interest can be declared and mitigated.  

Future Deadlines:

Our Spring 2023 Residency Call Out will open on 1st August and close on the 5th October.

Our Summer 2023 Residency Call Out will open on 1st November and close on the 1st February.

Our Autumn 2023 Residency Call Out will open on 1st March and close on the 3rd May.

How the decision is made: 

Applications will be read by the Artistic Director and members of the Artist Advisory Group – a group of artists who represent the diverse array of voices and lived experiences that make up the Scottish dance sector. The decision of who the residency weeks are allocated to will be based on: 

• • The information provided in the application, and how this gives a sense of the artistic process for the submitted idea
  • How the artists will use, and ultimately benefit from, the space and resources provided. The benefit to the artist will be measured against what the perceived impact will be on the artists career and/or the trajectory of the work/idea submitted.
  • Whether the scope of the residency is realistic and manageable in the time frame and resources available
  • The diversity of voices represented through the residencies
  • The distribution of opportunities across the sector

The panel will create a shortlist and then the Artistic Director and Head of Professional Programme will work together to examine the logistics of the programme in relation to budget, studio availability and dates. The Artistic Director will make the final decision on the programme. 

Should you wish to have a conversation about the application process, require this information in an alternative format, or have access requirements we need to meet to support you in making an application please contact Kirsty Somerville, Head of Professional Programme at Dance Base on Kirsty.Somerville@dancebase.co.uk