DANCE
Discipline-Specific Guidelines
2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship
The Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship in Dance supports Minnesota or New York City-based choreographers, early in their careers, creating bold, innovative and risk-taking new work that challenges conventional artistic forms.
Please take the Eligibility Questionnaire to assess whether you meet the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship eligibility criteria before reading through these further, discipline-specific requirements. You must meet all of the general eligibility requirements as well as those found in the Discipline-Specific Guidelines below, whether you are applying as an individual artist or as an ensemble/collective/collaborative.
Defining “Early Career”
Eligible applicants must have a sufficient body of completed work that a panel can use to assess your artistic development over time, dedication to the field and ongoing motivation to create new original work. Early career artists:
- Have between 2 to 10 years of experience as a choreographer (excluding any time in a degree-granting program; as a dancer in work created by others; remounting the work of other choreographers; or time away from working as an artist due to circumstances–e.g., having children, caring for family members, long-term illness, etc.).
Choreographers who have been generating new work for more than 10 years (excluding any time spent in a degree-granting program) are generally not eligible, even if they feel under-recognized. Choreographers beyond 10 years in the field who wish to discuss eligibility—based on circumstances (whether personal or geographic) or on specific creative practice considerations (i.e., the scale of work and/or extended creative cycles necessary to complete a single work)—should contact Jerome program staff before April 15, 2020 to discuss eligibility in advance of submitting an application.
- Have 2 completed and publicly presented works. Works created and presented while in a degree-granting program are not eligible for meeting this requirement.
- Have at least 1 work on your resume/CV that has been supported by a presenting organization (that is not your own organization, if applicable) or funder (for a project grant from either a foundation or a federal, state or local arts agency). Self-presented work or work created and presented while in a degree-granting program is not eligible for meeting this requirement.
Panels rely on work samples and a resume/CV to assess the review criterion of artistic merit, impact and readiness. An artist’s application materials must demonstrate development over time, dedication to the field, craft and potential.
This is not an opportunity for beginning artists who have never choreographed their own work, whose generated new work has yet to be publicly shared, or without a sufficient body of completed work that a panel can use to assess your artistic development over time.
Age is not a factor in determining eligibility.
Choreographers who are mid-career or established are not eligible.
Artists will be considered beyond early career if they have:
- Received consistent significant financial support for their artistic work from foundations and/or federal, state or local arts agencies for multiple different projects.
- Considerable bodies of work and consistent support for touring and production by organizations (other than their own organization, if applicable).
- Garnered significant regional or national prizes or awards in recognition or support of the creation and/or public presentation of multiple different works, including but not limited to:
- Obie nominations or awards
- Bessie nominations or awards
- National Dance Project national or regional commissions or touring grants
- United States Artists Award
- MAP grants
- Creative Capital Fellowships
- Dance USA Fellowships
- Fulbright Scholar Fellowships
Receipt of any one of these grants and awards does not make an artist ineligible—it is the receipt of multiple grants and awards for multiple projects that, taken as a whole, move an artist to mid-career or beyond.
- Achieved significant commercial success.
- Received recognition in the form of awards, commissions, residencies or funding opportunities not listed above that are specifically categorized as mid-career.
- Received awards or prizes in recognition of significant cumulative career achievement (including but not limited to the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, the Dance/USA Award, Guggenheims or the MacArthur Fellowship).
- Have a full-time tenured faculty position (or the equivalent).
Recognizing that different funders may define “mid-career” in different ways, artists who have received mid-career awards but consider themselves still in an early career stage should contact Jerome Program staff before April 15, 2020, in advance of submitting an application.
Dancers with substantial recognition and lengthy careers performing the work of others will generally be considered ineligible. Dancers who want to discuss eligibility should contact Jerome program staff before April 15, 2020, in advance of submitting an application.
Mid-career or established artists from fields other than dance will not be considered early career. For example, a composer with a substantial career in music who is now moving into choreography will not be considered early career for the purposes of this Fellowship.
Ensemble/Collective/Collaborative Eligibility
Ensembles/collectives/collaboratives may submit a single application requesting support request for 2–5 members who will share the Fellowship funds equally. In order to submit an eligible application, the ensemble/collective/collaborative must have a majority of members that meet all of the Fellowship eligibility requirements for artists applying individually and have a demonstrated history of creating new work collectively or as part of an ensemble. Only eligible ensemble/collective/collaborative artists may be included in the application.
Please take the Eligibility Questionnaire to assess whether your group meets the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship eligibility criteria for ensembles/collectives/collaboratives.
Work Sample Requirements for Choreographers
In the application, you must provide:
- 2 work samples, each from a different completed and publicly presented work that you have conceived, generated and publicly delivered as a generative artist. Use your most recent and strongest work. Panels prefer work created within the last 3 years. Older samples may be submitted with an explanation in the “work sample context” field. Work created and presented while in a degree-granting program is not eligible.
- Artists may submit a third work sample of a work-in-progress, especially if this is a project you would be pursuing during your Fellowship.
Work sample time maximum:
- 10 minutes total for 2 publicly presented work samples
- 3 minutes for 1 work-in-progress
- 13 minutes total maximum
For example, you may submit one 5-minute sample of a completed, publicly presented work; a 3-minute sample of a different completed work; and a 2-minute section of a work-in-progress that you are developing over the next couple of years.
Submit your works in the order in which you would like them to be viewed, starting with your strongest sample. Panelists want to see a range of work demonstrating development over time, dedication to the field, craft and potential.
The applicant(s) must be the choreographer of all submitted samples.
If applying as an ensemble/collective/collaborative, all of the work samples must be the creative work choreographed by the members of the group who are applying.
Do not submit promotional videos, trailers, reels, or interviews. Panels prefer to see documentation of real-time sequences of work representative of the live experience. The preference is that you submit links to the full-length work and provide a single cue point within the work for the panel to watch.
Jerome staff will assess whether your work samples are eligible for the panel to view.
Ineligible work samples include:
- work in which you are a dancer and did not choreograph;
- commercial or non-commercial work-for-hire that you created at the direction of a client or producer, even if this is commissioned work;
- choreographed work for which you do not have primary creative control, including film/video work, music videos or stage productions;
- any work created and presented while in a degree-granting program or with all student performers.
For each work sample in the application, you will provide the following required information:
- Vimeo or YouTube URL: choreographers are encouraged to provide links to the full-length documentation of the works used for work samples. This provides panelists the opportunity to view more of the work if they so choose.
- Vimeo password, if applicable
- Work Sample Description, listing:
- Name of the Work
- Date Completed
- When and where the work was documented
- Where the work has been presented/performed
- If you are in the work, identify yourself (e.g., “I am the dancer in the blue hat.”)
- Your Role in the Work Sample
- If you were solely the choreographer, enter “choreographer”
- If you played multiple roles, list all of the roles you played in the creation of the work. For example, “choreographer, dancer, composer.”
- Cue Point for the Work Sample
- Indicate your start and stop time for the excerpt (e.g., “Start at 3:30 and end at 8:00”). If no start and stop time is provided, panelists will begin watching at the beginning of the video.
- Do not submit more than one sequence/cue point per sample (e.g., “Start at 1:00 to 1:30 then jump to 2:45 to 3:45”—panelists want to see a single uninterrupted sequence of work in real time).
- The total time of your excerpts for all work samples combined is 13 minutes (not 13 minutes per work).
- Work Sample Context
- Provide up to 150 words (recommended length) to give panelists a precise context for what they are watching. This can include a brief description of the entire piece, any important information about sections of the work occurring either before or after your clip that you want them to know, or your intentions and goals in creating the piece. If your work is challenging to experience in short clips, you can share that here. If you’d like panelists to pay attention to specific elements of your work, this is also where you might instruct them to do so. Given the panelist preference for recent work, if you are submitting work samples that are older than 3 years, please explain why.
Applicants who cannot provide the minimum amount of requested work samples leave the panel without enough information to gauge whether the applicant is truly competitive. Applicants who cannot meet the minimum requirement will be eliminated from consideration.
Panels rely on the resume/CV to evaluate how your artistic background demonstrates development over time, dedication to the field, ongoing motivation in the creation of new original work in your artistic field over a multi-year period and your readiness for a two-year fellowship.
To meet eligibility requirements, you must have at least 1 work on your resume/CV that has been supported by a presenting organization or funder (for a project grant from either a foundation or a federal, state or local arts agency). Work that has been self-presented or work created and presented while in a degree-granting program is not eligible for this requirement.
Staff will assess your resume/CV to make sure you are eligible for the panel to review. Any applicant whose resume does not clearly establish eligibility will be eliminated for further consideration at the prescreening stage.
Resume/CVs should be current and complete. Bios are not acceptable. The Jerome staff and panel will not do research to determine your role(s), running time, dates in degree programs, etc.
The resume is your chance to present and confirm your status as an early career choreographer with a history of ultimate creative control over projects, artistic development over time, dedication to the field, and ongoing motivation in the creation of new, original work. For that reason, you need to clearly list your choreographic work separate from other work and opportunities. A sample individual choreographer resume is available for your reference.
Individual Artist Resumes/CVs should include the following:
- Choreography: listing of publicly presented work, including all presented, commissioned and self-presented work.
- Name of the work and running time
- Date completed
- When and where the work was documented
- Where the work has been presented/performed/toured (please list the top 3 or 4 and summarize the number of presentations—see example below).
- If you played multiple roles beyond choreographer, list all of the roles you played in the creation of the work. For example, “choreographer, dancer, composer.”
- Provide a short (1–3 sentence) summary of the work.
Example: Check This! (53 minutes), premiered at Venue A (City) in 2018. Toured to Venue B (City), April 2019 and Venue C (City), April 2019. I choreographed and danced in this work. This is a sextet fusing physical power and grace in a call to collective action around climate justice.
Example: Dream House (12 minutes), premiered in Festival A (City), 2014. This is a solo piece that I choreographed and danced. It is about my haunting experience of living for a short while in a borrowed house.
- Work in Development: provide the work, date, short description
Example: Received a commission from Dance Company A in 2020 for work to premiere in 2021.
- Education: list the date range when you were enrolled in degree program/s. It is required that you include the dates.
Example: University A, MFA in Choreography and Dance, 2012-2015
College A, BA in Dance, 2008
- Fellowships & Awards: list name of award, date, amount and the project
Example: [name of fellowship or award], [year], [amount of award or fellowship stipend], [length of fellowship], [name of project, if relevant]
- Grants: list name of grant, date, amount and the project
Example: [name of grant], [year], [amount of grant], [name of project, if relevant]
- Residencies: list name of residency, date, length of residency
Example: [name of residency], [year], [length of residency], [name of project, if relevant]
- Teaching: list name of class, venue, city, year, length of class
Example: [name of class], Venue A (city), [year], [length of class, e.g. “1-week intensive” or “12 weeks”]
- Other Artistic Experience: list role, name of project and choreographer, venue, city, date
Example: Dancer, Round About by Choreographer A, Venue A (city) 2016
Co-choreographer, Diva with Choreographer B, Venue B (city) 2011
- Additional relevant categories: Please include any additional categories, including curatorial experience, selected critical reviews, press and publications, etc., that you usually include on your resume.
Ensemble/Collective/Collaborative Resumes/CVs:
Artists applying as an ensemble/collective/collaborative should submit a resume of the collaborative work in addition to individual resumes of the artists applying. The collaborative information is the same format as that requested from individual artist applicants, just specific to the collective creators applying.
A collaborative resume is available for your reference.
The collaborative resume should include:
- Choreography: listing of publicly presented new original work created by the collective members in the application, including all presented, commissioned and self-produced work:
- Name of the work and running time
- Date completed
- When and where the work was documented
- Where the work has been presented/performed/toured (please list the top 3 or 4 and summarize the number of presentations—see example below).
- List the roles of collective members. If collective members applying play multiple generative roles beyond choreographer, list all of the roles applicants played in the creation of the work. See example below.
- Provide a short (1–3) sentence summary of the work.
Examples: Grain of Salt (3-hour durational work), premiered as part of Festival A (City) in 2019 with support from Funder A ([Name of Grant, if applicable]). Co-choreographed by [Collective Name] members, Pat Smith and DD Gray, who also perform in the work. Smith also created the sound score and Gray produced the video. This is a group work for 11 dancers engaging the history of place, factory workers and fire on the former grounds of the Gold Meadow Mill.
sTRANgers (80 minutes), premiered in July 2018 at Venue A (City). The work was self-produced in January 2019 to align with the festival season in NYC during Festival A. Co-choreographed and performed by [Collective Name] members, Pat Smith and DD Gray. This duet explores trans identity and queerness related to the liminal spaces around consent, power, and sexuality.
- Work in Development: provide the work, date, short description
Example: Received a commission from Dance Company A in 2020 for work to premiere in 2021.
- Fellowships & Awards: list name of award, date, amount and the project
Example: [name of fellowship or award], [year], [amount of award or fellowship stipend], [length of fellowship], [name of project, if relevant]
- Grants: list name of grant, date, amount and the project
Example: [name of grant], [year], [amount of grant], [name of project, if relevant]
- Residencies: list name of residency, date, length of residency
Example: [name of residency], [year], [length of residency], [name of project, if relevant]
- Teaching: list name of class, venue, city, year, length of class
Example: [Collective Name] taught [name of class], Venue A (city), [year], [length of class, e.g. “1-week intensive” or “12 weeks”]
- Dance and Other Artistic Experience: list role, name of project and choreographer, venue, city, date
Example: [Collective Name] danced in [name of project and choreographer] at Venue A (City) in 2018.
- Additional relevant categories: Please include any additional categories, including curatorial experience, selected critical reviews, press and publications, etc., that you usually include on your ensemble/collective/collaborative resume.
Note: if the ensemble/collective/collaborative includes members that are not Jerome-eligible or not included in the application, but those artists were involved in the development and performance of the choreographed works included on the collaborative resume, please note this on the collaborative resume.
Example: Push Button (90 minutes), received work-in-progress showing at Venue A in 2016 and a premiere at Venue B in 2017. Choreographed by [Collective Name] members, Pat Smith, DD Gray, and Alex Watson who also perform in the work. This is a trio created from the dancers’ improvisations created individually in response to complex rhythms and inner music and combined for a set score collectively performed. Alex Watson is not Jerome-eligible but is a regular member of [Collective Name].
