Job Description

Image credit: Duality performed by Cosmic Dance (Oxana Banschikova & Kirsten Newell), Scratch Night Spring 2025 / Photo by Sally Jubb

Deadline: Thursday 11 September,

11:00

Are you an artist who works with dance and movement? Do you have a work in progress that you want to share with an audience? Then the Dance Base Spring Scratch Night is for you!


The Dance Base Scratch Night is a unique platform in Edinburgh that brings live dance work to audiences and creates a supportive platform for dance and movement artists to try out ideas on the stage, experiment with an audience and share their work with their peers, the sector and the public. For the spring 2025 edition, the programme will be curated by our Artistic Director, Tony Mills.



Our spring Scratch Night will take place on Wednesday 29 October and we are now looking for artists to join us!


The selected artists will receive:

A 200 performance fee per company member; Travel and accommodation expenses if based outside of Edinburgh; An additional budget to cover any access requirements to support your engagement in the week, including childcare costs; Studio space from 10:00 - 19:00 on Wednesday 29 October at Dance Base for rehearsal ahead of the performance; Technical support from two theatre technicians during the day on Wednesday 29 October to incorporate sound and lighting into your live work and a 90-minute technical rehearsal; Full documentation of the performance (photos/film); and Access to a live audience of peers, industry members and the public and a feedback session after the performance structured as you wish.

Who is it for?

Scratch Night is for artists who:

See their work as based in dance, movement and choreography; See themselves as working at a professional level and are at any stage of their career; Have a work in progress of between 10 to 20 minutes in length; and Are predominantly based in Scotland.

Please read the application guidelines for further information.

How to apply

To apply applicants are invited to complete the online application form. The online application can be completed in a written or video/audio recording format. The form details word count and recording duration. Visual quality, camera and editing skills will not be taken into consideration for filmed submissions, and spelling and grammar will not form part of the consideration of written applications.


The form will ask:

What is your performance idea? (max. 300 words / 2 mins) Aside from the opportunity to present your work live, is there anything in particular you are seeking to gain from participating in the Scratch Night? (max. 100 words / 1 min) Provide us with one example of a question you would like to ask the audience about your work. What is it that you might want feedback on / that you want to test? (max. 50 words / 1 min) How many individuals are involved in the performance? Please provide a link to more information about your practice. This could be a CV, personal statement or a link to your website. Please provide a video of the existing piece you wish to submit. If you do not have this, please include a link of you performing and/or of your work.

PLEASE MAKE SURE ALL LINKS ARE PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE

(not private or password protected, or likely to expire.)

You will receive a copy of your application once you have submitted and edits can be made up until the deadline.

TIMELINE

Deadline: Thursday 11 September, 11:00am

Artists Informed: by Friday 19 September 2025

Scratch Night: Wednesday 29 October 19:00-21:00