The Contest is open for dancers of contemporary dance who have a documented artistic activity or/and are professional dancers with a diploma of dance studies. Participation in the contest is permitted for solos, premiere of which took place between 1.01.2022 and 13.05.2023 or prepared especially for the Contest. The solo should not be shorter than 5 minutes and no longer than 20 minutes. One dancer can submit maximum two solos.

Solo pieces will be judged by an international jury, in previous years: Roberto Zappala, Kevin Richmond, Katie Duck, Ismael Ivo and Ann Van Den Broek. The Jury will judge the solos for their artistic value, technical level and originality, awareness of the performance space and dramaturgy of the choreography. In the Contest there are to be 3 prizes and an Audience Award – 6000 Euro total.

The deadline for application is 15th May 2023 (see details in the regulations of the Contest - website www.gdanskdancefest.pl). All additional information: Contest Regulations, application form can be found on website www.gdanskdancefest.pl. We kindly ask to read carefully the Regulations. Questions in Polish or English concerning the conditions of participation in the Contest may be sent to: gft@klubzak.com.pl

To join the Jury of the Solo Dance Contest 2023, Klub Żak invited artistic personalities and experts in the field of contemporary dance. The jury will include: Edyta Kozak – artist and curator of polish and European dance projects, Johanna Ikola – finnish choreographer and artistic director of Full Moon Festival and Andreas Constantinou – performer, choreographer of many awarded works and founder of dance initiatives.

Edyta Kozak – active on and off stage for over 30 years as a curator of dance projects. Former soloist of the Grand Theater in Warsaw and Stadttheatre Bern in Switzerland. She headed the Association of Independent Dancers, was the creator and curator of the "+++ dance" program at the National Theater in Warsaw, a partner and expert of European networks: Aerowaves, advancing performing arts project and Open Latitude, collaborated with the Goethe Institute, the Swiss Cultural Foundation, etc. She is the founder and artistic director of the Body/Mind Foundation. She received the award of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage for promoting the art of dance. She was a juror of the "Young Dancer of the Year" and a member of the prestigious jury of the "Pearls of Dance" Competition.

Johanna Ikola is a danceartist and choreographer with a MA degree of dance from The Theatre Academy / The University of Arts Helsinki in 2005. She has worked with a number of established choreographers and been a member of Aalkokoski Company and Liisa Pentti+ Co. She worked for Finnish Art Counsil in various expert positions and currently is the new Artistic director of Full Moon Dance Festival.

Andreas Constantinou is a performance artist, artistic director of HIMHERANDIT PRODUCTIONS since 2006 and Q&A Studios - Queer Art Studios Aarhus. He graduated from Trinity Laban and worked with Punch Drunk. Since 2013 he created THE GENDER HOUSE PROJECTS and QUEER ARTS FESTIVAL that tackled themes of gender, sexuality and identity from different artistic perspectives. He created the award-winning performances that has toured extensively in theatres and festivals throughout Europe. Andreas was also an established dance teacher and lecturer, being inter alia Head of Contemporary Dance Division at Klassiski Listdansskolinn in Reykjavik and Head of the Dance at Performers House, Denmark.

§ 1

 1.     Club ZAK with the headquarter: al. Grunwaldzka 195/197, 80-266 Gdańsk, NIP: 5830004739 is the Organiser of the Contest. The subject of the Contest is a short solo from the field of broadly understood contemporary dance (Contemporary Dance / Contemporary Ballet).

2.     The Contest takes place within the Gdansk Dance Festival organised by Club Zak and aims at supporting and promoting contemporary dance in European countries.

3.          The planned schedule of the Contest:

a.        announcement of the Contest: 3rd March 2023

b.        announcement of the Jury: 29th April 2023

c.        deadline for applications for the Contest: 15th May 2023

d.        formal verification and preselection: until 2nd June 2023

e.        announcement of the participants: until 16th June 2023

f.         main Contest: 4th – 8th September 2023

g.        finals, Jury’s verdict announcement, Audience Award announcement: 8th September 2023

§ 2

Rules of participation in the Contest.

1.     Participation in the Contest is possible for:

a.          dancers who are at least 18 years while applying;

b.          dancers of contemporary dance with the documented artistic activity or/and are professional dancers with a diploma of dance studies.

2.        The Contest allows application of solos (contemporary dance / contemporary ballet) that fulfil the following requirements:

a.        solos are autonomous performances;

b.        the solo premiered between 1st January 2022 and 13th May 2023;

c.        or solo is prepared especially for the Solo Dance Contest 2023 (it will be premiered during the Contest);

d.        the solo is not shorter than 5 minutes and not longer than 20 minutes;

e.        solos without stage set (only small elements of set, that will be tranported and organised by the dancer, are allowed), montage cuts, multimedia projections or changes in stage lighting;

f.         the solo is meant for being shown in public in the technical conditions of the Klub Żak stage (same for every participant width: 9m x depth: 8m, white floor; white backdrop screen; black side curtains).

3.        The participant of the Contest must be insured.

§ 3

The application

1.        One dancer can submit a maximum of two solo pieces. Each solo piece should be submitted as a separate application.

2.        Place, date and mode of submitting the applications:

a.        date: 15th May 2023, till 23:00 pm (the date and time of submission at e-mail are taken into account)

b.        form of application: the application should be filled out correctly and submitted through web page www.gdanskdancefest.pl, in Polish or English

c.        the application must be submitted by the dancer who performs the solo.

3.        Questions in Polish or English concerning the conditions of participation in the Contest may be sent to: gft@klubzak.com.pl. The answers will be published on the above-mentioned websites.

4.        Obligatory attachments to the application:

a.          the short solo piece should be submitted to the Contest in full length (the recording of the solo piece should be done without special effects, montage cuts and other editing methods that may obscure the real image of the piece);

b.          legible scan of signed statements (Attachment 1 – two pages);

5.        The following applications will not be considered:

a.        incomplete applications and applications with formal defect. As formal defects we understand: lack of obligatory attachments, lack of obligatory signatures;

b.        applications failing to meet the requirements of paragraph 3, pt. 4a

c.        applications submitted after the deadline;

d.        applications of dancers that do not fulfil the conditions of participation in the Contest, in particular conditions mentioned in § 2 point 1;

e.        applications of solos that do not fulfil the conditions of participation in the Contest, in particular conditions mentioned in § 2 point 2;

f.         applications of dancers submitting more than two solos;

6.        Information about applications sent before 22nd April 2023, that do not comply with the conditions of participation in the Contest stated in § 2 point 1 and 2 will be sent via email to each applicant individually to the email address given in the application form.

7.        The Organiser will publish the list of Contest participants by 16th June 2023 on the following website: www.gdanskifestiwaltanca.pl / www.gdanskdancefest.pl (CONTEST) and will inform the participants via email.

§ 4

The Jury and way of judging

1.        Solo pieces preselected by the Organiser will be judged by an international Jury appointed by the Organiser. For the Jury the Organiser will select professionals from the world of art, programmers of international dance festivals and contemporary dance experts.

2.        The composition of the Jury will be officially presented on the website www.gdanskifestiwaltanca.pl / www.gdanskdancefest.pl (CONTEST) on the 29th April 2023.

3.        From among its members the Jury will appoint a chairperson and will set the mode of judging the performances.

4.        The Jury will watch the preselected solos and judge them for artistic value, level of dance technique, originality, awareness of the performance space and dramaturgy.

5.        The Jury will select 6 final performances and I, II and III prizes among them.

6.        The Jury will divide the amount of total 5.000 Euro between the laureates of the I, II and III Prize. The Jury has the right not to award any of the participants, or not to divide the amount of 5.000 Euro total.

7.        The Jury will present the verdict to the Organizer and send the protocol in English language.

8.        The jury’s decisions are final and are not subject to any discussion.

§ 5

The schedule of the Contest and the Audience Award

1.        All solos will be subjected to preselection by Organiser, and the approved ones will be presented for the Jury’s judgement and public presentation.

2.        The preselected participants will be asked to present their solos live in Klub Zak from 4th September 2023 to 8th September 2023. The participants will show their solos on the stage of Klub Żak (same for eachparticipant: width: 9m x depth: 8m, white floor, white backdrop screen, black side curtains).

3.        They jury will decide upon top 6 participants who will take part in the finals on 8th September 2023. Then, amongst them laureates for I, II and III award will be selected.

4.        Amongst the presented solos the audience will choose the laureate of the Audience Award:

a.        each viewer who will buy a ticket for Solo Dance Contest2023 will receive a voting card (1 ticket = 1 voting card);

b.        a viewer can vote only for one solo, putting on the voting card the title of the solo and the ticket number (1ticket = 1 vote)

c.        the votes will be counted by the committee appointed by the director of the Club.

d.        the announcement of the laureate of the Audience Award will take place together with the announcement of the Jury’s verdict.

5.        The finals of the Contest and the announcement of the final verdict of the Jury and the Audience: 8th September 2023

6.        The Audience Award is 500 euro total.

7.        The Organiser reserves the right to make any amendments in the schedule of the Contest. The information about the final schedule of the Contest will be published by the Organiser by 1st September 2023 on the following website: www.gdanskifestiwaltanca.pl / www.gdanskdancefest.pl (CONTEST).

8.        The Organiser reserves the right to make use of any photo materials delivered by the participants and taken during the public presentations of the Contest in published paper materials, promotional materials and on the Organiser’s websites.

§ 6

The collection of the prize

1.        In the Contest there are to be 3 prizes: I, II and III prizes given by the Jury and the Audience Award.

2.        The Jury’s Award has a value of 5.000 Euro in total. The Jury is allowed to divide this sum between the laureates at their discretion. The Audience Award has a value of 500 Euro.

3.        If the prize is awarded to a Polish performer, the prize will be a PLN equivalent of the sum in EUR, estimated in accordance to the average exchange rate of the National Bank of Poland from the day of issuing the verdict of Jury.

4.        The payment of the prize will take place after the Jury announces the verdict.

5.        The amount of the prize is gross amount and any taxes related to it should be deducted according to the appropriate tax law.

§ 7

Costs of stay and travel for competition participants

 1.        These provisions of the Terms and Conditions of § 7 apply only to dancers qualified for the Competition who reside outside Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia.

2.        The Organizer will cover the travel costs of dancers qualified for the Competition according to the following principles:

a.        Polish citizens shall be reimbursed the costs of return trip within Poland, on the basis of submitted originalas of train or bus tickets. (The cost of traveling by car will not be reimbursed).

b.        Polish citizens residing outside Poland and citizens of other countries will receive reimbursement of the cost of a return trip on the basis of submitted tickets in total amount of maximum 150 euro per person. (The cost of traveling by car or local transport will not be reimbursed).

3.        The Organizer will provide all participants of the Competition with accommodation in hostel rooms throughout the duration of the

4.        Competition; the dancers selected for the first preselection group will receive accommodation the day before the start of Competition;

5.        The organizer will provide 1 meal a day to all dancers who qualify for the Competition.                                          

§ 8

Final resolutions

 1.        The act of submitting the application form is equal to Contest participant’s acceptance of the Contest conditions and Contest Regulations stated here.

3.        The act of submitting the application form is equal to Contest participant’s consent to The Organiser making use of the personal data in order to organize and conduct the Contest. Appropriate statement together with the information right clause can be found in the application form on the Organizer’s website.

4.        The Organizer is also Personal Data Administrator. The Organizer takes the responsibility for participants’ personal data processing and ensures personal data protection by using technical and organizational means appropriately and in accordance with the standards, contained in General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter referred to as GDPR) 2016/679 from the 27th April 2016 for natural persons in the scope of the processing of their personal data and free movement of such data and superseding the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and other regulations of the national law.

5.        The participant of the Contest has the right to access to their personal data as well as the right to rectification, erasure, restrict processing of the data, the right to data portability, to object to the processing of the data, the right to withdraw consent to the processing of the data at any time but not affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

6.        The act of submitting the application form is equal to Contest participant’s consent to The Organiser processing of the personal data in order to perform registration process and to conduct the Contest.

7.        Personal Data received by the Organizers shall be collected and processed solely for the purposes of the conducting of the Contest.

8.        Each participant has the right to lodge a complaint to the supervisory authority (the President of the Personal Data Protection Office) when they consider their personal data protection rights according to GDPR from 27th April 2016 have been breached.

9.        Providing personal data is voluntary, but necessary and lack of consent for its processing in accordance with above stated purposes will result in disqualification of the applicant.

10.     The Organizer reserves the right to publish participant’s name, surname, image and general information about the participant as well as the right to place the mentioned above information in advertising and informative materials, such as Organizer’s publications and websites and information profiles run by the Organizer.

11.     In all cases not regulated by these Regulations the decisions are made by the Organizer.

12.     The Organizer shall not be held responsible for the results of errors in application form made by the applicant.

13.     The Organizer reserves the right to make any amendments in the Regulations during the Contest and takes an obligation to immediately publish the changed Regulations in the places where the Contest Regulations were published before.

14. The organizer reserves the right to cancel or discontinue the Contest at any time without providing any explanation.