Choreographer Call-Out
Choreographer for a Dance Workshop Celebrating Chinese and Lunar New Year
West End in Schools are looking for a movement or dance practitioner to collaborate with us and our Creative Director in the creation of a movement-based workshop celebrating Chinese and Lunar New Year for primary school children aged 3 to 11. The workshop features an original music score by Liz Chi Yen Liew.
We’re looking for someone with knowledge and lived experience of Chinese and Lunar New Year, and the ability to help teach others about the associated cultures and traditions that surround the festival.
You will have sufficient knowledge and skills to help create the materials that our workshop facilitators will require to deliver the workshop in schools. This includes the choreography for the workshop and the supporting video/online resources (more details below).
About the workshop
The workshop is based on the origin story of the Chinese Zodiac, The Great Race. The story of the Zodiac is the most popular story told during Lunar New Year, and it is the tale that children in China still explore and retell today. The workshop is inspired by Christopher Carr’s retelling of the story for children. During the sessions each class will be led by a facilitator as they work together to recreate the characters and story. There will no props or costume.
The workshop itself will be delivered in primary schools across the UK. In keeping with our existing workshops, it will be delivered in class-by-class sessions for up to 30 children at a time. Ideally it will run for between 35 and 50 minutes, depending on a school’s timetable. It will need to be suitable, or have multiple age appropriate versions that make it suitable, for nursery (age 3-4) all the way up to Year 6 (age 10-11).
This commission is for the creation of the workshop plan and associated material, and does not require you to also deliver the workshop in schools (though that may be possible if you wish). The workshop will be delivered by our team of freelance dancers, who come from a range of cultural backgrounds.
Aims of the workshop
To celebrate Chinese and Lunar New Year in primary schools.
To inform, teach and inspire children to engage with Lunar New Year and its associated traditions.
To be equally appropriate and inspirational for children who have no existing knowledge of Chinese and Lunar New Year, as well as for children who celebrate it at home.
To encourage creativity and the imagination as children work alongside a professional facilitator.
What the project might involve
A structured piece of creative movement that can be delivered and completed by children aged 3-11 within the workshop time. This may include choreographed sections, creative tasks and improvised sections, to allow the children to explore and express their own ideas.
The creation of training resources, for example a high quality video of the dance and clear written instructions to train other facilitators
We’d like to explore the idea of the chosen candidate creating a short introductory storytelling video which could be played at each workshop.
West End in Schools are happy to support the right applicant in the creation of aspects of the workshop that are outside your personal skill set. Regular check-ins and support from our Creative Director is also available where required.
Timeline
Monday 14 November - Deadline for expressing interest. See below for how to get in touch. Interviews will take place later in the week.
Monday 21 November - Wednesday 21 December - Timeline for workshop creation, to be agreed with the selected applicant. We’d expect to see a first draft early to mid December.
Friday 6 January - Final deadline for delivering the completed workshop materials.
Fee and How to Apply
The fee for creating the choreography and accompanying training resources and giving us the right to use them in schools is £1000, and we estimate that it will take approximately 8 days of work.
It would be ideal if you could be part of the training process w/c 9 January (additional fee, dates tbc). The work created will be the property of West End in Schools.
To express your interest please get in touch by emailing Abi at office@westendinschools.org.uk by 5pm on Monday 14 November with your CV and links to past work/samples or a website. Please also confirm your availability for the timeline illustrated.
About West End in Schools
Every child’s imagination should be inspired by the arts. West End in Schools' mission is to use the skills of the professional theatre to provide highly creative cultural experiences for children which they will remember forever.
Each year we deliver dance, drama and Shakespeare workshops and perform musicals and pantomimes in well over 1,000 primary schools all over England, Wales and Scotland.
For the past few years our team of facilitators have delivered our existing Chinese and Lunar New Year workshop in primary schools. This workshop has proved popular and we are now looking to create a new workshop with refreshed choreography.