Jerwood Choreographic Research Project

FABRIC

Jerwood Choreographic Research Project will support innovative approaches in choreographic research.

The Jerwood Choreographic Research Project (JCRP) is an innovative investment model designed to kick-start ideas and research into challenging and exciting choreographic concepts and to stimulate new thinking in choreography by enabling artists to think, dream and experiment freely. This will be the third edition of JCRP, the first edition launched in 2013, and the second launched in 2016.

JCRP will create the collaborative space urgently required to support dance artists and the dance sector re-imagine new futures in dance practices. This partnership project will support choreographic research to investigate new ideas and thinking in choreography and to expand knowledge and practice in the UK and beyond.

Jon Opie, Deputy Director of Jerwood Arts at time of the award, said

The first two rounds of the Jerwood Choreographic Research Project brought together an amazing array of arts and cultural organisations to invest in new artist-led enquiries into movement-based practices – it sparked many new successful projects that toured nationally and internationally for years afterwards. Re-launching this programme comes at a critical time when support for artists to research and dream big is limited, and the need to collaborate and pool resources is more urgent than ever. We hope that this new fund will be a call to action, focusing the dance sector of artists’ practices under the leadership of FABRIC.

Paul Russ, CEO & Artistic Director of FABRIC says

We’re grateful to the leadership of Jerwood Arts for having the vision to bring about a new iteration of this project. JCRP has brought about so many incredible research processes and art works, supporting brilliant artists – I’m thrilled to see its return.

Previous editions of JCRP supported the realisation of some of the most successful dance and choreographic works in recent years, including; The Dan Daw Show by Dan Daw Creative Projects, Men & Girls Dance by Fevered Sleep, Don’t Look at the Finger by Hetain Patel, Tree Call by Rosemary Lee & Simon Whitehead and Rite by Florence Peake.

David Harradine of Fevered Sleep says

Fevered Sleep’s project Men & Girls Dance was developed through the first iteration of the Jerwood Choreographic Research Project in 2013.  It’s really rare to secure funding for research that’s genuinely open, and fraught with uncertainty and risk. JCRP support came at just the right time, when the idea for Men & Girls Dance was still emerging, fragile, and vulnerable.  The incredible network of support from host organisations – who later became presenting partners – built a scaffolding of collaboration and care around the project that allowed it to flourish.  Since 2013, Men & Girls Dance has appeared in theatres, galleries and other spaces across the UK and around the world.  The seeds that JCRP support helped us sow have grown into a project that’s still going strong, with new iterations planned for 2024 and beyond.

Fevered Sleep's Men & Girls Dance, Malmö 2018. Photo by David Thibel