Dance Makers Collective | Dancenorth | GUTS | Tasdance | Tracks | STRUT Dance

Detour is a biennial fellowship program that launched in 2023, the second Detour Fellowship EOI for 2025 will open on 2 September 2024.

Detour has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

About Detour

Detour is a major opportunity, investing in two independent dance artists in 2025, to mobilise and engage in a sustained program for their personal creative development, in a spirit of reciprocity, with six Australian dance organisations.

Dance Makers Collective (Darug Country, Western Sydney, NSW), Dancenorth (Gurambilbarra and Yunbenun Country, Townsville, QLD), GUTS (Arrernte Country, Alice Springs, NT), Tasdance (Palawa Country, Launceston, TAS), Tracks (Larrakia Country, Darwin, NT) and STRUT Dance (Nyoongar Country, Perth, WA) invite two dance practitioners to spend ten weeks across Australia, in self-directed residencies, to explore their practice, connect with new landscapes and share with the communities we serve.

The Rationale

In a spirit of mutuality and reciprocity, six leading Australian dance organisations will host two Australian dance artists through an interconnected residency program. By working together, we will provide 12 weeks of paid work (ten weeks in residence, two weeks of additional preparatory fees) for an artist to spend time with us, engage with our communities, with no prescribed ‘outcome’ in mind; to free an artist to develop in the context of our unique environs.

The companies will host the selected artists for two or three weeks each, providing space and relationships (through a Community Connector, an active artist/arts-worker trusted locally) to facilitate their work.

As companies, we ask that the artist connect with our communities, in the spirit of exchange, on their terms. This would be negotiated with the selected artists based on their proposed activity and set of skills, and might for example result in forums, talks, sharings, classes, skills exchanges or workshops delivered by the artist.