Digital LEAP is a capacity building project for dance and circus professionals in digital and virtual strategies and practices. The overall aim is to develop their skills and competences in digital promotion (marketing) and distribution (circulating) of artistic works by offering training activities, producing key learning resources and sharing them widely within and beyond the dance and circus sectors. Due to the crisis caused by COVID-19 and the climate emergency, there is an urgent need to rethink and diversify operating models. In order to keep up with the digital transition artists need to deepen their understanding of digital strategies and practices. Intermediary organisations need to develop their capacity in supporting artists with their digital strategies and practices. Live art presenters and programmers need increased awareness of digital and virtual practices and understanding of their potential in programming, marketing and audience development work. The purpose is to exchange knowledge and expertise on a European level, benefit from mutual learning practices and disseminate the results internationally as well as reinforce the European networks of dance and circus professionals. Key objectives in the project are: to develop the ways to promote and distribute performing art works based on a live experience through digital means without compromising their live essence; to generate high-quality digital promotional material and increase the opportunities for digital distribution of works; to strengthen international connections and enhance collaboration in and between the circus and dance sectors; to improve the conditions for digital programming; to strengthen a positive mindset and confidence toward digital and virtual opportunities and get inspired by their potential; to work toward a greener and more resilient performing arts sector that can employ digital tools and platforms to its own advantage. Project activities consist of 4 international training modules aimed at contemporary dance and circus artists working professionally in the partner countries. Each module focuses on a specific topic: Promoting your work in digital and virtual environments; Adapting live works for digital and virtual platforms; Distributing your work on digital and virtual platforms; Connecting with audiences by digital and virtual means. The participants are selected through open calls in each country: 28 participants from 7 countries will be selected to each module through open calls, which enables up to over 100 artists to take part in the training. A key element is sharing the results right after each training module, for the immediate use of circus and dance professionals. 8 learning resources - “cookbooks” with accompanying audiovisual material - will be made covering all four training topics. These will be openly accessible online and actively utilized and promoted by project partners as well as disseminated widely across the local and international performing arts sector. These learning resources are disseminated to a wider group of dance and circus professionals in each partner country in 2-day local seminars, consisting of talks, workshops, pitch presentations, demos and feedback sessions. 40 participants, both artists and presenters, will be invited to take part in each country. Some parts of the seminar will be virtually accessible to a large number of professionals and stakeholders. The training is built on peer learning, learning by doing and continuous dialogue and reflection with key stakeholders throughout the project. The training is delivered by experts from many sectors, making the training modules combine different expertise and multiple approaches and perspectives in order to generate innovative thinking and strategies. Digital LEAP will contribute to job creation and sustainable development of dance and circus sectors. It will equip circus and dance artists with the skills necessary to increase their competitiveness in the international market and offer them tools and strategies to strengthen their unique competitive edge in digital and virtual formats. Dance and circus artists will be able to face the changes in their operating environment, create innovative strategies and solutions to promote and distribute their work and unveil new opportunities. On a longer term, this project will contribute to the accessibility to art as well as offer more means for social inclusion. A strong competence among artists in employing virtual tools and platforms for distributing works improves the access to circus and dance art regardless of geographical and physical limitations or local availability. Digital LEAP lays the groundwork for a development that will not only support the COVID-19 recovery of the dance and circus sector, but make them greener, more digital and more resilient.
General: building understanding of promoting & distributing performing art through digital means without compromising its live essence; generating high-quality promotional material & increase opportunities for digital distribution; strengthening international networks & collaboration; improving the conditions for digital programming; fostering confidence toward digital & virtual opportunities within the sectors and get inspired by this potential; work toward a resilient performing arts sector that employs digital tools to its own benefit. Participants: gaining competence in promoting & presenting work digitally & virtually; exploring established & emergent digital tools for promoting and distributing their work; exploring revenue models linked to digital distribution of work; learning to navigate in the digital sphere & position their work in that part of the performing arts sector; sharing their practice with other artists & presenters internationally. Partners: building capacity to support artists in their digital strategies and in finding international work opportunities; building capacity to support the sector in understanding digital & virtual strategies; to share new knowledge with the dance and circus sector and beyond.
The project was a response to the performing arts sector crisis caused by COVID-19 and anticipated by the awareness of the climate emergency. The sector was hit by COVID-19 restrictions globally: circulation of works and the mobility of artists was reduced to the extent that it caused significant loss of income and halted career development for artists, as well as extensive economical losses for presenting organisations. To ensure a swift recovery of the sector, artists need to be better equipped with necessary skills and competences to promote and distribute their work digitally and work with virtual formats. Intermediary organizations need to build their capacity in supporting artists with their digital strategies. Live art presenters and programmers need more awareness of digital & virtual practices and understanding of their potential in programming, marketing and audience development work. The purpose of realizing the training program as an international project was to exchange knowledge and expertise on a European level, benefit from mutual learning practices and disseminate the results internationally. This reinforces the European networks of dance and circus artists as well as organisations that distribute performing arts.