What is the Iowa choreography Festival?
The Iowa choreography festival is a collaborative artist residency that pairs together artists with matching visions and provides them with the necessary resources to create new works. Our goal is to support artists in order to foster the creative community here in the Midwest.
What is our process?
Each Iowa Choreography Festival comes together with the help of many hands.
We begin by looking through our applicants and determining what pieces we can financially and physically accomplish that year. From there, we speak to applicants individually about their wants and needs and make a plan for what their summer will entail. Artists are then given the opportunity to choose from a pool of musicians paired with a costume designer/artist that the Festival feels will work best with time, money, and interest.
ICF facilitates 'Connect and Casting’ to fill in performer needs and help assemble schedules and studio space for all pieces. We work closely with artists and designers to help them gather and purchase any materials needed for their creations.
As plans for pieces come together, the Iowa Choreography Festival looks at all of the pieces as a complete performance and selects a set designer, artist, or prop maker to create a set that makes sense for the pieces as a whole. ICF does its best to keep all artists from the entire festival connected with their collaborators throughout the summer.
How do we prepare for the showcase?
At the end of the summer, one week before the Festival’s performance, the Iowa Choreography Festival holds a fundraiser, during which there is live music and live previews of dancing from that year’s pieces. The week leading up to the Festival, we offer a workshop free to all participating ICF artists that culminates in the creation of an additional piece performed. The workshop includes classes from different choreographers and creative spaces, as well as opportunities to teach and take classes from dancers, choreographers, and musicians.
The night before the Festival, there is an open dress rehearsal and all choreographers come to talk about their pieces, how their piece was created, and how they collaborated. They are then given anonymous feedback from those watching, which includes all dancers, choreographers, and artists involved in that year’s Festival.
The day of the Festival is a long and beautiful one where we all work together to make an incredible performance experience. It includes art vendors and installation artists, along with the performance of our choreographic works. The Iowa Choreography Festival is committed to creating a collaborative, creative, and supportive space for everyone to have a fruitful summer full of artistic growth and fulfillment.
