Joint Associate Artist – Swindon Dance & Pavilion Dance South West

Swindon Dance & Pavilion Dance South West announce their latest joint venture, the appointment of South West dance artist Sean Moss as their Joint Associate Artist for 2024-26.

“More than ever, dance artists need essential support to develop their work and their practice. We want to develop a more joined up approach in supporting artists, challenging the traditional model of associateship residing in a single organisation. We are interested in helping artists to cultivate a network of relationships that could help them develop their work and career in the long run.”

- Victor Fung, Artistic Director and Joint CEO, Pavilion Dance South West

“At Swindon Dance, we believe that investment in our local, regional, and national artists is vital if the country is to have a thriving and sustainable dance industry. That it is important to provide artists with a safe environment where they feel supported, where they can experiment, take creative risks, and feel empowered without performance deadlines or financial constraints to cap their creativity. We believe this initiative will enable Swindon Dance and Pavilion Dance South West to work in a more collaborative way to achieve this, by jointly supporting an artist connected to the south west will give a higher and more impactful level of support that will contribute to the countries future professional creative and artistic practitioners at the grass roots.”

-Viv Slayford, Artistic Director, Swindon Dance

Why this initiative?

Swindon Dance (SD) and Pavilion Dance South West (PDSW), are passionate about the development of careers of professional dance artists in the south west. We want to nurture their artistic practice, support their career to the next level and retain their creative talent within our region.

This joint venture brings together resources and expertise from two south west dance organisations. Through the appointment of a Joint Associate Artist, we want to offer support for artistic and career development in a tailored and holistic way. The two-year engagement is an opportunity for the artist to deepen their relationship with one dance organisation, while also broadening their network by igniting a new relationship with another.

What’s on offer?

We believe in supporting artists in ways that are truly meaningful to their development. We want to work with artists to identify their needs, to set goals in their development, and to measure success in their own terms during this period. This means that, even though it can be part of the artist’s journey during their time as Joint Associate Artist, a performance outcome is not expected or required.

Here are some of the ways in which we will support the artist:

- Cash support of £2000 per year for 2 years

- Mentoring and coaching for choreographic development, business planning, fundraising, and partnership building

- In-kind studio space for R&D and creation

- Technical and production support to realise productions

- Connecting with community groups to develop place-based engagement activities in and out of the studio

- Profile on website and social media channels to feature their work

- Marketing support to amplify the work of the artist

The 2024 – 26 Artist

SD and PDSW drew up a shortlist of ten south west-based artists that have applied for our open call opportunities in the past two years. From the shortlist, we have chosen one artist with whom both organisations either wanted to deepen their relationship or reignite their connection.

Our artist for this first award is Sean Moss. Sean is based in Gloucestershire and was previously a company member of 2Faced Dance. Sean began to choregraph in 2020, with his first full length outdoor work ‘Last Orders’ performed around the SW. Sean was appointed as Visiting Artist of PDSW in 2023–24 via an open call. He is an alumna of The Centre for Advanced Training at Swindon Dance.