Open Calls

Unframed: Dance Residency

About the Residency

The Unframed Dance Residency is a three-week global dance residency in Goa, India, bringing together emerging and established dance artists from India and around the world.

In a world increasingly divided by differences of culture, identity, geography, language, form, and belief, the residency proposes dance as a space where these separations can be actively encountered, dissolved, and transformed. Through movement, collaboration, and shared creative inquiry, artists are invited to revisit dance as a living practice that transcends inherited boundaries and opens new possibilities for connection in the present.

The residency serves as a creative incubation platform where selected artists will engage in an intensive process of artistic exchange, collaborative creation, and interdisciplinary performance-making. Participants will share their movement practices, artistic perspectives, and cultural narratives while working collectively under the mentorship of the Curator Ashley Lobo.

Rather than presenting difference as something to be observed or judged, the residency embraces it as the material of interaction, creation, and shared awareness. Artists will collectively explore how movement can soften inherited frames of seeing and making, allowing new relationships, ideas, and embodied experiences to emerge across cultures and disciplines.

Throughout the residency, artists will explore contemporary movement practices and collaborative performance-making. Individual and collective works, including solos, duets, and ensemble pieces, will be developed and woven into a unified evening-length performance. The selected artists will also lead sessions for Third Space, sharing their movement practices with a wider community of dance artists gathered for the Serendipity Arts Festival.

Residency Details

Location: Goa, India
Duration: 3 Weeks

Participants

4 Indian dancers/choreographers

International dancers/choreographers

Application Deadline

2nd October 2026

Artistic Focus

The residency will function as a collaborative creative laboratory centered on:

● Investigating the self, the body and the meaning of dance through somatic and physical exploration.
● Contemporary dance and movement training.
● Cross-cultural artistic exchange
● Inter disciplinary approach with the possibility of integrating multimedia
● Experimental practices and approaches to choreography
● Collaborative creation under intensive timelines.

Timelines

Residency Start: 20th November

Performance Date: 13th December

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants should:

● Be between 21 and 35 years of age.
● Be available from the start to the end of the performance.
● Have a minimum of three years of training, education, or professional experience in contemporary dance, especially ballet, modern dance, jazz, and improvisation, to create expressive, versatile movement.
● Demonstrate a strong interest in cross-cultural collaboration and artistic exchange.
● Be open to exploring movement alongside film, multimedia, and other creative disciplines.
● Be willing to work collaboratively within a diverse international group and adapt to an intensive creative process.
● Be motivated to experiment, take creative risks, and contribute actively to collective creation.
● Be interested in sharing their artistic practice and movement language with fellow participants.

The following will be considered an advantage:

● Experience in creating solo or stage-based performance works.
● Experience facilitating workshops, community engagement, or educational activities.
● Ability and willingness to conduct open workshops during the festival, sharing their unique movement style, creative methodologies, and artistic approaches with student/ apprentices / professional dancers.
● Demonstrated ability to work effectively within collaborative teams.

Selection Process

1. Four Indian dancers/choreographers will be selected through an open application process.

2. International dancers and choreographers will be nominated by partner embassies, cultural institutions, and international arts organizations as part of a cultural exchange initiative.

Residency Outcome

At the conclusion of the residency, participants will present their work at Serendipity Arts Festival 2026, in a public performance showcasing the collaborative work developed during the Serendipity Dance Residency 2026.

The final presentation will integrate:

  • Dance and movement
  • Multimedia and film elements
  • Site-responsive and interdisciplinary performance practices
  • Diverse cultural and artistic perspectives brought together through collective creation.

Application Process

Completed application form, which will include the following: 

  • A brief, updated CV/Portfolio
  • Your bio in 250 words
  • High Res. individual picture
  • Social media handles (e.g., IG, X, FB) should be a public account
  • Age proof document (passport copy/aadhaar card)
  • Open access link to one ready work and one work in progress from a dance which clearly shows the quality of the movement and creativity.
  • One referral names (people who would recommend you for this residency)

Provision

  • The selected participants will receive up to 50000 Rupees to cover their honorarium and per diems.
  • Stay during the residency.
  • Stay during the festival performance.
  • Local transportation during the festival.
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