ABOUT

The project Play Practice was born in 2012, together with the construction of our homonym residential space in Bangalore. With Play Practice we aim to support the creation and the development of high quality Performing Arts Projects by offering studio space and other facilities for different purposes (artist residencies, educational programs, workshops etc.) We have started running different programs and inviting international guest artists in 2012, and we have recently built a new studio (60x30 ft) in order to allow more professionals projects to happen in our improved new space. So far we have been organising 3 main activities at Play Practice Studios:

Play Practice Apprenticeship Program: It is an educational 3-weeks program, it started 6 years ago and it involves every year between 18 and 25 artists from all round the world.

International workshops: we have been organising several workshops with Indian and international artists like Katie Duck, Shura Barishnikov, Rob Hyden, Ori Flomin, Jose Agudo and HumanHood Dance Company.

Artist Residencies: since we opened in 2012, we have been hosting several artists, offering artistic residencies of different length, in order to support the creation, the development and the productions of high quality projects in the field of the performing arts.We provide Studio space and Accomodation at a very reasonable price and we organise performance evenings at the end of the residency.

We would like in particular to increase the number of Artist Residencies we host at our studios, and we are currently looking both for economic support - in order to keep improving the quality of our service - and for new artists to come and develop their own research at Play Practice Studios, in order to keep feeding our space with high quality artistic work.

ABOUT OUR ARTIST RESIDENCIES

Since 2012 we have organised several Artists-in-Residency Programs, inviting not only artists from different backgrounds, but also academics and curators, giving them the opportunity to work in a different context, away from their usual environment. All artists were provided with space and time for reflection, research, development and eventually presentation and/or production of their work, getting the chance to explore their own individual practice in the framework of another community; meeting new people, using new materials, experiencing a different daily lifestyle and getting involved in a meaningful and multilayered cultural exchange.

So far the artists we hosted had to supply for their own expenses, however it was our commitment to help them organise local performances and workshops in order to get some extra financial support. We have been running all of our projects without any external help for the last 8 years: until now we could offer both our studio space (available both for short and long-term projects), accommodation and administrative advise and support. Many artists could benefit from the residencies we offered; some of the projects born and developed during the Play Practice Residencies have been produced and performed in international festivals. The Residencies at Play Practice have been beneficial to both international and local artists, allowing new collaborations and artistic exchanges to happen and to grow, feeding the local community.

The relationship between the guest artists and the host is always an important aspect to consider when organising residential programs. In general we do like to believe that the Residencies at Play Practice are only the beginning of new and lasting relationships between us and the artists we invite: in our past experience, often the artists we hosted returned to complete a project they had started, to begin a new collaboration, or to participate in exhibitions, performances, workshops and other events within the local artistic environment.
 

Indeed we try to promote any potential exchange between the artists we invite and the local artistic community; some of the artists we hosted participated in the local life by sharing their work, performing, giving talks, workshops, or even collaborating with the local artists. Sometimes artists prefer to focus on their own work, investigating their practice in a totally immersive space, and we are happy to support such more intimate experiences as well.

SUPPORT : At the present moment, we need both financial and artistic support to run these residential projects on a regular basis. It is our wish to start giving our artists also a financial support by paying them for the work they produce here. We also need to cover our bills, the maintenance and the ongoing improvement of the space, the production and the administrative expenses, and we need funds to keep providing our artists with mentoring. keep promoting performances, talks and workshops within the local artistic scene.

 

Play practice residency needs your support and you are willing support please contact us on playpractice.info@gmail.com

BACKGROUND

Play Practice started in 2012 as a project of our non-profit organisation “Bangalore Dance Collective”, with the goal of supporting and spreading new projects of Performing Arts. The Bangalore Dance Collective was founded in 2009 (in a 100 sq ft living room), by our Artistic Director Abhilash Ningappa together with 11 other artists, each working on different areas of performing arts but all interested in exploring new collaborations between Musicians and Choreographers. In 2014 we could build a new 600 sq ft studio space, provided with accommodation facilities and now we finally built our new 1,800 sq ft studio, equipped with a sprung wooden floor and we are now ready to host new artist and new projects.