Freelance Creative Practitioner

Fforward/Ymlaen!

‘Fforward/Ymlaen’ is an inclusive and collaborative project exploring how drag performance can support people with a learning disability and/or autism to gain self-confidence and develop their own voice and sense of self.

Following on from ‘Ffyrnig/Ffierce’ and 'Ffablas' we are in a position to reopen applications from professional artists who would like the opportunity to work with our members on a weekly basis for up to 10 weeks.

We have been awarded funding from Arts Council of Wales to continue our programme of professional development that seeks to upskill and develop our Kings and Queens with the skills they need to be professional drag performers.

We follow a fully collaborative coproduction model where every voice has an opportunity to be heard, listened to, and acted upon. Starting fundamentally with our participants, our collaborators, and our partners. We want everyone to take ownership of the project, and believe that by doing so, a rich and diverse culture of exchange will provide a great opportunity for something magical to grow.

We have a range of opportunities over the coming 12 months, and we’d love to hear from lots of creative professionals.

Creative Practitioners (£250 per day - once a week sessions for up to 10 weeks)

We are currently looking for a range of freelance professional creative practitioners to work with us over the course of the project to collaborate and help us explore a range of skills that will build on the confidence and abilities of our kings and queens. Whilst we are a drag troupe, there are many aspects of performance that will build the skills needed. If you have something you think you could offer us, we would love to hear from you. This could be anything really, such as (but not limited to):

Dance/Movement skills
Performance skills - including clowning, theatre, improvisation, character work, stand up comedy etc
Singers and Vocal Coaches
Musicians, composers and song writers
Make up artists

We are particularly interested in hearing from people from protected characteristic groups.

The Role:

We are looking for individuals who can bring a range of professional creative skills to our project. You will be working with us to coproduce a fabulous, exciting and dynamic project exploring drag performance and personal transformation.

You will be expected to deliver a series of workshops exploring how your area of expertise can build our skills in drag performance, as well as developing and building on general performance skills (It's worth noting here that direct experience in drag performance is not essential, it is the skill set that we are interested in).

You will be provided with time to talk to us, observe, plan, and deliver a series of sessions that will challenge and develop our skillset, knowledge and confidence.

You do not need to have experience working with adults with a learning disability and/or autism, but you should be willing to learn and develop with us.

For each day’s allocation your time will be allocated as follows (We are flexible around these hours, with the exception of the Tuesday evenings):

3 hour workshop on Tuesday evenings (6-9pm at WMC)
1 hour downtime with the Queens (5-6pm at WMC on Tuesdays)
1 hour reflective thinking time (supervision)
1 hour planning
1 hour admin (recording onto our project documentation)

Fee = £250 per day (over up to 10 once a week sessions)

Application Process:

Our project members have asked that anyone wishing to apply to work with us should submit a video application of no longer than 5 minutes in length.

You should tell us:

Who you are - we are interested in people as individuals as well as professional experience
What skills you could bring to the project and how you think these skills could fit into drag performance
What you'd hope to gain from working on this project
A work outline - what would you want to achieve in up to a 10 week period

You could pitch a small project with our Queens – for example, 4 general dance technique workshops, 3 choreography workshops and 3 sessions coproducing a dance routine. We feel this sort of thing would work well as not only is it skill-building but also helps to apply learning in a real life context. But we will also consider stand alone sessions and workshops.

Previous applicants and creative practitioners may reapply for this round.

Applications should be sent to iheartfflamingo@gmail.com with subject line 'Creative Practitioner'.

The Deadline for application is 5pm Friday 30th May 2025

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