Stomping Ground Call Out
- michellesoto2
- Oct 6
- 5 min read
Closing Date: Wednesday, 29th October 2025, 12:00 pm
Stomping Ground is a commissioning group comprised of Citymoves, Creative Crawley, FABRIC, FESTIVAL.ORG, Pagrav Dance Company, Strike A Light, The Place and Tramway.
We work with artists to develop ambitious, high-quality work created for outdoor spaces that can grab the attention and imagination of audiences.
We have supported a wide range of outdoor practices since the group’s inception in 2018. Our goal is to support compelling ideas originally conceived for the outdoors that have a strong impact and engage across a broad audience base, and which integrate access for audiences in imaginative ways. Shows commissioned by Stomping Ground have been presented in diverse contexts, including urban, rural, festival, and high street settings.
Stomping Ground has previously commissioned works by Robby Graham, Requardt & Rosenberg, Joseph Toonga, Pagrav Dance Company, AndroidX + MHz, Jessica Walker, Richard Chappell Dance and Francesca Baglione (Miss High Leg Kick).
This year, we are delighted to welcome new partners and to announce a focus for 2026 on dance for primary-aged children.
The Commission
We are looking for a short solo or duet tourable to primary schools, festivals and other public spaces around the country.
The piece needs to be suitable for performances in school playgrounds for primary aged children, to be presented as part of The Place’s Playground Tour Summer 2026. We also expect that the commissioned piece will be suitable to tour to other outdoor festival contexts offered by the Stomping Ground partners.
The piece should be created with children as the primary audience in mind. However, we welcome proposals from artists interested in adapting aspects of the work for presentation to broader audiences in a festival setting.
Small in scale doesn’t mean small in ambition. We are looking for ideas which encourage curiosity, discovery and joy, and want to commission works that are dynamic, engaging and centre innovation. In your application, we encourage you to think about what makes your idea particularly exciting for children. We know for example that children respond well to humour, high energy, decisive and bold movements. You might also be exploring a theme currently on the school curriculum or ask questions that will spark children’s curiosity.
We are particularly interested to hear from artists who incorporate dance styles which are underrepresented in the sector.
You don’t need to apply with a completely new idea. You can apply with a piece that has already had some development if it hasn't toured yet.
We are expecting to build opportunities together with the artist for testing the piece with groups of children during the rehearsal process. This will be done in collaboration with the commissioning partners who are specialised in producing works for schools and wider outdoor contexts.
We are inviting applications from UK-based artists, who define themselves as having an established practice, and track record of making and presenting high quality work.
We encourage applications from artists with a range of lived experiences and from a range of backgrounds, and we particularly welcome applications from those who are underrepresented in the dance sector, including artists from Global Majority backgrounds, artists who identify as LGBTQIA+, deaf, disabled, neurodivergent artists and artists from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
The Partners
Citymoves Dance Agency leads positive impacts through dance in the North East of Scotland. Established in 1987, the charity strives to improve individual lives and transform communities by offering a diverse studio timetable, co-designing projects with local communities, and collaborating with partner organisations to promote dance both nationally and internationally. Citymoves champions EDI, environmental sustainability, and Fair Work in everything they do and focuses their activities across four core pillars: Dance Health, Communities, Education, and Professional Pathways.
DanceLive Festival: Produced by Citymoves in Aberdeen, the annual four-day festival embraces a broad programme of professional dance and performance events by leading Scottish and UK artists. The festival includes professional performances in traditional theatre venues, site-specific work, films, exhibitions, professional workshops, and networking events. A festival that inspires, celebrates, and champions innovative work.
Creative Crawley brings arts and culture to life for everyone in everyday spaces across Crawley. We care deeply about the way things are made - and who they’re made for. Through thoughtful events and collaborations, we craft experiences that connect people, celebrate local, national and international stories and make creativity feel welcoming, meaningful and truly shared.
FABRIC is a strategic dance development organisation based in the Midlands. We harness skills, knowledge and expertise to create expansive programmes that benefit from the scale, scope and success of our original, individual organisations (Dance4 and DanceXchange), and our collective expertise; building on a combined legacy of 60 years. Our mission is to create the conditions for dance to thrive through curiosity, disruption and joy. Guided by our approach informed by care, openness, and rigour, our work is shaped by our four cornerstones: Research, Engagement, Sector Development, Showcasing and Performance. FABRIC is the producer of nottdance festival.
FESTIVAL.ORG is one of the UK’s most ambitious and prolific outdoor arts producing organisations. We set out to raise the ambition, quality and diversity of outdoor performance produced in the UK. Beyond our flagship annual festival Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (GDIF), we manage the national Global Streets network and are a founding partner of the Without Walls and Stomping Ground consortia. FESTIVAL.ORG plays a distinctive, strategic role within the wider outdoor arts sector working with culturally diverse artists, introducing new artists into the outdoors who might previously have worked in building-based contexts, pioneering new approaches to access and audience engagement and developing new outdoor work with Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists.
Pagrav Dance Company was originally established by Abha Desai in Ahmedabad, India. The company was re-established in the UK by Urja Desai Thakore in 2005, as a platform for a contemporary, female-led vision of Kathak dance, as well as a vehicle for education, talent development of future generations of professional artists. Pagrav invigorates the classical form of Kathak within a modern British context, design, and presentation. Tracing our roots back to traditional stories, Pagrav celebrates the power of dance and dance making to empower people and to change lives and communities.
Strike A Light is a non-venue based organisation in Gloucester. We work alongside communities and exceptional artists to produce unforgettable experiences in community spaces that inspires, engages and renews community pride. We combine top-quality, ambitious contemporary artistic work with on-the-ground, relevant community engagement. We bring Gloucester alive with exciting cultural activity that genuinely connects with residents. We are excited by performance that helps create social change, is diverse and champions underrepresented voices.
The Place, London’s creative powerhouse for dance development, has been leading the way in dance training, creation and performance for 50 years. In a changing landscape, our vision for the future remains steadfast: We are powering imagination through dance, championing new ideas, embracing risks and creating a dance ecosystem unlike any other in the world, with optimal conditions for dance artists and enthusiasts to realise their full potential. The Place is home to London Contemporary Dance School, an extensive theatre and artist development programme, education projects, a range of classes and courses and a nationwide touring model. As a pioneering dance organisation, we are committed to creating no-barriers access to exciting dance experiences and opportunities for everybody, offering a diverse and dynamic theatre programme for audiences, empowering artists and dance makers and giving young people access to the highest quality opportunities to touch their lives with dance.
Tramway is a world-renowned arts centre in Glasgow that is locally rooted and internationally connected. Tramway’s mission is to engage, inspire and stimulate meaningful dialogue between artists and audiences by commissioning, presenting and hosting a dynamic year-round programme of free exhibitions, performance, dance, live art and engagement events. Tramway is managed by Glasgow Life, the charity that leads culture and sport on behalf of Glasgow City Council and is a Creative Scotland Multi Year Funded Organisation (RFO).
