Organizer Information
The Kalamata International Dance Centre was founded in the spring of 1995 within the framework of the Hellenic National Cultural Network of Cities, with the objective of supporting, promoting, and presenting the art of dance through research, education, and artistic creativity. The Centre's flagship annual event, the Kalamata International Dance Festival, launched the same year under founding director Vicky Marangopoulou, who led it for 21 years, and has since become one of the most significant contemporary dance events in the Mediterranean South, introducing major figures in contemporary dance to Greek audiences while commissioning new work from Greek choreographers and supporting emerging companies. Now in its early thirties, the Festival runs alongside a year-round programme of educational activities, commissioned works, artistic residencies, and collaborations, including with the Greek National Opera. This open call is implemented with the support of the J. F. Costopoulos Foundation, a Greek cultural foundation established in 1979 by Spyros and Eurydice Costopoulos in memory of Alpha Bank founder John F. Costopoulos, which has supported the arts in Greece since 1982 across visual arts, theatre, music, cinema, and dance.
Title & Description
Inside Time | Artists in Residency Programme 2026
Inside Time is an artists' residency programme organized by the Kalamata International Dance Centre with the support of the J. F. Costopoulos Foundation. The programme invites participants to research and create new artistic work in dialogue and direct engagement with the local Kalamata community, developing methodologies that may include workshops, interviews, participatory actions, or other forms of co-creation. Proposed work should explore the relationship between body and city, memory and community, collective experience, everyday life, public space, local identity, and contemporary life. The organizers define "community" broadly, encompassing city residents as well as collectives, organisations, groups, and structured communities active in the area, connected through shared interests, experiences, characteristics, or fields of action. The programme forms part of the Centre's year-round activation and reflects a broader curatorial direction aimed at strengthening the relationship between artistic creation and the social space in which it unfolds.
Categories
- Dance
- Choreography
- Performance
- Residency
- Interdisciplinary Arts
- Research
- Culture
Eligibility
- Open to professional artists, collectives, choreographers, performers, and makers based in Greece
- Applicants must work in contemporary dance, performance, or interdisciplinary performing arts
- A prerequisite is prior experience of creating at least one work in collaboration with communities
- Applicants must have an interest in further developing artistic practices that encourage civic participation and create spaces for encounter, dialogue, and exchange
- Proposals may relate to works in progress or new iterations of previous works
- Artists must be professionally registered, either as a sole trader or as a legal entity, and must be able to issue invoices
- Individual or group participation is accepted (the source references distribution of funds and provisions among group members)
Program Benefits & Awards
- Access to rehearsal and presentation spaces, according to an agreed schedule
- Use of available basic sound and lighting equipment
- Possibility of advisory support and feedback from festival collaborators during the residency stay
- €4,000 total, inclusive of VAT and all taxes and legal deductions — this sum covers remuneration, travel expenses (transport, accommodation, and subsistence), and any production costs during the residency; in case of group participation, the total sum and residency provisions are distributed among the group members
Application Fee
None
How to Apply?
Applications are to be submitted by email to: kidf@kalamatadancefestival.gr
Key Dates
- Application Deadline: 31 August 2026
- Results Announcement: No later than Friday, 18 September
- Residency Week 1: Monday, 19 October – Sunday, 25 October 2026 (Main Stage)
- Residency Week 2: Monday, 23 November – Sunday, 29 November 2026 (Main Stage & Alternative Stage)
Location
Kalamata, Greece
Additional Details
- Selection is based on: artistic quality of the proposal; prior experience; clarity and coherence of the artistic vision and research methodology; meaningful engagement with the local community and social context of Kalamata; feasibility of realising the work within the residency's time and production framework; and the participatory, collaborative, or social dimension of the proposed practice
- Selected artists/groups must be present in Kalamata for the full residency period
- Selected artists/groups must meaningfully integrate the local community into the creative or research process
- Selected artists/groups must present the outcome of their research or creative process through an open showing, discussion, workshop, or talk highlighting the methodology, research questions, or artistic practice developed
- Selected artists/groups must produce creative documentation of the process, in a form such as a blog, working diary, video logs, or other appropriate record-keeping format
- The residency runs across two separate one-week periods (19–25 October and 23–29 November 2026) rather than as a single continuous block