FAQ

Our LUCKY curatorial team has the happy task of reviewing your work. The team is composed of dance lovers with widely varied backgrounds in thearts, dance, medicine, cultural production, and more. So… representative of our LUCKY fans and audiences! After each team member has independently viewed the videos and created a short list, the team gets together with a bottle of champagne and a whole lot of time to reassess the pieces and put together a dazzling production. This happens about one month after the call for entries has closed.

From 1 second to ten minutes!

Show us your solos, your duets, bring your whole dance crew. It’s up to you!

Only choreographers or owners of the rights to the piece may apply. Other than that, anything goes. You can be from Berlin or Bali. You can be a newbie or a professional. You can be a first time LUCKY TRIMMER applicant or be applying for the hundredth time. Try your LUCK!

Click on the apply section of our website and fill out the application form (in English or German). We only consider complete applications submitted ON TIME. So don’t forget to submit the application form, a video of your piece (either an online upload or DVD with a copy of your online application), AND the 15€ application fee. We understand that not everything is black and white. So please email us at mail@luckytrimmer.com if you are unable to fulfil any of these requirements and we’ll try to help you out.

Receipt of your application will be acknowledged by email. The email is generated automatically. So if you don’t receive an email upon completion of your submission (and payment of the application fee), please contact us at mail@luckytrimmer.com. Please note that your application cannot be considered until the 15€ LUCKY application fee has successfully been transferred to LUCKY TRIMMER’s account.

You’ll get an email from us notifying you of the jury’s final decision. Don’t call us, we’ll call you!

You can expect to hear from us about 1,5 months after the application deadline. If you have not heard from us by then, do not hesitate to get in touch with us. Things get lost in the mail! You can also keep up to date with our latest news by subscribing to our newsletter or following us on Facebook and Instagram.

The applicant will receive a production cost subsidy (usually 500 €/piece for the entire edition of 3 performances). Accommodation (shared double occupancy) as well as a small financial contribution towards travel expenses might be provided depending on the available budget. Catering is provided in the dressing room as well as after the premiere. LUCKY TRIMMER also works with its network of co-production partners and collaborators to provide featured artists with additional performance opportunities. We can also provide you with an official letter of invitation so you can apply for additional outside funding (travel grants, etc) in your respective countries or at relevant embassies. There is no per diem for additional expenses. Other conditions might apply for special events. Detailed arrangements will be confirmed by email if you have been selected.

The LUCKY curatorial team doesn’t follow any fixed criteria in its selection process. Provoke us, delight us, make us think. It doesn’t get any more concrete than that. Nevertheless here are some things we have considered over the years:

• the concept is unique and original
• there is a clear choreographic development or strong, coherent, and defined structure
• there is a tinge of childlike inventiveness sprinkled with the wisdom of experience (think Mary Poppins!)
• there is a high level of technical excellence
• it can be performed with limited tech support
• it deserves greater exposure
• it offers the audience insight into a novel performance experience

Although we’d love to give everyone feedback and guidance, we hope you can understand that the enormous number of applications makes it impossible to provide detailed assessments. But please know that our decision not to include your piece is not necessarily based on its quality. In many cases, we choose one piece over another because it fits better with the feeling we’re trying to create in a specific LUCKY TRIMMER edition. It’s all about chemistry!

Let us know what’s important to you and what our audience should know. And write it down exactly as you want it to appear in the program. And please don’t send us your whole CV! Just a synopsis of your bio. Most importantly, keep it short and sweet!

Don’t give us a play-by-play breakdown of your piece. We’ve got the video! Just give us some background info (inspiration, theme, context, etc.). Keep it simple!

The video should be a recording of your piece from start to finish. We prefer performance videos but if you’ve only got rehearsal shots, we’ll take them! Outdoor performances videos are also eligible. We DO NOT want promotional videos, trailers, or videos of a piece you don’t intend to perform.Please DO NOT submit videos longer than 10 minutes or a heavily edited rough-cut of your piece. We haven’t got time to watch them and they won’t be considered!

We mean videos that have been edited with too many effects. Don’t get us wrong. We LOVE flashy! But wow us with your moves and your mojo not excessive slo-mos, fade ins and outs, cross-dissolves. And keep in mind that we are reviewing applications with a simple stage setup in mind. We try to make everything happen when it comes to our artists stage design dreams. However, we are working with a limited amount of time and technical options. So show us you, not your editing skills!

No. We are looking for original short-length pieces. We believe this format challenges our artists to develop their concepts in a thoughtful way, while focusing on the quality and not the quantity of what they are presenting.

You’d really make things easier for everyone if you could upload your video to Vimeo or another online video sharing service. Due to copyright regulations, videos uploaded to YouTube are often not viewable in Germany. We do not accept videos from Dropbox or WeTransfer.

Just change your privacy settings! But remember to send us the correct password and a valid link. Otherwise our jury won’t be able to watch it either.

We urge you to upload videos online because it’s easy, cheap, and environmentally friendly. But if you’d rather not, or if you’re technically challenged, then submit the online entry form and send a printed copy of your application with a DVD recorded in DVD+R/+RW/-R/-RW format and playable on a standard component DVD player (test it before you send it!) of your piece to:

LUCKY TRIMMER e.V.
Krausnickstrasse 16
D–10115 Berlin

Please only send us regular mail! No registered mail, sign upon receipt, carrier pigeons… And please refrain from sending non-standard formats that might not function on regular computers. Video materials sent by mail WILL NOT be returned.

Maybe you’re performing (and recording) your piece after our application deadline. In that case, you can apply by the deadline and submit the video afterwards. However, please get in touch with us at romain@luckytrimmer.com to find out if you qualify for late video submission. If you cannot provide a video of your work at all, be sure to communicate this before you turn in your application.

There is a 15 Euro non-refundable application fee for each piece. LUCKY TRIMMER is a non-profit organization and a non-funded cultural event in Berlin. And try as we might, we’ve not yet managed to enamor the head honchos in charge of all those state art endowments. Where’s the love? So, savvy little whizzes that we are, LUCKY TRIMMER came up with its own self-financing plan. We rely on the dance and performing arts community to help us continue offering artists an opportunity to present their work at LUCKY TRIMMER. It’s like the Circle of Life without the lions!

Your application fee is a significant contribution towards the LUCKY TRIMMER format. It ensures that we remain an influential platform for the international dance and performance scene. Your application fee is exclusively used to put on our LUCKY TRIMMER shows. Our volunteers are not lining their pockets with your fees. Trust us! Since LUCKY TRIMMER does not receive public funding it is our volunteers, private sponsors, and people like you who keep the dream alive!

We are currently not accepting applications or application fees.

Once you fill out the application form, you’ll have two payment options: PayPal and bank transfer. We strongly recommend PayPal, especially for our international applicants. It is convenient, fast, and secure. This is not an ad! We just want you to avoid extra bank fees, and jump in to the 21st century.

If you don’t have a PayPal account, it’s simple to sign up: just go to www.paypal.com and follow the on screen instructions.

In the past, some applicants opted to use a friend’s PayPal account to pay the application fee. That’s totally fine, but DO NOT FORGET to include “APPLICATION + YOUR NAME” in the payment reference so that we can match the payment with your application. Otherwise we’ll just assume it’s a friendly donation from one of our adoring fans.

You can also pay the application fee via bank transfer. This is free if you have a German bank account. However, your bank might charge you a transaction fee if you’re international. And don’t they get enough money from us already? If you still prefer this method, make sure to pay the bank fee on top of the 15€ application fee.

Account Holder:

IBAN:
SWIFT/BIC:

Please include APPLICATION and YOUR NAME in the reference section.