We Want Your Interactive Performance Proposal

Do you have a daring performance idea that can’t be confined to a stage? Maybe you want to don a fox mask and stilts and slow chase another performer with a rabbit mask and stilts through our art walls. Maybe you want to gradually tie-up a partner during a tango. Or maybe just maybe you want to break out a couple boxes of dolls, throw on some pajamas, and pretend that some floor space is where you and some friends are having a sleepover.

These are just some of the amazing and wonderful interactive performances we’ve had in years past. We cherish our interactive performers as they bring a different level of titillation to our festival and the experience of our patrons. Since you provide our guests with these new avenues of discussion, we offer you until the end of this month to submit your ideas to our Interactive Performance Team.

What is Interactive Performance?

Interactive performance (previously referred to as Ambient performance) at Seattle Erotic Art Festival is performance art that breaks the 4th wall by using the entirety of the festival space as the stage. Interactive performers engage directly with our guests, creating an immersive environment. Performances “roam” around the event, making use of cozy corners as well as busy passageways to create improvised, intimate, hyperlocal experiences. We delight and challenge festival goers by weaving stories, expressing ideas, and inviting engagement. This year there is a focus on elevating the erotic and performance art to the next level.

As an interactive performance artist, you not only stimulate attendees to contemplate and appreciate the erotic; you embody the erotic. Developed, roaming characters spin an energetic web of art around the entire event, invoking fresh perspectives and contemplations, and moving attendees to communicate with friends and lovers about desires, consent, questions and nuances of their experience.

Call for Interactive Performance Art

Please email your proposal to [email protected], providing the information requested below by January 31, 2018. Please note the later deadline. The call has been extended for Interactive Performance proposals only.

Interactive performance can include dance, movement, improv, spoken word art, acoustic music, singing, pure silence, visual art, clever props, technology, costuming, body art, drawing, and many other forms of expression.

Amplified sound is generally not accessible (e.g., portable speaker) for performances. Please keep in mind singing, spoken word and instrumental performances can be very challenging to hear in this environment; these would need to be truly “hyperlocal” experiences. The overall construct of the performance will work best if it conforms to the existing environment. Technical needs such as sound, lighting, or use of a specific space or prop should be identified and communicated as early in the process as possible in order to try to work out reasonable solutions, so please submit early!

Professional performance experience is NOT required to be an interactive performer but professionalism is. We encourage all confident, creative artists to submit proposals! Most importantly, we are here to create a mutually respectful platform for everyone involved.

You may have an erotic performance in mind that you envision as a stand-alone piece. As an interactive performer, we encourage you to re-imagine it as a performance you deliver in parts as you move from one place to another, embodying a character or a story as you roam, and igniting guests as you do.  You draw people in, they follow you; they can’t wait to see what happens next… We will workshop promising proposals with you.

There is a minimum time commitment: an all-cast kick-off meeting, 1 phone call, 1-2 workshopped rehearsals with an interactive performance director, and one final dress rehearsal Thursday, April 26th. Dates of meetings and rehearsals are to be determined. We will do our best to accommodate as many schedules as possible.

Performances are compensated with weekend entry passes to the event for yourself and a guest.

Budget: Our budget (e.g., to support props or costuming) is limited, but reasonable budget requests will always be considered. We will help performers experiencing financial hardship as best as we can.

Proposal submission form:

Copy this checklist into an email and replace the text with your answers and information.

  • Tell us about yourself!
  • Share a bit about your performance background, examples of interactive performance art you’ve done, or other creative expressions that will tell us something about you. Tell us about a performance that was especially meaningful to you, either as the performer or the observer.
  • What inspires you to want to do interactive performance for SEAF? What part of your erotcism and performance desires are you wanting to realize and share? Let’s get vulnerable!
  • Describe your performance idea(s)
  • Include the story, purpose, intended effect.
  • Include a description of the visual, audio, and other qualities of the performance.
  • Include how you imagine roaming around the festival, and how you would connect and interact with guests.
  • Include the approximate length of your piece(s).
  • What are you passionate about? Anything! For example:
    • You: “I love cooking!”
    • Us: Mmm, interesting – why?
    • You: “I love the smells that blossom as flavors come together and permeate every corner of my home. It’s most appetizing!”Us: Well now THAT is something we can work with!
  • Tell us what your creative skill sets are, and provide some extra details where appropriate:

Dance – Singing – Improv – Contact dance/improv – Sketching, painting, … – Spoken word art, poetry… – Silent art – Musical instruments – Interactive art – Technology – Non-singing vocal expression – Costuming – Makeup – Props – Directing – Other(s)

Get started by registering as an artist in the Artist Portal now!