Dancing Poetry Contest
Deadline: April 15, 2020
Sponsored by Artists Embassy International - 27th Year
Three Grand Prize Winning Poems to be Danced and Filmed
- 3 Grand Prizes will receive $100 each plus their poems will be danced and filmed. Each Grand Prize winner will be invited onstage for photo ops with the dancers and a bow in the limelight.
- Six First Prizes will receive $50 each
- Twelve Second Prizes will receive $25 each
- Thirty Third Prizes will receive $10 each
- All winners will receive a prize certificate suitable for framing and be invited to read at our 2020 Festival at the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Theater at the Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco
The top three poems chosen as Grand Prizes will be choreographed, costumed, and recorded live in an on-stage performance at the Festival. See pictures from our 2019 Festival, and check the other tabs on our website to read winning poems and view photos of the winning poets.
Last year's Grand Prize winners included Constantina Clark, Linda Eve Diamond, and Jennifer Lemming. For poetry, we look for something new and different including new twists to old themes, different looks at common situations, and innovative concepts for dynamic, thought-provoking entertainment.
The entry fee is $5 per poem or $10 for 3 poems, payable to Artists Embassy International. (Poets outside the USA, please send an international postal money order in US dollars or US currency.) Each poem may be up to 40 lines long. Send two copies of each poem. One copy should be anonymous (just title and poem), the other should have your name, address, phone, email address, and where you heard about this contest (e.g. Winning Writers Newsletter). There is no limit on the number of entries. Entries should be typed.
Your entry should be suitable for a general audience since our following is comprised of people of all ages and ethnicities. English translations must be included with non-English poems. Our judges consist of poets, dancers, musicians, and visual artists of various media, all members of Artists Embassy International. Judging is done with the anonymous copies of the poems. Artists Embassy International is a non-profit, volunteer, arts and education organization whose goal is to further intercultural understanding through the arts.
Three poets, the Grand Prize winners, will be rewarded with seeing their poems danced by Natica Angilly's Poetic Dance Theater Company, a well-known dance troupe that has performed around the world and throughout America. This company is dedicated exclusively to creating new avenues by combining poetry, dance, and music together for presentation and the expansion of poetry with dance in the life of our culture.
To enter the contest, please visit our website at www.dancingpoetry.com or submit to AEI Contest Chair W, Judy Cheung, 704 Brigham Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95404. Questions? Please email Ms. Cheung at jhcheung@comcast.net.
Please enjoy "Tapestry" by Jennifer Lemming, winner of a Grand Prize in 2019:
Tapestry
I start my task for the night,
midnight to the next midnight.
I am to weave myself as I go.
As I sleep, wake, eat, breathe,
I am a textile laboratory when even
motionless a particle of my inner self
starts again. Finishing...or starting
In another place. Trying a different pattern,
going back to a finished, unbroken spot
which I unravel before I start weaving
it all again, until I am satisfied
the pattern is me. Lurking in
my weaving material is both
monster and angel dust. Glittering it all up
with radio songs of blues and jazz,
flowers in my hair, dew droplets across my face
under the moon and stars, twinkles
in the sky. I know the design is complex
but the results will be fabulous.
