The British Council has announced the recipients of its 2024 Connections Through Culture Grant Program, awarding a total of $1.4m to 84 projects that join the UK and the Asia-Pacific region in partnership across different artistic disciplines.

Speak Percussion – Assembly Operation. Photo © Bryony Jackson

Speak Percussion, in collaboration with the UK’s Contemporary Music for All (CoMA), is one of the groups awarded with funding for a second iteration of March Static,  “a site-specific mobile work for massed musicians” that platforms the marching band as a hub for community gathering rather than a show of military power. Composed by Thomas Meadowcroft and directed by Eugene Ughetti, the work has been performed at the 2023 Four Winds Festival and 2024’s RISING.

Australia’s Performing Lines is another recipient alongside the UK’s Transform, for the development of a new performance work from Australian artists Amrita Hepi and Tilly Lawless examining the intersections of dance and sex work.

Karul Projects SILENCE, produced by BlakDance. Photo credit Simon Woods

Blakdance will collaborate with Dance North Scotland on to research and develop a...