About Us
        The Athena Cultural and Educational Foundation was established in Houston, United States, initiated by distinguished individuals with international influence in the field of world culture and arts. The foundation aims to promote the discovery and integration of the intrinsic spirit of human culture and arts. Through the establishment of the Athena Award, alliances, scholarships, and other diverse services, it encourages and assists anyone who loves art and culture and possesses exceptional inner spirit. Regardless of differences in skin color, language, ethnicity, geographical location, time, or wealth, everyone has the opportunity to discover, enhance, showcase, and pursue their dreams, making them an indispensable part of human art, culture, and inner spirit.
        “To infuse spirit into art, and nurture art with spirit, discovering and transmitting the inner spirit of art. Encouraging and assisting anyone who loves art and culture, and possesses exceptional inner spirit, regardless of differences in skin color, language, ethnicity, geographical location, time, or wealth, providing everyone with the opportunity to discover, enhance, showcase, and pursue their dreams.”
                                                                        ——Chairman of the Athena Cultural and Educational Foundation

Award Categories
        The Athena Dance Art Award is open to all people around the world regardless of their status, economic conditions, age, gender, language, ethnic group, nationality, or geographical location. They all have the qualifications to apply, participate, and be nominated. Based on age differences, three judging categories are set up:
        Junior Group (Age 8-11 yrs)
        Youth Group (Age 12-16 yrs)
        Adult Group (Age 17+ yrs)

        There are no restrictions on the types of dance that can be submitted. Participants can choose from solo dance, duet, or group dance (three or more people). The duration of the performance is limited to within 3 minutes.

        The judging panel will evaluate the submitted works based on five dimensions: creativity and choreography (30 points), expressive power (20 points), technique (20 points), integration (10 points), costume (10 points), and music (10 points).

        Based on the final scores, the awards include gold, silver, and bronze medals, as well as the annual Athena Dance Art Award. Among them, the winner of the Athena Dance Art Award and the highest scorer in each age group will receive prize money of US$1000 and US$500 respectively.

Schedule

        The selection process consists of three stages: Application, Finalist Selection, and Committee Evaluation.
        -Application Stage: From July 1, 2024, to October 31, 2024, entries for the award will be accepted.
        -Finalist Selection Stage: From November 1, 2024, to December 15, 2024, the finalists will be selected.
Committee Evaluation Stage: From December 16, 2024, to December 24, 2024, the committee will evaluate the finalists.
        The official announcement of the awards will be made on December 31, 2024.

Jury Committee
        The Jury Committee consists of the rotating chairman and members of the Athena Cultural and Educational Foundation.

Application Method
        Please send the dance entries via email to the official and exclusive email address of the “Athena Dance Art Award”: Athena.foundation@outlook.com
        Dance video entries can be submitted as compressed attachments (file size should be less than 200MB) or in the form of video links or cloud storage links. The email subject should follow the format: Dance Work “<Title>”, Performer <Name>, Applying for the Athena Dance Art Award. For example: Dance Work “Bridge of Rainbow,” Performer Alice, Applying for the Athena Dance Art Award.
        In the email content, Please indicate the participant’s name, school or organization information for the submitted works.please provide the real names, genders, nationalities, dates of birth, professions, mailing addresses, as well as important contact information such as phone numbers and email addresses of the actual dance creators, performers, and choreographers.
        Both individuals and teams are eligible to apply, and the costumes, props, and music must be prepared by the applicants themselves.
         Please submit the dance video works and pay the registration fee at the same time to complete the application. For specific payment procedures, please consult the officially authorized agency or official representative. For detailed information on participation and award announcements, please visit the official website of the Athena Foundation.For more details on the application and award announcements, please visit the official website of the Athena Cultural and Educational Foundation.

Election Commitment
        The dance entries must be original works, and the copyright of the works belongs to the creator himself/herself, without suspicion of plagiarism or infringement of the copyright of others. If the entry is an adapted work, all the information of the authors must be filled in truthfully and completely.
        The organizer is not responsible for any legal disputes arising from rights such as reputation, privacy, copyright, or trademark. The legal responsibility lies with the participants themselves, but the organizer reserves the right to use the entries for media promotion.
        For award-winning works, unless otherwise specified, the Athena Cultural and Educational Foundation retains all usage rights and full media promotion rights for the winning works. The foundation will actively create opportunities for the winners, including cooperation invitations from internationally renowned artistic programs, performance organizations, art schools, as well as opportunities for global artistic exchanges, further education, and learning.
         Both individuals and teams are eligible to apply, and the costumes, props, and music must be prepared by the applicants themselves.
         Please submit the dance video works and pay the registration fee at the same time to complete the application. For specific payment procedures, please consult the officially authorized agency or official representative. For detailed information on participation and award announcements, please visit the official website of the Athena Foundation.