Dance

Creative Scotland’s Touring Fund for Theatre and Dance has opened for a seventh round, inviting applications from companies, producers and venues touring from September 2023 onwards.

The £1m fund supported by the National Lottery is open for applications until the end of October this year.

Works of all sizes are eligible to apply for funding but to offset gaps in provision from previous rounds of funding, priority will be given to works that will tour to mid-scale venues with an audience capacity of 150 to 350 and/or large-scale venues with a capacity of over 350. 

“This funding will provide vital employment opportunities for artists, producers, companies, venues and all the talented people who work hard behind the scenes to make the theatre a magical experience for audiences, after what has been an incredibly challenging and disrupted period,” said Laura Mackenzie Stuart, Head of Theatre at Creative Scotland.

The fund will support artists and producers to tour “innovative, quality work” and “encourage more audiences to re-engage with their local venues”, she added. 

“Supporting work through this fund allows more artists to share their work and gives audiences greater choice."

The Royal Ballet is to stage a performance next month in which one of its dancers will duet with a dancer who uses a wheelchair.

Joe Powell-Main, who uses crutches and a wheelchair, will appear with Royal Ballet dancer Isabel Lubach at the Greenwich+Docklands international festival.

They will perform a 10-minute piece titled 'Sleepwalker'.

Powell-Main, 24, is from Newtown, Powys, and has previously danced with Ballet Cymru.

Speaking to The Guardian, Emma Southworth, the Royal Ballet’s creative producer who commissioned the duet, said: “We know that we need to be inclusive. It’s not just about diversity of race, but also about diversity of physical ability.

"We’ve done a lot on race and gender. But I was really keen that we tackle how does disability cross into the world of ballet, which is perceived as so elite.

"We’re really just at the beginning of that, looking at not just physical disability, but things like neuro-divergence.”

The performance will take place on 10 and 11 September at Columbus Dockyard.

The Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD) in Leeds has announced that it will no longer require candidates to perform ballet as part of their auditions, calling the artform “elitist”.

The school will still give ballet classes, but lessons will be made more inclusive, Head of Undergraduate Studies Francesca McCarthy said. 

The inclusion of the artform in auditions risked excluding students unable to afford private ballet lessons, she said.

She added that it also raised issues related to body, money, language and movement vocabulary and that the dance form had “strongly gendered roots” that posed problems in including trans and non-binary dancers.

NSCD is the UK’s only dance conservatoire outside London. It said that the new policy is intended to attract a more diverse pool of dancers including those who may not fit the “aesthetic ideal” of ballet, which is “built around particular white European ideas and body shapes”.

A new £4.1m creative hub for young musicians and dancers has opened as part of efforts to support diverse talent.

The Talent House, based in Stratford, will house both East London Dance and national youth music organisation UD, providing young music and dance professionals free and affordable access to world class facilities as a launchpad to reach new audiences.

It is hoped the venue, paid for with initial funding from Arts Council England and the Greater London Authority, will attract more than 12,000 people every year with an "inspirational" public programme, co-curated with young people, artists and local residents.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who opened the hub, said: “London’s music and dance scene is thriving, but these companies need a home to nurture and support talent, so I’m proud to have invested in this state of the art facility, which will not only be a springboard for creatives and performers in Newham and across the city, but help to cement London as the creative capital of the world. 

"Investment like this is essential for our city’s recovery and a key part of building a better London for everyone.”

Phoenix Dance Theatre will no longer lay off four employees in June as previously planned.

Under plans revealed by performers' union Equity, the Leeds theatre intended to pay those laid off £300 of guaranteed pay every three months, during which time they would be expected to be available if required.

The decision to reverse the layoffs follows a demonstration outside the Northern Ballet building, home to the theatre, led by Equity on Monday (23 May). An online petition against the move received more than 2,000 signatures.

The theatre will move ahead with separate plans to end the contracts of five dancers, one freelancer and four on fixed-term contracts, but confirmed all other employees will be retained.

A statement from the theatre said layoffs were proposed but decided against while a strategic review is underway, adding it remains committed to safeguarding jobs wherever possible.

It called Equity’s decision to make the process public “disappointing” and said the theatre “strongly refutes their account of our actions”. 

Dominic Bascombe, Equity’s Regional Office for North East, Yorkshire and Humberside, said he was delighted for the two dancers and two creatives affected.

“They have been overwhelmed by the support of the public, trade unionists and fair-minded people everywhere.”

Dance4 and DanceXchange are merging into a new, "more ambitious" organisation.

FABRIC will combine the organisations’ skills and expertise and free up resources to "actively invest" in artists and programmes.  

The two have worked together since 2017 and believe the move will help develop talent in the Midlands, encourage creative leadership and promote dance in public life.

"This new approach will breathe new life into dance," Dance4 CEO and upcoming FABRIC CEO Paul Russ said.

The merger will take effect from mid-April, with DanceXchange Interim CEO Debbie Jardine stepping down. FABRIC will keep both partners' buildings in Nottingham and Birmingham open, "building on the programmes and audiences of Dance4 and DanceXchange in these locations and beyond".

Russ commented: "We’re taking a bold step to a new future, seizing the moment to build on our collective knowledge and success, and the legacy of major events in the region to realise new opportunities and growth for dance."