Ken Bartlett explains how community dance is taking centre stage.
Significantly it was a piece of community dance that opened the 2006 British Dance Edition, to rapturous applause from an international audience of dance professionals a highly critical and occasionally judgmental audience if ever there was one. So what was it about this work that allowed it to generate such a positive response? Perhaps it was the demonstrable commitment made by this mixed race, inter-generational company of dancers, not only to the piece, but also to each other. The work had been built as a partnership between choreographer and dancers. Protein Dances internationally acclaimed choreographer, Luca Silvestrini, had been contracted by Yorkshire Dance to work with these non-professional performers and give them the opportunity to explore their creativity in a playful way which encouraged both self discovery and team work. The resulting piece, Alfresco, was visually varied, technically competent and full of enjoyment and pleasure in the movement and amongst its cast.
Crossing boundaries
This provides a good example of a community of dancers speaking directly to a very different community in the audience a phenomenon that is growing as more and more as professional dance artists start to engage with different constituencies. High quality art is being delivered by non-professional dancers as they step up to the challenges of the form and content presented to them by community dance artists. These artists are increasingly crossing traditional boundaries and making positive contributions in the fields of health, education, youth work, ageing and criminal justice. The work they undertake in these fields is at its best when they are concentrating on the quality of the arts experience offered by dance, not when they are concentrating on instrumental benefits such as literacy, improved health or community regeneration. These things might happen but they are not the raison dêtre. The over-riding purpose of community dance is to offer people the best experiences that dance can offer, striving for excellence in the process, doing the best we can and celebrating what we can do rather than pointing up what we cant do. The quality of the dancing, having a say in what the dance is about and how it is made, and having an influence over the type of audience and the context in which the dance is seen and experienced, are all equally important, as is critical reflection about how successful, or otherwise, the dance was in achieving its vision and aims.
Professional development
Under this scenario, there are a number of substantial issues that the community dance sector must now begin to face up to. Workforce development, and growing demands from an increasingly diverse range of employers, is one of these. In response to this, the Foundation for Community Dance has embarked on Making a Move, a strategy for the development of a professional framework for community dance that will identify for the first time the attitudes, skills and knowledge needed by the profession to operate effectively and demonstrate that they are able to deliver quality provision for those they work with. Linked to this work on competencies will be a more comprehensive approach to continuing professional development, so that as people develop their competencies they will be in a much better position to get the support they need. Key to this initiative is the support of the professionals working in community dance, and the strategy has been developed through two years of consultation with our members and other dance organisations. We recognise and welcome that community dance includes a wide range of practices, a wide range of dancers and a wide range of practitioners with different starting points and different priorities. And we want to support this diversity by providing an appropriate, effective and inclusive climbing frame, rather than a single ladder.
As Britains population becomes more diverse it is vital that community and participatory dance becomes more inclusive in its practices, more diverse in the range of people and dances it involves, as well as embracing a wider range of aesthetic solutions about what dance in Britain might become and who can be taken seriously as a dancer. Through this ecology we can develop a better shared understanding of, and greater respect for each other and the cultural influences that distinguish us as individuals and groups.
International dimensions
Developing from this is an urgent need for our sector to build wider international connections. Even though the concept of community dance in the English-speaking world is a specific manifestation, there are artists across the globe who share its values, though they call it other things and their cultural contexts are very different. An increasing number of British practitioners are building international relationships and providing vision, guidance and support to artists in other countries that dont have the structures of support that are currently in place in the UK. Much is being learnt from exposure to their different political and economic solutions, artistic traditions and ambitions. For example, in Latin America there is now an international network of arts organisations committed to the arts and social transformation, and the Foundation is working with them to see what we can learn from each other.
The dance industry as a whole can seem at times to be very fragmented, and it is time now to find a more compelling narrative for dance in the UK. This needs to be one which positively embraces the different kinds of engagements in dance that people want and provide a new paradigm where there are many routes, many outcomes and many kinds of progression. It needs to value all our different perspectives and individual aspirations, as well as seeking to promote our common wealth.
Ken Bartlett is Creative Director of the Foundation for Community Dance, the UK development agency for access, participation and progression in dance for all.
w: http://www.communitydance.org.uk
A key component of Yorkshire Dances work is centred on the community. An important aspect of this is to seek to challenge general perceptions of who can and cannot dance, and broaden perceptions of what dance is. In this, we try to reach people regardless of age, background, experience, body shape, ability, gender or any other perceivable barrier. Thus, where the word community is used, it is intended to be understood in the fullest sense of the word, and includes all members of the Common Unity of dance from baby to grandfather, first timer to experienced professional. One of the most enjoyable and rewarding projects I have worked on is a commission involving choreographer Wayne McGregor and members of his extraordinary Random Dance Company, leading an equally inspiring group of intergenerational professional and non-professional performers in a piece where the traditional boundaries of age quietly disappear. Inspired by the timeless childrens classic The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, Un[t]old spins a physical storytelling magic with evocative music, light, animation, with talented performers aged 18 months old to 60+. In meeting the needs of such a diverse cast there have been many challenges. For example, to allow children as young as 18 months to participate the piece has to be performed first in the programme, rather than as a traditional grand finale. Logistical nightmares arise with dressing room allocations that have to be split according to age, gender, performing groups, any special requirements and the running order. Getting the right cast is also key. Participants need to be committed, open minded, and able to draw on, and share their life experience through a rich, creative artistic process. Well see if weve pulled it off when we perform on 26 June at the York Theatre Royal!
Sue Pennycook is Community and Education Manager at Yorkshire Dance
t: 0113 243 9867;
e: admin@everybodydances.com;
w: http://www.everybodydances.com