Dance Umbrella is the UK?s most adventurous dance promoter, and this year celebrates its 25th annual festival of contemporary dance from around the world, writes Carole Britten.
It has never been afraid to stand up for dance, and thanks to support from the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, that?s just what Dance Umbrella has been asking audiences to do in a unique initiative at Sadler?s Wells in London.
The Jerwood Proms season enables up to 500 people per performance to stand in a specially created promenade pit. Using the flexibility of the Sadler?s Wells auditorium, 229 seats are removed from the front of the stalls to create the standing area and thereby increase the capacity by up to 270. The chance to be up close and personal with the likes of Mark Morris, Mikhail Baryshnikov and, for the second time this October, Michael Clark, has proved extremely popular. At the highly affordable price of just £5, it?s a low-risk way to see dance in an informal atmosphere. For Dance Umbrella it has meant attracting both a younger audience and a large number (over 40%) of first-time attenders to Sadler?s Wells, some of whom are trying dance for the very first time.
Launched originally with Rambert Dance Company at Sadler?s Wells in May 2000, Dance Umbrella saw the Proms as an excellent way to make the usually higher-priced dance events at Sadler?s Wells, which were part of the annual festival, accessible and affordable to a wider audience. We set about finding a funding partner to support the initiative and this year will be the third season, and the second supported by the Jerwood
Charitable Foundation.
The funding also covers a dedicated marketing campaign to target students, youth groups and non-dance attenders and uses a leaflet with a special fold that means it can stand up too! So far almost 7,000 people have stood up for dance during Dance Umbrella festivals. Audience reaction has been very positive: ?Non-prom tickets are often just out of our reach price-wise?, ?Excellent idea having standing tickets in the stalls for an affordable £5 with a very good view? ? and 15% of the audience has returned to another Prom performance. In the Times it was billed as ?the best dance bargain in the country?, and Ballet.co magazine (Nov 2002) said ?It looked as though the organisers had finally found the younger audience they are always looking for?. I usually don?t believe what I read in the papers, but in this case I?ll stand corrected and be happy.
Carole Britten is Head of Marketing at Dance Umbrella. t: 020 8741 4040;
e: carole@danceumbrella.co.uk; w: http://www.danceumbrella.co.uk.
This year?s Jerwood Proms season at Sadler?s Wells features Michael Clark, America?s Trisha Brown Company and Teshegawara/KARAS from Japan. Booking opens on July 14. t: 020 7863 8000.