Press Release
27 August 2002

Dance First

This year's Edinburgh Festival was the setting for the first ever gathering of strategic development organisations for dance.

Dance is a fast-growing art form. Without an established building base equivalent to the national networks of theatres, galleries and concert halls, it is creative about finding new ways of making and presenting art, and of engaging with audiences and participants. Many dance professionals work independently, move between performing, creating and teaching roles and have limited opportunity to develop their careers. All of this has prompted the development of organisations to provide support and advocacy for dance.

On 11 August a number of these organisations came together at Dance Base, Scotland's national centre for dance. With the overall theme of 'Making the most of what we have', the gathering identified some key opportunities for dance in the social and political changes currently taking place. Dance is increasingly being recognised as a core artistic discipline with unique values in education and social development and regeneration. New spaces, such as Dance Base, are making dance more accessible to local communities and providing the conditions needed to create innovative art. Ensuring the most is made of these opportunities needs a strong voice for dance, which is something the group of development organisations is determined to provide.

The organisations that attended the gathering were:

Artists Development, The Place – Theresa Beattie, 020 7383 3524
Community Dance Wales – Gillian Dale, 01633 420 258
Council for Dance Education and Training – Sarah Dogherty, 020 7247 4030
DanceXchange representing the Association of National Dance Organisations (England) – David Massingham, 0121 689 3175
Dance Scotland – Jacqueline Whymark – 0131 225 5525
Dance UK – Jeanette Siddall – 020 7228 4990
Foundation for Community Dance – Christopher Stenton, 0116 251 0516

Those invited but unable to attend were:

Association of Dance of the African Diaspora
Dance Northern Ireland
South Asian Dance Alliance

If you want to know more “Dance First”, contact:

Jeanette Siddall
Dance UK
Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, London SW11 5TN
020 7228 4990
www.danceuk.org

<small>[ 08-27-2002, 03:05: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

Stuart, can you tell us a little more about this ie what was the result of the meeting - will there be papers available/further discussions.

"Dance is a fast-growing art form. Without an established building base equivalent to the national networks of theatres, galleries and concert halls, it is creative about finding new ways of making and presenting art, and of engaging with audiences and participants. Many dance professionals work independently, move between performing, creating and teaching roles and have limited opportunity to develop their careers. All of this has prompted the development of organisations to provide support and advocacy for dance."

people have been saying that since I was in training and that was 8 years ago.