Ballet Independents’ Group
Discussion Forum

Nurturing Creativity – institutions and independent artists

Voice Box, Level 5, Royal Festival Hall
7-9pm, Friday 21st March, 2003

Are artistic directors of ballet companies, representatives of a status quo, compromise3d in their efforts to bring fresh perspectives and innovation to the form by the institutional structures within which they work? History reveals a continuing exodus of major creative artists from the institutions. Recent reports – the Eyre report on the future of lyric theatre in London and the Independent Dance Review – conclude that new developments need a more flexible environment, and that the independent artist has a crucial role to play. Papers at the European Association of Dance Historians conference “All about ballet” rang alarm bells about the creeping institutionalisation of ballet, both organisationally and in its internal culture.

To debate the interrelationship and respective roles of the institution and the independent artist in the development of ballet we have invited three speakers with experience of creative initiatives within and outside institutions:

David Lan – dramatist and Artistic Director of the Young Vic, guest speaker at the Rural Retreats weekend masterminded by Dance East

Phyllida Ritter – formerly Director of the Friends of Covent Garden and since April 2003 Administrative Director of ROH2

Peter Quanz Canadian independent ballet choreographer who has participated in the New York Choreographic Institute and made work for the Noverre Society (Stuttgart Ballet) and Royal Winnipeg Ballet