ONE Magazine | Spring 2021

The Dance Sector Reimagines • Christopher Hampson in conversation • Diversity in dance – further steps • Digital dance success stories and advice

Industry • Exploring Russell Maliphant's process • Guidance - how to make a dance film • Fundraising and mentoring tips

Education and Health • Developing performance skills • Addressing eating disorders • Social prescribing and dance

The One Dance UK Magazine Issue 10, Spring 2021

Shape the future of dance

World-class dance education & development for artists

Northern School of Contemporary Dance 98 Chapeltown Road, Leeds LS7 4BH

2 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

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nscd.ac.uk

Welcome

Photos:Top: Brian Slater; Left: Greta Mendez; Middle: Quentin Cooper; Right; Oliver Lamford

Andrew Hurst MBE Chief Executive, One Dance UK

Dancers are inherently resilient and creative beings. It’s been heartening to see how so many of you have adapted to ever-evolving circumstances, finding new ways to teach, create and share. We are keen to promote the new paths our members and others are forging, whilst mindful of those who have been devastated by the events of the past 12 months. Our freelancers, the next generation of dance graduates and under-represented members of the dance workforce have all been hit especially hard, and we’ll continue to champion and support your work.

Our advocacy work is more important than ever, representing our sector needs at the highest level and helping you navigate through lockdowns and reopening, and the UK’s new relationship with Europe and the rest of the world.

As an organisation we are also approaching our projects and partnerships in new ways, welcoming

many new members, sharing health and wellbeing advice, offering online CPD and promoting diverse artists.

Our young dancers remain keen: the U.Dance National Youth Dance Festival will be celebrated online again this summer giving us the chance to reach thousands of young dancers, and the 2021 Young Creatives and Dance Ambassador schemes have our largest cohorts yet.

We are inspired by the many heroes who have kept the country dancing over the past year. If you know of someone who deserves recognition, we encourage you to nominate them for a One Dance UK Award or talk to us about putting someone forward for the Queen’s Birthday or New Years Honours.

We hope that the raft of articles in these pages offer insight, ideas and guidance to inspire you to make changes in your organisations and your practice in 2021. Onwards and upwards together.

In This Issue

We would like to thank the expert contributors who have been involved in this issue of One

Greta Mendez MBE Page 20 Trinidadian born Greta Mendez is a movement and theatre director, choreographer, performance art artist, drama coach, carnivalist and film maker. As a choreographer Greta has explored themes such as silence and sensuality, body politics and ageism, and shifting cultures.

She has performed and created works for the Royal Opera House, National Theatre, and created awardwinning work on stages and screens worldwide. Greta was awarded an MBE in the NYE Honours 2021.

Subathra Subramaniam Page 23 Subathra Subramaniam, Akademi’s Artistic Director and Joint Chief Executive Officer, is a choreographer and educator working at the confluence of dance, culture and science having spent over 20 years as Artistic Director of two South Asian dance companies – Angika and Sadhana Dance.

Creating work for theatres, festivals and alternative spaces, Suba’s works are a result of in-depth cross art collaborations with award winning artists alongside extended periods of research undertaken with scientists and academic institutions.

Kate Flatt OBE Page 31 Kate Flatt is a choreographer and movement director working nationally and internationally. Her dance credits include creating works for Phoenix Dance, BBC2 and various productions for Kate Flatt Projects. Her extensive theatre choreography work includes productions for National Theatre, The Royal Opera, Royal Shakespeare Company, Opera North, Young Vic and English National Opera.

An experienced choreography teacher, she has written Choreography - Creating and Developing Dance for Performance (2019). Kate was awarded an OBE in 2020.

The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 3

Contents 3 5

Welcome by Andrew Hurst MBE Reader Competition: Win Access to ENB at Home Films!

In the Spotlight 6 Back to Dance: A Roadmap 7 News 11 One Dance UK Membership: Let’s Stay Connected 12 One Dance UK Awards

– Q&A with Kathy Williams byTamar Dixon

– Sir Robert Cohan CBE Obituary by Sir Richard Alston CBE 14 Feature Interview: Scottish Ballet’s Artistic DIrector Christopher Hampson

by Giulia Ascoli Special Focus on Re:Imagination 17 Introduction by Amanda Skoog, Chair, One Dance UK 18 Speaking, Listening, Resetting, Healing – Amanda Parker in conversation with Andrew Hurst MBE 20 Diversity or Skin Colour by Greta Mendez MBE 23 Matters of Diversity by Subathra Subramaniam 24 The Digital Light at the End of the Tunnel at Pavilion Dance South West

– No Looking Back by Lizzy Maries

– Taking a Live Show into the Digital Space by Ella Mesma 28 Dance: On Demand? by Cameron Ball 30 Harnessing the Power of Streaming to Generate Income by Terry Corby 31 Mentoring by Kate Flatt OBE 32 Dance on Film: Find Your Creative Voice by Jo Cork 34 Investigating Professional Dancers with Russell Maliphant Dance Company

by Dr Angela Pickard 36 Somatic Practice Rooted in Tradition – Sandra Golding in conversation with Jessica Lowe 38 Tights, Camera, Action! by Denise Whiteman 40 Social Prescribing and Dance by John McMahon 42 Keep Moving and Dance On by Hannah Robertshaw 44 Eating Disorders and Body Image Concerns in Dancers

by Fumi Somehara and Shane Jeffrey 46 Show Business by Fred Hopkins 48 Preparing to Perform by Laura Nicholson 50 Safeguarding and the Dance School Sector by Peter Flew 55 Performance Optimisation Packages (POP) Cut-Out Resources for Teachers 51 Exploring the Professional Work MADHEAD (KS3) by Justine Reeve with NYDC 53 Spring into Spring – Dance in Outdoor Spaces (KS1) by Eve Murphy Features 56 HOTFOOT Online at 20 with message from Dr ‘Funmi Adewole 58 Book Reviews Front Cover: Still from Invisible Threads Part 1, part of a new programme which aims to promote mental wellbeing amongst the dance sector.

James Pett, dance artist, choreographer and educator jamespett.co.uk Direction and photography by Rick Guest rickguest.gallery Design by Kate Dawkins katedawkinsstudio.com See page 7 for further information 4 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

Editorial and Advertising Lara Coffey Head of Marketing and Communications Cameron Ball Magazine Editor Dani Bower Images Editor Dann Carroll Copy Editor Katie Stevens Copy Editor Advertising enquiries Contact Amelia Bickley amelia.bickley@onedanceuk.org Funders and Supporters With thanks to our funders

With thanks to our project partners, funders and supporters Ann Craft Trust BBC Teach China Plate Theatre Cornucopia Cultural Learning Alliance Dance Consortium Dance Hub Birmingham Dance Mama DU Dance East London Dance Garfield Weston Gordon and Co. Insurance Brokers Harlequin Floors Inc Arts Marquee TV National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science (NIDMS) National Youth Arts Wales National Youth Dance Company Sadler’s Wells Safe in Dance International Sport England SunVit D-3 University of Birmingham Institute of Mental Health University of Chichester Psychology programme YDance ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company

Design tm-studio.co.uk

Reader Competition

Win access to ENB at Home films!

Enter for the chance to win an at-home dance experience with English National Ballet’s new streaming platform ENB at Home, showcasing the company’s works online with exclusive digital content.

Three lucky winners will receive access to the five films of English National Ballet's Digital Season, which they will be able to watch free of charge on the Ballet on Demand website. One Dance UK members receive two entries per submission, doubling your chance to win!

To be in with a chance of winning, head to the One Dance UK Facebook page (@onedanceuk) to comment on the pinned competition post.

Closes 31 March 2021

James Streeter and Jeffrey Cirio in Laid in Earth

Photos: All images courtesy English National Ballet

English National Ballet artists in Take Five Blues

Winners will receive access by email for a period of 2 weeks, no physical copies (such as DVD) will be available. No cash alternative. ‘Two entries per submission’ open to individual members or employees/students of member organisations only.

The five films are: Echoes, Jolly Folly, Laid in Earth, Senseless Kindness and Take Five Blues.

Winner must be 18 or over. Further T&C’s apply, see onedanceuk.org/terms-and-conditions for details.

Erik Woolhouse in Jolly Folly A film by Amy Becker Burnett, choreographed by Arielle Smith The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 5

In the Spotlight

Back to Dance: A Roadmap As the country emerges from lockdown over the spring and summer, One Dance UK will keep advocating for the sector across professional, community and educational settings. We will also continue to share the information we receive from government with you, allowing you to return to dance following the relevant guidance for your area of work.

The below guide is accurate at the time of going to print. While it in no way offers the information in full, it provides a brief snapshot of the government’s roadmap as it pertains to dance. Further dance-specific information and guidance can be found on the One Dance UK website or by emailing info@onedanceuk.org.

England

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a four-step roadmap to easing lockdown in England on 22 February.

Step 1, 8 March •S chools reopen in England • I ndividual lessons in music, dance and drama can continue in schools and organisations providing out-of-school childcare •P roviders can resume in-person teaching and learning for undergraduate and postgraduate students who are studying practical or practice-based (including creative arts) subjects.

Step 2, no earlier than 12 April •A ll children will be able to attend any indoor children's activity, including dance and sport, regardless of circumstance • I ndoor leisure facilities such as gyms, pools and dance/ fitness studios to open; social contact rules will apply.

Step 3, no earlier than 17 May •T heatres, museums and cinemas can open, with social distancing and previous capacity caps continuing •N on-professional adult dance activity will be able to resume in in line with social contact rules indoors and outdoors, as was the case previously •L arger outdoor events will be allowed, subject to enhanced testing.

Step 4, no earlier than 21 June •A ll limits on social contacts should be lifted •L arge events above the Step 3 capacity restrictions will be permitted, subject to the outcome of a scientific Events Research Programme.

N.B. The indicative, ‘no earlier than’ dates outlined in the roadmap are all contingent on data and subject to change.

Northern Ireland

The current lockdown has been extended to 1 April, subject to a review on 18 March.

Primary school pupils in year groups P1 to P3 return to classes on 8 March, while secondary school pupils in key exam years, year groups 12 to 14, will return to face-to-face learning on 22 March.

6 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

Scotland

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a four-phase planned easing of restrictions in Scotland on 23 February.

Phase 1 (as of 22 February) •E arly learning and childcare and schools open for Primary 1-3 pupils and senior phase pupils for essential practical work.

Phase 2 (unlikely before 15 March) •N ext phase of school return, which will start with the rest of the primary school years, 4 to 7, more senior phase secondary pupils back in the classroom for at least part of their learning.

Phase 3 (at least three weeks later - possibly 5 April) •S tay-at-home restrictions lifted •T hird and final phase of schools reopening if required.

Phase 4 (possibly 26 April) •L imited other easing within Level 4, including reopening of non-essential retail, hospitality and services like gyms •M ove fully back to a levels system of Covid-19 restrictions.

The move out of lockdown will take place in three-week blocks but, if data allows and positive trends continue, an acceleration of the easing of restrictions will take place.

Wales

First Minister Mark Drakeford announced a review of current restrictions on 12 March.

Four people from two different households can now exercise together outdoors (but not in private gardens), and schools opened for Foundation Phase learners (pupils aged 3 to 7).

Some vocational learners, such as apprentices, have also been allowed to go back to colleges to access training or workplace environments for their practical qualifications.

All primary school pupils and those in years 11 and 13, who have to sit exams, could return from 15 March if the situation continues to improve.

Stay updated: onedanceuk.org/covid-19-guidance For more information on One Dance UK’s advocacy work, contact advocacy@onedanceuk.org

In the Spotlight

News Cover Story: Invisible Threads Collaboration “It’s been the biggest honour to be of the dance industry during this difficult time and see how we have all come together to share our classes, share work and opportunities.

Dance performance is now taking a new leap into how we share our work beyond the theatre and into more threedimensional and immersive experiences..”

James Pett

Further information jamespett.co.uk rickguest.gallery katedawkinsstudio.com Watch the film and post-screening discussion with One Dance UK's Erin Sanchez, dancer James Pett and director and photographer Rick Guest: bit.ly/InvisibleThreadsFilm

Photo: Top: James Pett in Invisible Threads Part 1, image by Rick Guest

£70,000 #LoveDanceScotland Commissions Awarded

Further information Project overview bit.ly/LoveDanceScotland Awardees shotput.org facebook.com/frankiemulholland

One Dance UK teamed up with independent director, filmmaker and photographer Rick Guest and his collaborators dancer James Pett and BAFTA award winning designer Kate Dawkins to debut his new film Invisible Threads Part 1, part of a programme which aims to promote mental wellbeing amongst the dance sector.

The film explores the conflicting emotions of desire and fear, the subconscious need to be heard and the quest for self-expression, poignantly mirroring this turbulent time of enforced isolation and its impact on the creative mind and spirit.

Erin Sanchez, Manager of Health, Wellbeing, and Performance at One Dance UK says: “We are delighted to collaborate with Rick, Kate and James to bring attention to the importance of mental health in dance. Each person’s mental health experiences will be different and we hope that by showcasing different ways to share and engage with these experiences, we will encourage more people to express themselves.”

Rick Guest added: “I’m so grateful to the amazing team at One Dance UK for both raising awareness for this incredibly important issue within the creative arts and for supporting the many ways in which we can express what we’re going through, and hopefully, through that work, help others acknowledge their situation and understand that they are not alone and that there is a way through.”

Three leading Scottish dance organisations, Dance Base Scotland, Dundee Rep Theatre & Scottish Dance Theatre and Tramway, Glasgow have announced the artists selected for their new #LoveDanceScotland commissions.

The commissions have awarded £35K respectively to Shotput and FRAN.K as well as a substantial in-kind support package from the venue partners. Five shortlisted artists were also given £1K each to further develop their practice.

It is the first time that the three organisations have come together as commissioning partners and pooled their expertise and resources to support independent artists. The commissions, which are supported by the Scottish Government’s Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund, will enable a step-change in the career of the artists and employ 33 freelancers across the two projects at a critical moment for the independent dance sector.

Shotput will debut Totentanz, a playful live performance and photography project looking at the line between life and death, existential joy and despair, while FRAN.K will present the durational film installation Living in the Space Between. Living in the Space Between is a love letter to clubbing culture, particularly for queer communities, during a time of its absence featuring 12 dancers over nine hours of footage. It is hoped that both performances can be staged at Dance International Glasgow in October, restrictions permitting. #LoveDanceScotland is a campaign created to showcase and celebrate dance in Scotland, highlighting the benefits not just to dance artists and performers, but to the wider community. The campaign emerged from the desire of many dance organisations in Scotland to collaborate more closely in response to the challenges experienced by the performing arts in Scotland and to highlight the need for support to ensure the sector’s survival.

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In the Spotlight

News UK Breakin’: Playing Our Part

Further information ukbreakin.org

Photo: Pete Tweedie

National Youth Dance Companies of Wales and Scotland collaborate

Further information National Youth Dance Wales nyaw.org.uk/national-youth-dance-wales National Youth Dance Company of Scotland ydance.org/talent-development/nydcs 8 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

Breakin’ is about to gain an additional stage. UK Breakin’ is a membership organisation working to facilitate and promote the philosophy, integrity and culture of breakin' in the UK, led by those in the breakin' scene. It is a membership body run by breakers for breakers.

Breakin’ is an art performed on stages and hip hop theatre platforms and as a community activity has been a way of life for many. It is a sport about to take its place in the largest international sporting event, the Olympic Games.

UK Breakin’ are working to make sure all in the breakin’ community are included in the new opportunities the Olympics provides, including accreditation at grassroots level to develop future professionals and supporters.

The organisation is trialling an exciting collaboration with league competition management system company Woosh. All members will be able to enter the league regardless of age, gender or disability. UK Breakin’s role is to listen to the breakers and support them to achieve their breakin’ goals.

“I wish when I started my journey there was an organisation like UK Breakin’which could have helped nurture my talents and give me directions.”

More than 20 young dancers from across Wales and Scotland will take part in online masterclasses throughout 2021 – meeting together and connecting through technology despite living hundreds of miles apart.

With face-to-face dance training significantly reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, National Youth Dance Wales and National Youth Dance Company of Scotland will join together to form The Celtic Collective, an exciting new digital masterclass platform featuring some of the UK’s most talented dance artists, choreographers and artistic directors.

This brand new initiative will bring together young dancers training towards a professional career, and is the first time both companies have worked together in this way. The monthly masterclasses will provide a space for the talented young dancers to connect, collaborate and share skills, during this incredibly challenging time for all young performers.

The masterclasses will be led by eminent dance artists including award-winning choreographers and artists Liam Riddick and Botis Seva, and NYDCS’s Artistic Director Anna Kenrick. The young dancers, aged 16-22, will also learn from dance companies including Ballet Cymru and Scottish Dance Theatre.

Both National Youth Dance Wales and National Youth Dance Company of Scotland are the flagship contemporary dance companies for young people in their countries. Each year, talented young dancers audition for a place, and a chance to work with prestigious choreographers.

Jamie Jenkins, Producer of National Youth Dance Wales, said: “We’re delighted to provide a space for these young dancers to connect, collaborate and share skills as part of this collective, and to provide a platform to hear from some of the UK’s most exciting choreographers and dance companies.”

The masterclasses started in January, and will continue monthly over Zoom for all NYDW and NYDCS members.

BBoy Lil’ Tim

Stella McGowan

In the Spotlight

News Choreographers Directory Are you a choreographer? Or perhaps you are looking for a choreographer for a professional engagement? Did you know One Dance UK serves a community of choreographers as a part of our membership services?

I Move: Platforming Artists I Move is a campaign from One Dance UK which aims to spotlight exciting work undertaken by the many UK-based people working and practicing in the dance of the African Diaspora (DAD) field, in any way.

Photos: Top: Logo Design by Dani Bower

I Move 2021 Featured Artists have so far included: • Namron • Pawlet Brookes • Jonzi D

For the latest dance sector news, visit www.onedanceuk.org/news

The One Dance UK Choreographers Directory (UKCD) is a free searchable catalogue of independent choreographers and movement directors with experience in the arts and entertainment industries.

It is a platform that lists you and your creative services, to promote your voice and share your work. As a resource, it is aimed at producers, directors, casting agents and production companies to use as a tool to access both emerging and established choreographers for professional opportunities.

Whether you are looking for professionals in, or researching for, choreography, fight direction or mass movement, or something more specific such as mask theatre, Middle Eastern dance, or music videos, the directory offers a diverse network of expertise.

To join the directory, you must have a One Dance UK membership and at least five professional credits to authenticate your choreographic work. The One Dance UK team We want to tell your story, why and how DAD motivates your work, the benefits it brings to the wider dance community and to the cultural landscape in Britain.

What moves you?

In 2020 the team reached out to those working and practicing within the field of DAD and asked them to share with us why DAD is important to them, the challenges they are facing and their hopes for the future. One Dance UK has profiled these artists on social media, in e-newsletters and in HOTFOOT Online.

The campaign has featured a diverse range of artists, including Ffion Campbell-Davies, a multidisciplinary artist based in London; Ella Mesma, a dance artist based in Leeds and Bristol; Birmingham-based Lola Adodo, Creative Director of New Dance Scopes; Niquelle LaTouche, a dance artist and educator specialising in dancehall and hip hop; and Sheffield’s Nathan Geering, an artistic director and accessibility innovator.

manage the directory and offer individual, administrative support for choreographers. We also provide recommendations to those looking for a choreographer, free of charge.

Breaking through digital noise can be a familiar challenge for creatives when marketing themselves and their work online. The Featured Choreographer is our monthly spotlight campaign of a directory member, where the UKCD advocates you and helps to manage your exposure as a choreographer through One Dance UK platforms. Another benefit of the directory enables you to have an enhanced listing as a choreographer on Spotlight that would otherwise cost £400 to create.

As a UKCD member, you gain access to the newly designed membership badge to display your connection with us on your website and social media platforms.

Further information Contact Amelia Bickley and the membership team who support this network: membership@onedanceuk.org

What’s new for I Move in 2021?

I Move kicks off the new year with the aim to introduce and enlighten new audiences. The campaign will strive to educate, inform, inspire and to develop a greater appreciation for DAD forms. We aim to widen our reach to aspiring young dance artists in the early stages of their career, looking to explore and/or practice DAD. Want to get involved?

If you are a dance of the African Diaspora practitioner working as an artist, choreographer, educator, healthcare practitioner, producer, or you have just graduated, please get in touch.

Send in your dance related photos/ videos and up to 200 words about your work, your journey or your contributions to DAD to comms@onedanceuk.org or tamar.dixon@onedanceuk.org.

Further information onedanceuk.org/i-move-is-back Watch the I Move welcome video: bit.ly/IMoveUK The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 9

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10 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

Membership

Let’s Stay Connected Our members get more

Thank you to all One Dance UK members for being part of the only dedicated sector support organisation for dance promoting a stronger, more vibrant and diverse dance sector.

As a member, you currently receive regular updates on our work and how we advocate for you and all aspects of dance in the UK. We want to make sure that you know membership is more than reading about what we are doing – after all, we are all in this together!

We want to know what you are doing so we can tell the world what you are doing.

Photo: Tribhangi Dance Theatre perform at Re:generations International Conference, Salford Lowry, 2019. Photo Dani Bower for One Dance UK

Did you know as a member you can promote yourself or your organisation through our website industry news stories and our social media channels, which currently have over 120 000 followers?

Are you working on, or have just completed a new project?

Perhaps you could be leading dance classes? Promoting a new event? Advertising for a new job? Maybe you are hosting a webinar? Let us know, and we can share!

That’s not all. We may be able to help you in other ways. We can provide services and information to members for: • Dance artists and choreographers • Dance teachers, educators and practitioners • Dance students and graduates • Dance managers and producers • Dance medicine and science/ research professionals • Dance organisations

If you have a question about a subject such as dancer health and wellbeing, teaching and education, advocacy, business development, dance facilities and more, please remember we are here to support you so, please get in touch.

membership@onedanceuk.org Social media sharing is subject to One Dance UK content calendar, so allow ten days for scheduling.

Content is subject to approval adhering to the One Dance UK’s social media guidelines.

The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 11

One Dance UK Awards 2021 The time is almost here for you to nominate your dance heroes The One Dance UK Awards are a chance for you to highlight the work of a person or company who deserves recognition for their tenacity, creativity and dedication.

For 2021, categories include • Primary Dance Education Award • Secondary Dance Education Award • Inspirational Lecturer at College, University or Conservatoire Award • Dance in the Community Award • Work in Education & Outreach Award • Dance for Wellbeing Award • Research in Dance Award • Dance Healthcare Practitioner Award • Dance Healthcare Team Award • Applied Dance Science Award • Innovation in Dance Award • Dance Campaign Award • Dance Programming Award • Dance on Film Award • Dance Advocacy Award • People’s Choice Award • Rising Star Award • Dance of The African Diaspora Lifetime Achievement Award • Lifetime Achievement Awards • Jane Attenborough Award

Nominations open Monday 12 April onedanceuk.org/one-dance-uk-awards

Winner Profile: Recognition and Gratitude

Kathy Williams OLY Director of RJC Dance

How has the Lifetime Achievement Award made an impact on your career?

I was honoured and thrilled to receive the award, accepting on behalf of the cofounders of RJC Dance; Edward Lynch, David Hamilton MBE, Donald Edwards, Martin Robinson, Joe Williams, the late Linda Molyneux, technicians, my staff team and of course the thousands of children, young people and families we have worked with, nurtured, developed and inspired since 1993.

A Life Lived in Dance Obituary – Sir Robert Cohan CBE Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in Contemporary Dance, 2020

Photo: Courtesy RJC Dance

By Sir Richard Alston OBE

Robert Cohan, Founding Artistic Director of The Place, was a prolific choreographer, an utterly brilliant teacher and also a shrewd strategist.

Single-handedly he changed the face of contemporary dance in this country. Well, perhaps not quite singlehandedly, for it was Robin Howard, Founder of the Contemporary Dance Trust, who had the vision to invite Cohan to lead his as yet only dreamtof new organisation which was to become known as The Place. Cohan bravely took up this invitation and contemporary dance in Britain was born.

Tamar Dixon talks to Kathy Williams, Dance of the African Diaspora Lifetime Achievement Award 2020 awardee.

It has been overwhelming being acknowledged by the sector and has recognised the work and achievements over 27 years, creating access to the arts and creative industries, reaching those who otherwise have little access to the rich and transformative benefits of arts and culture.

and ensure continuity of contact.

Our diverse beneficiaries have been disproportionately affected during this time and required opportunities to connect and re-group. The pandemic has had a severe impact on the mental health of young people (especially those within the Black, minority, ethnic community).

What has the award meant for your local community in Leeds?

The responses have been heart-warming.

It meant pride, a salute and appreciation of 27 years of RJC Dance magic.

Tell us more about some of the plans you have for RJC Dance in 2021 and beyond A Covid-19 testing centre has prohibited access to our base at the Mandela Centre, Leeds. Our service was taken online, however digital poverty amongst young people and their families has impacted engagement.

What type of activity has RJC Dance engaged with recently?

RJC Dance endeavoured to respond and adapt to all the sudden disruption by developing free creative digital engagement programmes to continue communication with users, whilst reaching new online participants. We aim to provide positive participatory experiences in the context of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter which give a voice to the community, build cohesion Cohan’s first choreographies in Britain were strongly linked to his remarkable gifts as a teacher, rapidly developing his dancers into what became London Contemporary Dance Theatre - in its heyday, one of the finest performing ensembles in the world.

His choreography was imbued with the knowledge of his teaching - highly demanding choreography created for outstandingly articulate and meticulously trained dancers.

Cohan’s gifts as a teacher amounted to genius; his analytical eye having all the accuracy and precision of a scientist.

His extraordinary knowledge, coupled with real charisma and authority, led to many of his company dancers staying with him for as long as eighteen years.

Such loyalty truly reflects Cohan’s ability to inspire and lead.

Cohan retired as Artistic Director in 1983, but without him the Company’s fortunes wavered for a while until the Company was eventually folded in 1994. He continued to work with leading companies worldwide.

2021-22 will see a development and diversification of RJC Dance Digital Programme, including 46 weekly term time dance sessions for children and young people and half term Dance Camps. 2022-23 will see a blended digital and face-to-face offer, and in 2023-24 we celebrate RJC Dance’s 30th anniversary!

Since the 1960s, many barriers have fallen within the world of British dance and it is Robert Cohan who we must thank for truly setting such changes in motion. Sixty years later he has left us with a strikingly different dance sector.

His pioneering vision and exceptional contribution to contemporary dance was recognised in 2019 with a much anticipated and much deserved knighthood for Services to Choreography and Dance.

As its founding Artistic Director, he has left The Place a still pioneering and creative hub, attracting inspired young people who wish to make their mark in dance. The vision of two men gave birth to the idea of Contemporary Dance in Britain, but it was Robert Cohan who breathed life into such an idea and gave it form and substance. His achievements have been immeasurable.

Further information A longer version of this obituary is available on The Place website, theplace.org.uk

"Let go of 'normal'

Feature Interview

Then we can move forward"

Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic

Christopher Hampson has been the Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet for nearly a decade. The past year has seen some of the most challenging times in the company’s history. He talks to Advocacy Manager Giulia Ascoli about how the company has pivoted to maintain their strong links with audiences and the community.

Scottish Ballet's Bethany Kingsley-Garner in the filmed performance of Catalyst by Nicholas Shoesmith, as part of Edinburgh International Festival's My Light Shines On. 14 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

Feature Interview

“For dancers, not being able to practise and exercise their discipline to a high level is akin to a racing driver only being allowed to drive their racing car up and down their driveway.”

Christopher Hampson

Photo: Helen Maybanks

Could you describe the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on Scottish Ballet and how you have been responding to it?

At the beginning of lockdown in March 2020, there was no chance of performing, touring or even training, so we looked to augment our output through other means.

Our artistic and engagement work has moved online. We’ve created live streams for communities that engage with our dance health work, and initiatives for frontline key workers within the NHS. We’ve also created new dance films, which premiered as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, alongside making and distributing our first ever feature film, The Secret Theatre One of the most important elements of our pivot towards the screen was, and continues to be, to take our audiences and supporters with us. We’ve found as a company that we are agile and resilient in collaborating and creating work to keep our communities engaged.

The Brexit transition phase ended on 31 December 2020, with new rules coming into effect on 1 January 2021. How have these changes affected you?

We are yet to experience any direct or immediate impact as our supply chains and visa processes are yet to be tested, due to us not being on tour. Looking ahead, visa applications already take a considerable toll on resources. I can’t imagine this will get any simpler as we move into the future.

One continuing challenge is, even when there is the opportunity to return to the studio, the dancers need to be brought back up to ‘performance’ standard safely and injury-free, which takes time and patience from all involved.

The excellent working relationship between our Artistic and Performance Medicine Teams has been vital in supporting our dancers through their own personal journeys.

How have recent events reshaped international partnerships and In what ways do you believe collaborations?

COVID-19 has transformed the COVID-19 has had the most immediate dance landscape? What do you impact. The pandemic hit when we think will be its long-term effects were in New York with our main on the sector? company and our Youth Exchange Over the last five years, we had group. We’d managed to open This Is already committed significant My Body, a double bill of MC 14/22, resources to developing our work choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj for digital platforms through our and Sibilo, choreographed by Sophie ground-breaking Digital Seasons. This Laplane, at The Joyce Theater, but it allowed us to boldly stride on in the closed after a few days. digital space during this last year and This led to the cancellation of the same be brave in our decision making to bill, and our important London presence quickly grasp that live performance at the Linbury Theatre at The Royal and touring would have Opera House, and the cancellation of The to take a back seat for a while.

Crucible US tour to the Kennedy Center However, the impact on the dancers, and Spoleto Festival (2020). choreographers and all our artistic We’re thankful that we continue support staff has been immense. to have meaningful connections and They have needed to tap into their relationships, and this year we’ll be resilience and have greater autonomy working virtually with our friends at – not something which comes Move NYC – whom we collaborated naturally to dancers who are used to with last spring when in New York working together, collegiately. with our Youth Exchange.

The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 15

Feature Interview

What are the key lessons you’d say you’ve learned over the last year?

There’s something to learn from any situation, good or bad. For me, being transparent with decision making and as an executive team, Steven Roth (Executive Director) and I, giving regular weekly company updates has helped us all to remain connected.

Only focusing on what we have control over has been vital in supporting our staff and dancers with planning future seasons. Still, the most persistent question I’m asked by the company and audiences alike is, “When do you think we’ll get back to normal?”. My response is: “Let go of ‘normal’ – then we can move forward.”

What do you see as the main challenges dance artists, makers and performers will have to face on the road to safely bringing back performances to full audiences?

What will Scottish Ballet in particular need to succeed?

I believe the biggest challenge facing the dance sector is availability of employment for the graduates from 2020 and 2021, coupled with the loss of professional expertise from those within the industry who have not been able to work for nearly a year.

For choreographers and performers, the eagerness to get back to the studio and the stage will require even greater patience as our pathway out of the pandemic is unlikely to be speedy.

What gives you hope for the future?

The overall resilience of the arts in the face of adversity.

Photo: Andy Ross

What’s Coming Up? Scottish Ballet is offering online classes, events and films throughout 2021. Sign up to their free membership programme to access these.

As part of its commitment to stage five major new works in five years, the company is also preparing for the world premieres of two new productions, The Scandal at Mayerling and Coppélia, as well as the return of The Nutcracker.

Further Information Visit www.scottishballet.co.uk for the latest dates and news.

16 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

“While this has been an incredibly challenging and adverse time, I believe there are elements of our artistic output that have flourished and will remain.”

Christopher Hampson

Scottish Ballet dancer Anna Williams in company class.

Introduction

Photo: Stephen A'Court Photography

By Amanda Skoog Chair, One Dance UK

Re:imagination

Special Focus on Re:imagination

It’s spring, and with spring comes renewed energy and hope. It’s hard to believe a year has passed since the first lockdown but through resilience, determination and adaptability we are still standing.

By necessity we have had to be creative - not a bad thing. We have discovered how to be nimble, more self-sufficient, to communicate in different ways using new technologies, to continue to share our stories.

I am in awe of what has been achieved.

We have had time to reflect on what our new priorities should be.

Black Lives Matter shone a light on huge discrepancies within certain parts of the dance sector. We have had time to consider how things should and will be done in the future; thinking that was long overdue.

We have adapted brilliantly, but for many the rebuilding is going to be hard. To begin again, we must rebuild our confidence, regain physical stamina, relearn skills, encourage audiences back to our spaces, and have the courage to be ambitious with what we create and programme, despite huge financial losses. And then there’s dealing with what Brexit will throw at us.

We now need to get back in to dance spaces; to leap around a studio with colleagues, to create unencumbered by social distancing, and to perform to a live, responsive audience. We need to work together, at every level, and in every sense of the word.

If we can reimagine the future with our new-found skills, purpose and resilience, together with what came before, then the future for dance is very bright indeed.

16

Speaking, Listening, Resetting, Healing Inc Arts’ Amanda Parker in conversation with Andrew Hurst MBE

20

Diversity or Skin Colour

By Greta Mendez MBE

21

Matters of Diversity

By Akademi’s Subathra Subramaniam

22

The Digital Light at the End of the Tunnel at Pavilion Dance South West – No Looking Back by Digital Producer Lizzy Maries – Taking a Live Show into the Digital Space by Ella Mesma

26

Dance: On Demand? with English National Ballet

By Cameron Ball with ENB’s Heather Clark Charrington and Daniel Alicandro

28

Harnessing the Power of Streaming to Generate Income

By Creative Industries Federation’s Terry Corby

30

Mentoring

By Kate Flatt OBE

32

Investigating Professional Dancers with Russell Maliphant Dance Company

By Dr Angela Pickard, Canterbury Christ Church University

38

Tights, Camera, Action!

By Elmhurst Ballet School’s Denise Whiteman

40

Social Prescribing and Dance

By Arts Council England’s John McMahon

42

Keep Moving and Dance On

By Yorkshire Dance’s Hannah Robertshaw

44

Eating Disorders and Body Image Concerns in Dancers

By Accredited Practicing Dieticians Fumi Somehara and Shane Jeffrey

48

Preparing to Perform

By Head of Children and Young People’s Dance Laura Nicholson

50

Safeguarding and the Dance School Sector

By Dance School Safeguarding Working Group’s Peter Flew

The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 17

Feature Interview

Speaking, Listening, Resetting, Healing The events of 2020 brought the conversation on inclusivity and diversity firmly into the spotlight, including in the dance sector. Amanda Parker is Founder of Inc Arts, which campaigns for greater inclusion in the arts.

She speaks to Chief Executive Andrew Hurst on the recent anti-racist work she and others have undertaken, the next steps for dance, and how we can all make meaningful change.

Amanda Parker Founder of Inc Arts

Photo: Inc Arts

“Despite the wide disparity of where we start, of knowledge and understanding of the issues and what we can do, there’s been a huge appetite to learn and change and that’s been amazing.”

Amanda Parker 18 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

In the previous issue of One, you detailed how those working in the arts from ethnically diverse backgrounds have been impacted by the pandemic, both from a health perspective and how it has impacted the sector. As we rebuild, how can we make sure that their needs and those of the sector are prioritised?

As a sector we need to prioritise two things: we need to think carefully about what we value and what we consider to be quality, and at what cost quality and value comes. I don’t think that you can have something that can be high quality if the process of creating it is harmful.

Value and quality - how we value the work we create and the people who make it - have to be one and the same with care. If we frame everything within that, that care and quality are integrated and integral, then we would naturally give budget provision ensuring we have processes and systems in place to provide that care, in the pursuit of quality. More succinctly, I think we need to ensure that uppermost in our considerations of creativity are putting aside budget for making the process kind, welcoming and harm free.

So budgeting is important. I think from that comes the natural requirement of measuring and monitoring. It’s such a truism to say “what’s not measured isn’t counted, isn’t valued”, but it’s very true. It’s making sure we have a robust means of measuring what we do.

I think the last part of how we make sure needs are prioritised is to create a means by which people can give voice to when situations are not working

for them, without suspicion, without fear; with confidence that action will be taken as a result of it.

Those are the priorities: measuring it, putting budget to it and making sure there is a means for individuals to not just call out behaviours but to have action taken.

Late last year, your organisation, Inc Arts, partnered with One Dance UK, Society of London Theatre, UK Theatre and others on a series of online conference sessions Speak - Listen - Reset - Heal. It was heartening to see leaders from hundreds of UK performing arts organisations actively engaging in the issues in a safe space to share perspectives, educate and commit to implementing change. What were some of the key positives you took from the process?

What I took from the process is the huge disparity in understanding of where we are as a sector. There are real harms we have done to people who have experienced racism, and others who have protected characteristics, as result of their lived experience. There’s been very little diffidence; there is fear, there is anxiety. It’s understandable: there’s fear and anxiety in all areas of conversation where change is required.

The appetite for change and passion for true allyship has been really exciting.

We have seen many advocates from nondiverse backgrounds who have helped support their colleagues and peers to reach greater understanding. Many have rallied, reassured and persuaded people to engage with and trust in the process and commit to a process of change.

Feature Interview

I also want to give gratitude to those leaders who felt that this wasn’t for them. They have reconsidered and reconfigured their own practices to make their places of work anti-racist. I really give absolute credit to those people diving into their own hearts, even in areas where it is difficult to acknowledge one’s own part in causing harm.

What are some of the actions identified in the sessions which our readers can implement in their own practice to bring antiracist change to their own organisations or work?

I think the most significant one is to break the habit of a lifetime which is “the show must go on” mentality. This approach implies that the show must go on at all costs. It leaves behind and runs over individuals who are not able to make the show go on, irrespective of cost. So I’d say we should revert to an approach that has more care and heart.

We can all help create a welcoming atmosphere in our places of work.

That includes with freelancers, front of house and contracted staff, and understanding how our audiences or students behave differently in our spaces. We can ensure that the venues and partners we work with also adhere to anti-racist practices. We can encourage senior management to buddy with new staff. We can do radical things like job shares across organisations so that we cross-pollinate

practice and diversity in its truest sense across the sector.

The other big action is we should have mental health provision for the staff and the freelancers who work with us. Having therapists and counsellors available links back to the reporting mechanism but is also important testimony bearing or witnessing, particularly when productions deal with challenging experiences or content.

In February, we shared with the sector an accountability model which gives organisations specific and measurable actions for change. We’d love organisations to sign up because it would give a very clear structure for all organisations, irrespective of artform and size, of what actions people can do to make workplaces more welcoming, kind and inclusive.

All of those actions for change come with a hefty proviso. The actions are a guide. Only the individual can account for the change in hearts, minds and feelings and approach to others. There are some actions that require resources, some that require senior leadership and others still that just require a commitment and the ‘doing of’.

What positive change have you seen within the dance sector?

I’ve always thought that dancers in particular have a very high regard for care, due to the physical nature of their work and the respectful collaboration that so often takes place. And so, the

caring approach to this work has been very encouraging.

Another exciting change, which will come as no surprise to dancers, is the risk for experimentation. We’ve seen an increased appetite for experimentation, not knowing what the end result will be while still being engaged to that process, irrespective of outcome. I think that is very inclusive and kind.

What are some of the values that can give us the strength to drive this important work forward?

Remember to take care. Let’s all remember last summer, let’s all remember when this is all over what is has been like for the people who are marginalised already, who have seen their struggle increase tenfold. Let’s keep those people uppermost in our minds because that’s when we can start from an inclusive place. Who else isn’t here?

How can I help? What can I give?

It’s important to imagine the beautiful future. I think of a future where we can be free to realise our goals, using imagination without hierarchy, without priority with what rests in what’s gone before rather than what is needed. I think that’s all very exciting.

Further information incarts.co.uk

Photo: Foteini Christofilopoulou

Compagnie Danse Nyata Nyata in Zab Moboungou's Mozongi at Re:generationsInternational Conference, Salford Lowry 2019

The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 19

Diversity or Skin Colour

Special Focus on Re:imagination

With the way we communicate leaping further online, Greta Mendez MBE asks the question: are we embracing this opportunity to discover and celebrate more diverse international styles?

Greta Mendez MBE

Photo: Greta Mendez

“If dance is to have a wider impact, it must take itself out of the narrow confines of what constitutes excellence in dance and must express itself in the language(s) of its society.”

Greta Mendez MBE 20 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

For the past eleven months, we have lived mostly in a state of lockdown with very little direct human contact.

This has meant that most of our art exchanges and consumption have been via the internet, which has afforded us a more international reach. Has this international reach meant that we were exposed to a truly diverse range of art/dance forms? Have we only engaged with dance forms that catered to Western notions of dance, peppered with a few African and Asian aesthetics?

If we examine most of the images used to promote dance, we would note that they, in the main, pander to Western ideals.

Lockdown gave me time to look at videos of young children, mostly in Africa, doing their dances; children who are not yet exposed to Western notions of dance. The children’s dance vocabulary was complex and dynamic, with the movements emanating out of their bodies in a multifaceted, witty, energetic, joyous, and soulful vocabulary. In fact, they were the dance and the dance was them.

An eleven-year-old boy, Anthony Madu, was filmed doing ballet training in his backyard in the rain in Lagos, Nigeria. Needless to say he, like so many of the other children, wanted to be a ‘dancer.’ This video was shown on worldwide news, and the actress Cynthia Erivo, who is also Nigerian, introduced him to the prestigious American Ballet Theatre where he has earned a scholarship; brilliant. There were no such global clarion calls for the children doing their dance, with new and challenging dance vocabularies.

As we open up to increasingly international engagement, are we in danger of maintaining the inherent hierarchal structures? Or are we willing to embrace other forms of art/dance on their own terms and value?

Published in 1976, Naseem Khan wrote a report entitled, The Arts Britain Ignores. It drew attention to arts and cultural activities being undertaken by Britain’s Asian and African/Caribbean communities as being integral to British culture. For a while, works which emerged out of these cultures were given mainstream platforms, but more recently they have been pushed to the margins.

Can dance heal the world? Yes, it can, if people are allowed to dance their dance to unearth their inherent unique richness and create works which speak to and about society’s dreams, pain and hallelujahs, and for these dances to be celebrated at the highest level.

Currently dance in the mainstream is not diverse; skin colour is not a reflection of diversity. In this globalised world and despite us having an international outreach via Zoom, the language of dance, on the whole in the mainstream, maintains the narrow, colonised structures.

“Dance the Guns to Silence.”

Ken Sawo-Wiwa.

Further information Greta Mendez MBE is a performance artist, carnival producer and dance and drama producer, director and educator.

She has performed and created works for the Royal Opera House, National Theatre, and created award-winning work on stages and screens worldwide. gmendez-owd.co.uk

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Matters of Diversity

Special Focus on Re:imagination

Subathra Subramaniam is Artistic Director and Joint Chief Executive Officer of Akademi. She looks at how the vital shift in conversation around diversity has impacted the South Asian dance sector, and offers an opportunity to implement lasting change.

Akademi Associates British Museum May 2019

Photos:Left: Quentin Cooper; Right: Vipul Sangoi

Subathra Subramaniam Artistic Director and Joint CEO, Akademi Black lives matter. We knew, we know, we shall continue to know. But the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is truly a movement in that it has challenged, shifted perspectives and changed trajectories. It has helped reposition and regroup scattered marginalised voices, art forms and communities so they can come together on common ground, combining and coalescing to tackle mutually held frustrations and achieve mutually held ambitions.

That includes combatting the many forms and shades of racism that continue to dwell within our own communities. From individual to interpersonal to institutional. As Audre Lorde said, “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live singleissue lives.” That was in her address Learning from the 60s which she delivered at Harvard in 1982. The 60s, the 80s, now: for all that learning, it’s been another half-century of too-slow progress. Of no solution, no revolution and precious little evolution.

But now – right now – we have an opportunity to not just change things, but to change the pace of change.

Intersectionality is key to this. Yes, it’s been an ever more popular buzzword ever since its recent escape from sociology to wider society. It’s also a call to ditch the fractious fragmented failings of the past and to look more holistically at societal shortcomings – in particular how racism infiltrates and operates.

When I first joined the National Dance Network (NDN), I was the only person of colour who was part of it. All that connectivity and just me. Now the NDN is, slightly, more representative of the wider sector. But is it, and the various organisations it spans, any more representative of the world we live in?

Most are acutely aware that the sector needs radical change. Change in response to the ongoing pandemic as well

as the injustices that the BLM movement has brought to the front of our thinking.

More in-depth engagement with artists in the form of conversations. More listening. More inclusion in decision making. And all of this needs not just to be initiated – as it has been – but to be normalised. Programming also has to change. More discussions need to take place between artists and venues about what they mutually need to take different dance forms to communities and engage with audiences, and of course these discussions need communities at the core.

Artists have started to shift the way they use language to articulate their work, artforms and to discuss some of the injustices that exist in our society. Through their work today, South Asian artists are tackling some of the injustices and polemic issues that we face; some in subtle ways and others more directly.

It has been wonderful to see more South Asian artists at the heart of discussions around social injustice, marginalised voices and radical changes that are needed in the arts. The South Asian dance sector is small but hugely nuanced. In order to provide possible career paths and to ensure the art forms continue to be a part of our society, we need to see more resources going to artists and organisations who have the capacity to facilitate this.

BLM has also made South Asian artists more acutely aware of the whiteness of the industry and we are demanding that our voices are heard and valued. We are asking more questions and tasking organisations to be accountable for the decisions they make. If we take a truly intersectional approach, we can do more than ask pertinent questions: we can deliver workable answers.

Further information akademi.co.uk The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 23

The Digital Light at the End of the Tunnel

Special Focus on Re:imagination

Pavilion Dance South West’s focus on digital is now a core part of its programming

“We’re playing with the idea of local uniqueness and content that’s available all over the world.”

Lizzy Maries

Photo: PDSW

PDSW presented #GOGGLEDANCE, an interactive community dance experience, in partnership with Wayne Parsons' VOXED

24 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

As one of the nation’s leading dance venues outside London, Pavilion Dance South West (PDSW) have pushed the boundaries of what’s possible in the digital sphere. They have explored new ways to give audiences an opportunity to engage with dance at home, to connect to new communities and to beat online fatigue.

In less than a year, PDSW have quickly adapted and provided over 45 live Zoom dance classes; 15 different styles of dance classes free to view on YouTube; 10 online workshops; a five-part podcast series; a month-long dance and technology forum; and 39 streamable performances, being among the first to offer free to view dance premieres in the initial lockdown.

They have invested heavily in creating a broad digital programme that provides their audiences with tailored content and are utilising the latest digital technology with the integration of Google Maps into their fundraising

campaign. Although they have not been able to generate an income since March 2020, PDSW remain committed to making their performances paywhat-you-can to ensure their work can be accessed by the widest audience possible in these difficult times.

Despite the building being closed since March, PDSW have been working on developing and refining their digital output. They’ve responded to the audience’s online needs during lockdown by creating a digital programme that can reach all ages and interests. This includes closed captions and audio descriptions to make their online presence accessible to everyone.

They intend to curate a unique digital programme to sit alongside the live programme from now on, and continue to explore how to make it a sustainable income stream for their organisation and professional artists.

Further information pdsw.org.uk

Special Focus on Re:imagination Second Hand Dance's Night Tree

No Looking Back Lizzy Maries, Digital Producer at PDSW, details how they have transformed their digital output

Photos: Left: Red Manhatten; Right: Foteini Christofilopoulou

Lizzy Maries, Digital Producer at PDSW Digitally - if everyone's been evacuated from the ‘old’ world, we don't want to be the people living out of our suitcase and biding our time until we can ‘go back’. We want to be setting up shop in the new world and cultivating a creative community there – and part of that is being really conscious about which parts we invite back in and which we re-make and with whom.

If something was a barrier before, or inaccessible to a group of people, well now is the time to redesign that.

We’ve learnt lots, fast, about digital retention and what’s appealing. When audiences can watch Hamilton on demand for £6.99, you have to really think about who you are digitally and what you bring to the space – and why people would come to you. Making money is very, very tough.

Looking after artists is more important than ever. We’re all negotiating new Covid clauses in contracts and new ways of working

together. One of the PDSW values is kindness, and it’s important that creatively and practically, where we can, we lead with that.

In 2021 we’re experimenting with synesthesia and dance, offering certain works to experience with a certain taste or smell delivered to your home.

There’s so much potential here for collaboration between dance artists and local makers.

In February half term we offered a ‘living room woodland adventure’ where audiences can watch Night Tree

by Second Hand Dance and cut out leaves to scatter around them as they watch, take a live dance workshop with the characters and (if they live in Bournemouth) order a ‘woodland picnic’ of hot chocolate and brownies to their door from a local independent food company.

We have a freelance Digital Creative role which will start with us this spring, and that will see us work in

a new way with a digital artist. They might be a digital dance specialist, a UX designer, or technologist. We’re excited about the person bringing their practice in to work with us, and influence our digital strategy.

Digital programming is here to stay.

We know we have audiences who experience barriers to coming to the venue in-person, before and beyond COVID-19. Live performances at 7pm will always be hugely loved, but digital programming can be a great leveller – available to a new parent who needs to be at home with a baby, or to someone living with anxiety for example.

What we need to consider, as producers and programmers, is who digital keeps out and why. Who does not have strong internet connection in rural Dorset – is there something we can post them? Does our digital work offer closed captions? BSL? Audio description? That’s our task.

The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 25

Taking a Live Show Into The Digital Space

Special Focus on Re:imagination

Ella Mesma, PDSW Artist in Residence 2020, comments on looking afresh at research & development work on Papyllon, produced with PDSW. “The digital aspect made me feel even more like an artist because I was able to reach an audience in a new space for me, a digital space.”

Ella Mesma

Ella Mesma

Photos: Left: Samia Khatun Your Pixels Pro; Right: Ella Mesma

Ella Mesma's Papyllon at PDSW, 2020

As company in residence, it was a delight to be invited to create a research & development (R&D) work of Papyllon at PDSW. Papyllon is a solo using dance and silks in which I explored my identity and my ‘not belonging’ belief. I was invited to perform, create and also live stream the work in October, and was accompanied by an interview by Zannah Chisholm, PDSW's Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer.

I absolutely loved being able to work with the tech to make this into an as-live event. It was really 26 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

cool to realise that this allowed for different types of filming, to have the videographer film under me when I was on the silks, to reimagine how we filmed, and to be able to reach a global audience: I even invited a friend in Brazil to watch!

Most of all, it was really special, during this pandemic, to be able to get into the studio again. As an aerialist in Covid times, keeping fit and strong at home is challenging, to dance and move in the studio was such a gift! It was a joy to be around the team… to be creative, to feel like an artist again.

It was a delight to be able to share, to create, to shine, and to reach people across the world: to not let the pandemic get in the way of making art from the heart!

We reinterpreted the work by inviting Caroline Burns to audio describe the performance. Caroline is an extremely thoughtful and attentive human, and the care with which she described the work actually made it feel like a new piece. I absolutely loved being able to discover new ways to make the work accessible in these different times.

Special Focus on Re:imagination

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The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 27

Dance: Special Focus on Re:imagination

On Demand?

Dance has moved increasingly to digital media, influencing the way we teach, create and perform. One Editor Cameron Ball talks to English National Ballet’s Director of Marketing and Communications, Heather Clark Charrington, and Head of Digital, Daniel Alicandro, to find out more about its innovative online platform and this new stage for the company.

On demand is in demand: according to Ofcom, 12 million of us in the UK joined a new streaming service last year, with overall screen time up by a third. The reopening of theatres has stop-started, and while nothing can match the thrill of a live performance, digital dance content is firmly here to stay. The hunger for the escapism that dance and theatre can provide remains huge. Andrew Lloyd Webber hosted The Phantom of the Opera as part of his The Shows Must Go On! YouTube series, which attracted 12.7 million viewers. Dance companies large and small have been sharing works online like never before, both from the archive and direct-to-digital.

This digital revolution is not confined to performance.

An entire workforce of freelance dancers, plus vast numbers of occasional class-goers, are in need of quality training and inspiration during lockdown. This has given rise to a number of online tuition platforms and apps.

English National Ballet (ENB) have been leaders in keeping the nation engaged with dance. During the first lockdown, they shared a huge array of free archive performances and classes. Free ballet classes with the company’s Artistic Director Tamara Rojo CBE and others, taught from home and the studio, had over 4 million views. More recently, they have launched a video on-demand platform with ENB at Home.

This foray into the subscription-based digital realm offers the company’s ballet performances and training to consume at home. There are two main elements: Ballet on Demand and BalletActive. Ballet on Demand offers popular full-length ballets, documentaries and short films - each available to rent for three days for a small fee. This includes five new dance films, created specifically for digital consumption during 2020 in collaboration between choreographers and filmmakers.

28 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

BalletActive hosts a wide variety of on demand ballet-based classes for all levels and abilities. They cover everything from the fundamentals of ballet and contemporary dance, to advanced level classes and strength and conditioning sessions to complement ballet practice. The classes are presented

by Tamara Rojo, ENB Ballet Masters and Mistresses, ENB Dancers, as well as guest artists.

The idea for ENB at Home was formulating before COVID-19 upended the dance and theatre industry.

Heather Clark Charrington, Director of Marketing and Communications at the company, explains that they brought forward and enhanced the original idea as a priority in response to the pandemic. “We knew that our dancers, and other dancers around the world, would need to continue with class in some way, but that also our audiences would want to stay engaged, active and inspired during this time of uncertainty.”

Setting the platform up was no small undertaking for Head of Digital Daniel Alicandro and his team. “The turnaround from conception to launch was just a few months. This included planning, filming and editing the digital season of five new

“We have been able to invest in the creation of new material to make the offer feel fresh, rather than solely relying on material from the company archive.”

Daniel Alicandro, Head of Digital, English National Ballet

Photos: Left: Take Five Blues; Top: Emma Hawes, Isaac Hernandez, Francesco Gabriele Frola and Alison-McWhinney in Senseless Kindness. Photo by English National Ballet; Bottom; ENB Ballet Active; Right: Tamara Rojo in Akram Khans Giselle. Photo by Laurent Liotardo

Special Focus on Re:imagination

short films, plus accompanying documentaries, and also the creation of over 100 hours of content for BalletActive. We had to quickly identify the right over-the-top provider, get to grips with a new platform and figure out new financial processes in order to manage sales in twelve different currencies.”

With currencies in mind, what does this different revenue model look like? How can other companies monetise this increasing digital influence? Alicandro is clear that this is in no way replacing the company’s traditional model. “We’ve a mixed model, with the platform supporting income from corporate sponsorship and major giving, as well as direct-to consumer sales which is working well for us and driving revenue. We’re also able to have a more direct relationship with our customers, which, as a touring organisation we don’t normally have the opportunity to, as the venues maintain the buyers’ data.”

For those looking to move their organisations further into the online realm, he advises that each company is unique and so should assess and present their content accordingly, and should be mindful of rights clearances and other potential hurdles. “There are lots of ways to think about monetisation without setting up your own platform, whether premiering content on YouTube and driving donations, or looking for distribution through existing platforms.”

One key benefit of moving dance content online is accessibility, removing barriers such as geography. For ENB, around 50% of sales came from outside the UK, with the UK sales including areas they don’t traditionally reach on their tour schedule.

Clark Charrington says the live and digital elements can complement each other. “English National Ballet’s vision

has always been about bringing ballet to the widest possible audience, and digital content is certainly a wide-reaching medium in which to do that. So, with ENB at Home we have the potential to reach a wider audience than we ever could in an average year of touring or holding classes at our headquarters.”

Things are looking positive for the growing platform.

There are already over 120 classes available, and the team has found some of the more popular titles are not just the headline works such as Akram Khan’s Giselle, but also include behind the scenes documentaries. “The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are pleased and proud to have been able to develop this for our audiences, and to help us meet new fans too” says Clark Charrington.

What’s next? Alicandro gives us an insight: “We are regularly creating and adding content to our BalletActive platform and expanding to other dance disciplines, for example a brand-new Flamenco series is coming soon. The creation of ENB at Home brings a renewed focus on digital, and we look to continue to use and enhance the platform throughout 2021 and beyond.”

Further information Ballet on Demand 72hr rentals from £3.49, no subscription required ondemand.ballet.org.uk Ballet Active 7-day free trial then £9.99 a month, cancel anytime; or £99.99 for an annual plan active.ballet.org.uk Win 1 of 3 digital passes to watch ENB at Home's Digital Season of films. See page 5 for details.

The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 29

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Harnessing the Power of Streaming to Generate Income

By Terry Corby, Chief Commercial Officer, Creative Industries Federation.

Treasure Island at Exeter Northcott Theatre

Photos: Left: CIF; Right: Mark Dawson

Terry Corby Chief Commercial Officer Industries Federation

Across all parts of the creative sector, organisations and individuals are seeking out new business models as they readapt to ever-changing tiers of restrictions.

The pandemic has seen many of our brilliant creative professionals out of work, with an uncertain future ahead. Sadly, live performances and events that rely on physical footfall aren’t recovering fast. We have only recently seen the cancellation of Glastonbury for a second year, and our dance companies are continually reprogramming their seasons.

In Spring 2020, the National Theatre was able to generate donations through their digital NT Live platform that helped reach global audiences, while generating significant income via donations.

This prompted us at the Federation to ask how we could help other creative organisations, regardless of their size or budget, to harness the power of global streaming to raise income.

30 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

“How can we enable creative organisations, regardless of their size or budget,to harness the power of global streaming to raise income?”

We started by teaming up with our members, YouTube and Little Dot Productions, to develop an Arts & Culture channel on YouTube called Perspective, with an incorporated fundraising tool to raise donations from around the globe. Since launch, the channel has attracted 73,000 subscribers, with millions of views across a broad range of content. This provided the basis for other lesserresourced organisations to do what the National Theatre did, without the need - or expense - of their own bespoke streaming platform.

The last year has proven the pay-perview model works. One example of an organisation who have enjoyed success, Exeter’s Northcott Theatre, filmed and streamed their Christmas show on Perspective, receiving over 12,000 views and over $4,000 in donations in one week. To put that in perspective (pardon the pun), they are seeing roughly 100 times more views than their own YouTube channel.

Across all sectors, the pandemic has sped up the rate of digitisation in businesses but with the right support, we hope we can help creative organisations to adapt and sustain themselves financially through the challenging months ahead.

Further information If you have content you would be keen to stream on Perspective, please contact Terry Corby, Chief Commercial Officer, Creative Industries Federation terry@creativeindustriesfederation.com Exeter Northcott Theatre exeternorthcott.co.uk

Mentoring Special Focus on Re:imagination

How professional connection and support can benefit you, by Kate Flatt OBE.

Kate Flatt OBE

Right: Choreographers and movement directors Anjali Mehra, Laura Dredger, Malgorzata Dzierzon and others take part in a Doorway Project workshop at the Young Vic

Mentorship is a two-way process via a negotiated scheme of meetings, with the mentor attending rehearsals and giving feedback. This process will support the artist in the studio to: • Work productively with their Mentor was a real person, recorded in performers Homer’s Odyssey, who tutored a young • N avigate the context of a project, new prince to become the future king. work or commission •R einforce skills and craft needed and A choreographic mentor works with find their own solutions to problems all dance forms, races and genders, •T rust their own intuitive instincts handing on insight to further the towards authenticity work of an individual artist. They offer wisdom of experience as a Approaching a mentor catalyst towards development of Creating a scheme with a mentor the choreographer, accompanying includes an initial discussion to see if the them via support, interrogation and mentor is the right person for you and provocation. They provide a ‘safe identify a time frame. Introduce yourself place’ for nurturing, by helping an with a sample of recent work, CV and artist to value their creative practice brief outline of your project. Establish and act as ‘an outside eye’ in order to: the hourly or daily rate and the number •E stablish their choreographic of sessions required, and an overall time identity frame for a joint letter of agreement.

•D evelop strategies or ideas in There can be a negotiable tariff of creating material mentoring costs which can be supported •U nderstand collaborative practice, by a scheme, an organisation or become in theatre choreography or part of a funding application. A mentor movement direction may not offer work opportunities, nor •F ind a way forward, towards obtain funding but can help you focus ‘what next?’ ideas toward pitching or an application.

Photos: Left: Oliver Lamford; Right: The Doorway Project

“Mentoring is a fundamental form of human development where one person invests time, energy and personal know-how in assisting the growth and ability of another person.” 1

Mentoring or Coaching?

A debate exists around the difference between the two approaches. Very briefly, coaching is concerned with career choices and personal development.

Mentoring is cconcerned with artistic skill development and may include aspects of career coaching.

As an emerging choreographer or arts leader, a mentor can help you to: •D evelop confidence in your own approach •F ind ways to challenge and possibly reboot your own thinking • See objectively what the audience will see in your work •F ind strategies towards new work and opportunities •R ecognise and believe in your strengths, talent and skills Further information 1 mentoringreece.com/why-mentor-who-was-mentor Kate Flatt OBE is an established choreographer and movement director working nationally and internationally in dance, opera, theatre and film.

Kate leads the CPD intensive Doorway Project and in 2019 published Choreography - Creating and Developing Dance for Performance.

Kate’s mentoring approach: kateflatt.com/mentoring The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 31

Dance on Film: Find Your Creative Voice

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Dance is increasingly being created and performed for digital audiences. Stepping into this territory can seem daunting and unfamiliar. Dance filmmaker Jo Cork offers some practical tips for those looking at creating a piece of screendance of their own.

Jo Cork Dance exploded onto our screens in 2020 in a way screendance practitioners scarcely dared to hope for. The pandemic created a very particular space for larger audiences to discover screendance, and to understand that as a creator, it should be approached as more than documentation of live work - it is a hybrid art form in its own right.

It has hugely exciting possibilities and, in today’s digital culture, is very much on the rise.

While many screendance artists have honed their practice over several years, the cameras within our phones make it a very accessible form, and there are some key aspects that screendance newbies can consider in order to start exploring and creating…

Photo: Orestes Chouchoulas

“Ask yourself: What do you want your viewer to notice? What do you want them to feel? What do you want to draw attention to? What do the camera and choreography create together?”

Jo Cork 32 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

Choreography for camera This is a hybrid art form - consider the relationship between choreography and camera. Ask yourself: What do you want your viewer to notice? What do you want them to feel? What do you want to draw attention to? What do the camera and choreography create together?

Camerawork can entirely transform choreography! It can draw emphasis to tiny details, and give the viewer a sense of motion as a dancer remains still. It can fragment the body to focus on isolated movements or limbs, or make the viewer feel that they are approaching the dancer; there are endless options.

Location Just as you wouldn’t put unrelated scenery on stage with your work, don’t film in an unrelated location. Again, what do you want your viewer to notice? What do you want them to feel?

What do you want to draw attention to?

How does that work in the studio?

One of the most compelling features of screendance is that it gives us, as, makers, control over physics! Suddenly, we can switch viewpoints, slow down, speed up, defy gravity, switch between past and present, or teleport to another location - we are liberated to escape all those restrictions we are beholden to in making live work.

And so, you need to get to know your choreography from all angles.Walk around it; don’t view it from the front that makes sense for stage work, but not here. Take test shots. Use your hands to blinker your vision and test what it’s like when you see just the feet here, or just the turning of the torso there.

Permissions If filming outdoors, you may need to gain permission from the land owner or local council. In fear of rejection, it can be tempting to film without asking.

No matter how you film, every shoot requires some risk assessment. The safety of the public and your performers is paramount, so listen to local guidance.

What can a location offer that serves those aims?

Perhaps it’s the decaying nature of a derelict barn, the historical/social significance of a marketplace or public square,or the sense of comfort and safety of a cosy living room strewn with family photos.

Delivering your concept Using non-dance images can be useful to give your audience chance to absorb what they have just seen, to breathe and reset before a new scene, or to highlight important themes. All of that imagery in our head when we choreograph - if filmed and used carefully - can ensure

Special Focus on Re:imagination

Jo Cork

your ideas land with your viewers. A clock ticking, scissors cutting a thread, mud-smeared shoes…

Photos: Left: Zbigniew Kotkiewics; Right: Jo Cork Dance and Digital

Lighting If you are using theatre grade lighting, always review how it’s looking on camera. You may find you need to lift the levels slightly on the lighting desk.

Avoid fluorescent lights as they result in a flickering, due to their particular frequency of light and its compatibility with the camera. Reflector panels can be used to direct/disperse light.

Weather If you’re outdoors, overcast days are often best - the consistent cloud makes continuity easier to handle. Changing light can cause issues - sometimes you can adjust this in post-production, but aim to capture the footage as you want it to be. Being dependent on post-production fixes is risky and has the potential to be heart breaking if something doesn’t work.

Score/Music Broadly: Have the rights to your score!

Making sure you have the rights Seek permission from the song writer/ publisher (which may incur a fee), use copyright free music, or develop an original score - try your hand at sound

Ranjani Māla Divya Kasturi Company 2020

design or work with a composer.

Not having permissions will limit where you can have your work seen.

Film festivals require you to have music rights secured, and algorithms on online platforms usually detect existing music and prevent upload or visibility. One Dance UK have generated a really useful document regarding acquiring rights – a link is at the bottom of this article.

images with small adjustments to exposure or saturation.

Choreographing ‘in the edit’ Be mindful that choreography continues in the film’s edit. Accelerating rhythmical cuts will often generate a sense of pace, excitement or anticipation.

A close up will give minute movement significant meaning. If you are a choreographer, you’ll quickly see the Working with a composer parallels in construction.

The score will really affect how the Screendance, while being far from viewer interprets what they see, so new, is a constantly evolving form. collaborating with someone who There is no wrong. There is no right. As understands your artistic vision is really with anything, explore, make mistakes, important. Approach musicians whose and find unexpected successes - enjoy work you like on Soundcloud, or contact discovering what your creative voice a local university who could suggest looks like within this particular medium. current students/alumni.

Further information Editing Software Some user-friendly software: iMovie (iOS, free), VideoLeap (iOS and Android, free with in-app purchases), Microsoft Media Player (Windows), Final Cut Pro (Apple, paid for).

Post-production Fancy transitions and effects may be less useful than you first think. Ask yourself if the changes to your image are serving your artistic intention. Colouring is tricky, but a lot can be done to enhance

Jo Cork MA is an London based independent dance and film artist, exploring the human condition and our experiences to create her work. Jo has recently collaborated with ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company, The Place/LCDS, Divya Kasturi Company and is a Member Artist at Chisenhale Dance Space and a Studio Wayne McGregor QuestLab Artist. In 2021, she will be working with stage, television and film choreographer Anthony Van Laast and director Roman Green to develop independent dance film, Rebel Rebel.

jocorkdancedigi.com @jocorkdancedigi One Dance UK Filming Dance for Screen Webinar: bit.ly/3pmr3Gn Screen.Dance Film Festival Artist Presentation: bit.ly/2V45i05 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 33

Special Focus on Re:imagination

Investigating Professional Dancers with Russell Maliphant Dance Company

Photo: Courtesy A. Pickard

Experiences and perceptions of dancers’ body sense and potential

by Dr Angela Pickard, Canterbury Christ Church University.

Russell Maliphant’s teaching and choreographic practice is deeply informed by his knowledge of the body as experiential anatomy and physiology, applied to classical, contemporary and somatic dance vocabularies.

He says: “Dance techniques may draw on information from many different sources and dancers may Dr Angela Pickard approach these in different ways.

Canterbury Christ Church University For me, there are always aesthetic implications behind a practice or technique and, as a choreographer/ teacher, that gives me a clue as to the usefulness of an exercise, movement, or deepening body awareness.

“We all know the adage - if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it - and I absolutely agree with that, though Russell Maliphant Dance choreographically working with a Company (RMDC) is embarking group of dancers you may need to on a programme of research to share information to enable reaching a scientifically explore Russell’s certain aesthetic and quality to have a particular way of working and unity at times in a work - that requires the influence that this has on an understanding of the aesthetic dancers’ aesthetic performance implications of the deeper details of potential, health and career functioning and structure.” longevity.

Through his practice, Russell Bringing together researchers engages in thinking through the from different disciplines in the body, by drawing on his knowledge fields of dance education, dance of ‘body theories’, in particular science, health and the arts, the those related to fascia such as Tom research aims to provide valuable Myers’ Anatomy Trains and Rolfing insights that could contribute to: Structural Integration. Using this • Developing safe, enabling, knowledge with different dancers working environments for in different ways, Russell is able to professional dancers that will engage and enable each dancer’s body offer greater longevity in the potential to make technical, aesthetic profession and performance choices.

• A more optimised training of This first study for RMDC engaged professional dancers 8 company dancers, 3 male and 5 • Wider populations staying female, in semi-structured interviews, healthy and active through to explore approaches that Russell creative, physical practice has used to facilitate dancers’ that is kind and structurally understanding of their body and its integrating to the body potential.

34 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

The dancers that Russell works with often work with a range of choreographers and on a project basis. I was interested to find out: • What are the methods and processes that Russell uses to train, teach and enable each dancer’s body sense and potential?

• How is Russell’s knowledge of the body integrated into and applied in his practice?

• What are the experiences and perceptions of professional dancers working with Russell and the methods and processes he incorporates into his practice?

• Are dancers able to describe and give examples of how the processes and methods used in Russell’s creative practice facilitate optimisation of movement potential and choice?

• How is Russell’s dance/ movement language and aesthetic - characterised by flow and energy within his choreography - realised, using a safe, enabling environment for dancers?

Each of the extensive interviews was recorded and transcribed. This article gives a taster of some early findings.

One area of particular interest is body sense. Body sense, or awareness, can be viewed as a partnership between proprioception and kinaesthetic awareness/kinaesthesia which enables us to perceive location, movement and action. Proprioceptors are sensors in our muscles, joints and fascia that enable us to judge limb movements, their position and navigation within space, as well as the force and weight of movement.

Proprioception works in conjunction with and as a part of our sensorimotor system which both directs movement as well as monitors the consequences

Special Focus on Re:imagination

“If I can see the body working efficiently and fluidly - with ease and vibrancy, then there’s something going right.”

Russell Maliphant leading a class

Photos: Top: Dana Fouras; Right: Martin Collins

Russell Maliphant

of movement, resulting in adjustments, as well as knowledge of interactions with self and world through movement.

Kinaesthesia involves our muscle spindles and skin and joint receptors and can sense the smallest change in motion.

It is expected that professional dancers would have a highly tuned sense of their own movement and of the position of their bodies in space, but this sense can be facilitated further to increase understanding, optimise potential and enable aesthetic choice.

Dancers' thoughts and feedback As one male dancer said: “Russell has helped me see myself from the inside out. I am more aware of tension, feelings, and sensations in my body more than I ever was before I started working with him. I am much more aware of how the body works.”

Furthermore, a female dancer discussed “how I can listen and hear my body and see small changes in mine and the bodies of the other dancers.

I have learned to invest time and be patient because when you unlock these sensations it’s like you have switched on a new sense. I am more powerful and have more flow to my movement....”

The ways that Russell creates an enabling studio environment to facilitate greater body sense, proprioception and kinesthesia, with the dancers, is important and will be explored further in the future.

One male dancer described the commitment of studio time as “helpful in offering time to concentrate and think about your own body development rather than just learning or creating choreography.”

“He brings his experience... and... understanding of the body to find the best method to help each dancer find the line or release. This could be visualising

anatomy trains or using garden canes under our feet. Russell makes you feel special and important and that what you bring to the studio is what he is looking for, but then together you find something different you didn’t know you had” (female dancer).

All the dancers interviewed were able to describe and give examples of how they have gained greater body awareness, sense and knowledge when working with Russell and his practice.

Here, the need to commit and engage patiently and deeply in a sometimes slow process of change was cited as “a rare opportunity to be appreciated” (female dancer).

The dancers described how they have had a positive experience when working with Russell and have felt a sense of ownership and partnership. The dancers also appreciated Russell's extensive knowledge of the body/'bodyworks' and gave examples where they have made aesthetic choices based on a feeling in the body and appreciated the freedom that they have here.

“It is holistic and organic training. You are thinking all the time until the new becomes habit, and you are stronger.

You’re able to notice, identify and use sensations in the body and apply knowledge of the body for efficiency and fluidity” (female dancer).

This first study within the RMDC research programme has begun an examination into methods and processes that Russell uses to train, teach and enable each dancer’s potential. More detailed findings will be disseminated and also inform further research into ‘training tomorrow’s contemporary dancers’ and ‘contemporary dance futures, career resilience and longevity’, in partnership with contemporary dance conservatoires, professional dancers, artistic directors and choreographers.

Grace Jabbari in Russell Maliphant's Silent Lines

Further information To follow the company’s research and other developments subscribe to receive news and updates: russellmaliphantdancecompany.com/research Russell Maliphant Dance Company is supported

by Arts Council England as one of their National Portfolio Organisations. Located in Suffolk, Ipswich, in residence at DanceEast.

The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 35

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Somatic Practice Rooted in Tradition One Dance UK’s Healthcare Practitioners Directory lists a variety of approved professionals who offer high quality care for dancers in a range of contexts. The directory has recently expanded to include somatic movement practitioners.

Dancers’ Health, Wellbeing and Performance Administrator Jessica Lowe talks to somatic movement therapist Sandra Golding about her career journey and the benefits of her practice.

Photo: Vanley Burke

Sandra Golding Somatic movement therapist

and completed an MA in Somatic Movement. Although I had never heard the term ‘somatic’ prior to being introduced to this Masters programme, I saw this as an opportunity for my personal development.

I embraced the somatic concepts, however I found this very disheartening because of the lack of acknowledgment to the African presence in the field. All being said, this academic environment allowed me to learn the therapeutic use, value and benefits of these theories for all communities.

By opening up to new ideas and venturing on a deeper journey of self-discovery, it is possible to achieve a greater sense of awareness of this embodied practice. Being grounded, becoming consciously conscious and sensitised to the subtle sensations of the body, with their movements improving physical integration and unique creative and artistic expression.

Tell us about a dancer that you have worked with, and how somatic movement education/practice helped them I have worked with an Irish/Welsh Tell us a bit about yourself and your What inspired your interest? dancer, a graduate in dance movement background in dance.

My initial interest began when therapy who is also experienced in I am an African holistic dance practitioner researching the origins of dances of my and a registered somatic movement cultural heritage.I developed a connection performing Middle Eastern, Hilal and African/Caribbean dance forms. educator and therapist. I was born to and an understanding of what Her instinctive inner voice told her to in Birmingham to loving Jamaican movement styles and spiritual practices continue exploring and embodying the parents and lived in a strong Caribbean influenced my embodied movement. community. Due to underlying health This experience had a positive impact on essence/spirit of African dance. This dancer felt a need to investigate an even issues as a child I was prescribed dance my personal development and growth. deeper connection within her dance lessons, which involved attending Most importantly, these encounters experience. community dance classes in ballet, tap have cultivated my desire to help others and modern dance, and this became my heal through the embodiment of African Instead of creating a fusion of African and Middle Eastern movements, she medicine. holistic dance. It is a culturally relevant was able to explore and embody the In my late teens I attended an African movement practice that promotes the dance workshop and I was exposed to natural integration of the body, rooted in African energy/root of all learnt dances. the rich culture and heritage of African African and Caribbean dance movement. She has gone on to teach her own classes and is able to culturally identify and and Caribbean dance. I felt a deep relate to movements of these diverse connection to the dance and rhythms Why is somatic movement communities. Through her experience of of the drums. My embodied experience education/practice useful for African holistic dance, she has developed through African and Caribbean dance dancers? a stronger feeling of empowerment as a began when I joined Kokuma Dance It offers a range of approaches and teacher and performer.

Theatre Company, who were pioneers of practices that teach its importance community dance theatre. through the integration and connection to various disciplines and Further information Sandra Golding What was your education like in therapeutic processes e.g., breath movingtubalance.co.uk somatic movement? work, deep listening, visualisation, I attended University of Central meditation, improvisation creativity, One Dance UK Healthcare Practitioners Directory Lancashire (UCLAN) in Preston onedanceuk.org/health-practitioners-directory ritual and spirituality.

36 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

Image by ASH Photography

Central School of Ballet

N E W H O M E N E W S TA R T NEW CENTR AL Look out for information about Central’s splendid new home, The Countess of Wessex Studios, part of the South Bank arts community in the London Borough of Southwark.

Find out more on Central’s new website centralschoolofballet.co.uk

Executive Director: Mark Osterfield Artistic Director: Christopher Marney Central School of Ballet The Countess of Wessex Studios 21/22 Hatfields Paris Garden London SE1 8DJ The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 37 Reg. Charity No. 285398, Company No. 1657717, VAT Reg. No. 305 6274 18.

Tights, Camera, Action!

Special Focus on Re:imagination

Training at an elite level and preparing for competition online,

by Denise Whiteman, Director of Dance, Elmhurst Ballet School.

Denise Whiteman, Director of Dance, Elmhurst Ballet School

Photo: Sabina Storrod

“With the nine hour time difference between the UK and Japan in mind,Elmhurst created a bespoke timetable to suit its students back home in East Asia.”

Denise Whiteman 38 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

Satsuki Ueda is from Nagoya in Japan and studies at Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham, and was the only dance student currently training in the UK to be selected for this year’s Prix de Lausanne. With COVID-19 closing dance studios and theatres around the globe, the international ballet competition moved online and as Elmhurst navigated its way through lockdowns one, two and three, Satsuki’s lessons alternated between on-site at school and virtually at home in Japan.

This resulted in a number of prompt adaptations to Satsuki’s tuition and training. So how did the seventeen year old Elmhurst student and Prix candidate prepare for the Video Edition of a competition that attracts some of the world’s elite dance students?

Over the last year, Elmhurst has opened, closed, reopened and closed its Edgbaston based school. Satsuki, with her peers and teachers, have become incredibly adept at dancing to camera as virtual timetables became a reality and enabled continuity in the delivery of the school’s training programme.

For Satsuki, one of Elmhurst’s 23 international students, each lockdown meant leaving Birmingham for Nagoya ahead of the school gates closing.

With support from her teachers in Birmingham (Michael Ho, Laëtitia

Lo Sardo and Lei Zhao) and in Japan (Saeko Wada for ballet, and Ryu Suzuki for contemporary dance) applying for Prix and training for a career in dance became a tale of two cities 6,000 miles apart.

“I miss everything about Elmhurst, especially the routine of school life, its busy and productive days,” said Satsuki. “Sometimes it is difficult to join every virtual lesson from Nagoya so the Elmhurst classes scheduled in to suit Japan Standard Time have helped me to maintain a really good level of fitness and stay connected with my teachers and friends.”

Each time Satsuki arrived back in Japan she had to quarantine for fourteen days, significantly reducing valuable time to prepare and film her video submissions for the competition.

Unable to access a large dance studio she made use of the time and watched self-tapes of practice footage and refined her acting skills for the solos to be performed and judged at the Prix.

Satsuki chose the Raymonda, Tableau du Rêve Act 1 solo for her classical ballet video submission. “In the pre-recorded excerpt, I wanted to highlight the love the protagonist Raymonda has for her fiancé.

I thought about how happy she must feel and so communicated these sentiments through my physical and facial expressions. I considered how the dance and details should be framed on camera

Special Focus on Re:imagination

Photo: Ryu Suzuki

Satsuki Ueda rehearsing a variation from Raymonda for Prix de Lausanne 2021

so they read on film,” said Satsuki.

During lockdown, and complementing Elmhurst’s virtual dance and academic timetables, all students continue to have online sessions with Dr Niko Kolokythas, the school’s Performance Enhancement Coach and, from early 2020, Elmhurst recruited Niall O'Carroll, a Performance Psychologist who works with the students and staff to look at issues around performance, anxiety and pressure.

This holistic approach, working in harmony with the traditional dance training, gives Satsuki (and her peers) the various coping mechanisms to become a confident, thinking dancer who is equipped with the psychological, physical and personal attributes required for classical ballet.

As an audience member I always feel cared for when I am watching Satsuki perform. Her fluidity of movement is accomplished for someone so young and her facial expression is striking.

These attributes were exaggerated for camera to ensure Satsuki’s technical skills and artistry came across on film.

Elmhurst students are no strangers to dancing to camera. There has been a shift towards our older students recording their own practice sessions to self-critique and talk through details with their teachers. Productions are recorded and watched back for notes and we invite guests into the school

who film for dance. There is a move towards more digital performances and we are keen that the Elmhurst student experience is relevant to developments in the wider sector.

Recently, Birmingham Royal Ballet Principal Brandon Lawrence and spoken word artist Davy Lazare met with all the students to discuss their collaborative film and dance project, BODIES. I am sure all these opportunities and more helped Satsuki as she thought about her own recordings for the Prix.

In light of working through a pandemic, it hasn’t all been plain sailing to get Satsuki to competing stage. With restrictions to online training it is extremely difficult to jump or do pointe work on a kitchen or carpeted floor! There were some concerns. Would Satsuki be physically on top form, especially as Prix’s baseline requirement is for excellent technique?

The main issues with online lessons are usually logistical. What do the students have access to as far as space, quality of Wi-Fi and equipment, for example, a dance floor or a ballet barre?

It’s not always a level playing field but what they have been benefitting from is constantly good teaching and a unified approach from all Elmhurst staff.

Virtual learning has meant students have had to think for themselves a

lot more, not being able to rely on a mirror or having the teacher there in person to always solve a problem for them. It’s helped our students to grasp a clearer understanding of the ballet vocabulary, the name of a step, why we do it and how it relates to a ballet and performance.

All proved to be very useful for Satsuki’s recent accomplishment. There is dance inside of Satsuki. It’s a jewel inside her heart. It’s a passion and a desire that has kept burning, regardless of a pandemic.

“Knowing my teachers and family are always there to support me and by imagining I was performing on a huge stage in front a big audience motivated me to perform at my best for the video submissions.”

Satsuki Ueda, Elmhurst Ballet School student and Prix de Lausanne candidate

Further information elmhurstballetschool.org prixdelausanne.org The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 39

Social Prescribing and Dance

Special Focus on Re:imagination

How can dance play a role in prescribed health and wellbeing support in our communities? Arts Council England’s Senior Manager, Policy and Research, John McMahon, gives an insight.

John McMahon Senior Manager, Policy and Research, Arts Council England

Photo: Courtesy of Britten Pears Arts

“A growing body of research demonstrates dance’s incredible potential to support both physical and mental health.”

John McMahon 40 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

Social prescribing is an expanding movement within healthcare, community engagement and public policy. The term describes the practice of referring patients to social activities and community support instead of or as a complement to more ‘conventional’ forms of medicine. This can include arts, sport and nature-based activities, as well as resources like financial and legal advice, and food banks.

It is more important than ever that we include social prescribing in our approach to community health and wellbeing, and dance can play a large part. We have seen that the threats to health and wellbeing presented by the COVID-19 pandemic span far beyond the effects of the virus itself.

The NHS, operating at full-tilt, has been less able to deliver treatments and procedures for a wide range of illnesses and conditions to timescales we’ve all previously taken for granted.

The mental health impacts have also been significant. The loneliness that the past year has created for many has all-toooften been accompanied by uncertainty, fear, anxiety or depression; compounding life traumas including bereavement and unemployment; and increases in addiction and domestic abuse.

Physical health has been hit by factors like confinement and boredom. Sleep has also been heavily disrupted. The enforced sedentarism of confinement

carries particular physical health risks for older people, or those with muscular illness or injury.

Social prescribing could offer part of the solution. Pioneers in the field like East London’s Bromley-by-Bow Centre have been modelling such practice since at least the 1980s – but understanding of, and support for, social prescribing in the UK has grown rapidly in recent years. The NHS England Long-Term Plan, published in January 2019, establishes social prescribing as a key area for development in healthcare. This includes a commitment to rapidly expand the number of link workers, a type of community health professional that assists individuals to develop personal wellbeing plans comprising local activities and support.

The aim is for 900,000 people a year to benefit from social prescribing by 2023/4.

In 2019, The National Academy for Social Prescribing was launched by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP. Last autumn, the Academy announced its Thriving Communities programme to unleash the power of social prescribing.

Thriving Communities is a support programme for voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise groups who are supporting communities impacted

by Covid-19 in England and working alongside social prescribing link workers, to share their learning, gain new ideas and develop partnerships across sectors. It is

Special Focus on Re:imagination

Photo: Andy Barker

First national Dance to Health conference

supported by the Thriving Communities Fund (administered by the Arts Council), which seeks to improve and increase social prescribing community activities.

Social prescribing link workers and community partners have played a vital role in supporting vulnerable people during the pandemic, through both socially distanced and online activities; maintaining contact with those who are shielding or otherwise isolated; and linking people to services like employment advice, food banks and grocery delivery.

There are many projects around the country – and a growing body of research – that demonstrate dance’s incredible potential to support both physical and mental health, including in the context of social prescribing. Public awareness of this power was boosted by Darcey Bussell’s 2018 BBC documentary, Dancing to Happiness.

The vital contribution of dance and other artforms to health and wellbeing is strongly framed in Let’s Create, Arts Council England’s 2020-2030 strategy, published last February. It’s not just the arts sector that recognises this healing potential, either; just last month, Sport England foregrounded the wellbeing benefits of dance in the launch of their own 10-year strategy (Uniting the Movement).

To give some examples - Aesop's Dance to Health is a dance-based falls

prevention programme for older people. It has a completion rate up to 42% higher than initiatives based on repetitive, less creative exercise, and in some locations has reduced hospital admissions by half. Organisations including People Dancing and English National Ballet have developed proven activities to support the wellbeing of people living with Parkinson’s. [Editor’s note: The Dance On programme, delivered by Yorkshire Dance in partnership with One Dance UK and others, reaches over 65’s and tackles inactivity. See overleaf for details].

During lockdown, these and many other organisations operating in this space have been reaching participants through online classes.

There are strong benefits for young people, too; the brilliant work of Manchester organisations Company Chameleon and 42nd Street to support young women living with mental ill health was movingly showcased in Bussell’s documentary. Meanwhile, a youth-focused 2019 research project

by Yorkshire Dance and the University of Leeds demonstrated clinically significant benefits in supporting participants to manage life stresses; improve physical health; develop personal and social confidence; build healthy peer relationships; and establish longer-term healthy life habits.

Social prescribing is often most strongly embodied through placebased partnerships involving multiple organisations as well as co-production with communities. The Point theatre in Eastleigh is one such example; they host a social prescribing link worker and have collaborated with local GPs and patients to develop a broad social prescribing offer including street dance.

Of course, the wellbeing benefits of dance, or the arts (and indeed physical activity) more generally, aren’t only of value to specific groups or individuals with an identified healthcare need. We can all keep healthier, happier, more engaged and inspired, and better connected, by finding and embracing activities that we enjoy, and that do us good.

If you’re a dance professional seeking to learn more about social prescribing, and/or to join the growing community of practice, please explore the below links to the Arts Council website, the National Academy for Social Prescribing, and the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance. If you’d like to know about how you yourself could benefit from social prescribing, a good first port of call is to ask your GP if there is a link worker that supports patients through your practice.

Further information artscouncil.org.uk/blog/getting-grips-socialprescribing socialprescribingacademy.org.uk/thrivingcommunities culturehealthandwellbeing.org.uk The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 41

Special Focus on Re:imagination

Keep Moving and Dance On How does the Dance On programme continue to tackle inactivity among Yorkshire’s older people when the traditional model was upended? Hannah Robertshaw, Programmes Director at Yorkshire Dance, explains the importance of maintaining a sense of community and connection, achieving the project’s aims in creative ways.

Hannah Robertshaw

Programmes Director, Yorkshire Dance

Photos: Left: Antony Dunn; Right: Sara Teresa

“As the whole group moved as one,I felt how present, together and connected we were,despite the digital distance.

I remembered how, at one time, some participants would not have relished this task, with its blurry parameters and lack of prescribed movement.In distance it seems some dancers have found a new freedom.”

Extract from Izzy Brittain’s blog Dancing the Solution 42 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

The pandemic has shifted many of the ways we work but the challenge of engaging over 300 older adults as part of Yorkshire Dance’s Dance On programme has been met with constantly evolving solutions.

From an initial digital audit, three weekly Zoom sessions and a monthly ‘masterclass and online social’ have emerged, creating an online community who not only motivate each other to move but provide critical social contact. Local artists are at the core of this work with guest artists providing brand new experiences in styles such as Vogueing, Bollywood, African and Burlesque. One artist even offered workshops on Christmas Day. When possible and aligned to restrictions lifting in the summer and early autumn, live sessions took place on doorsteps, in the street and in public parks.

Independent artist Janetta Maxwell at the Sikh Womens Group as part of Yorkshire Dance's Young At Arts programme

Our research partners at the University of Leeds have conducted a detailed evaluation which shows that the Dance On programme improves physical activity levels, perceived wellbeing, balance and mobility, and reduces fear of falling. Health Economics analysis also shows that the programme is cost effective. Further research is now being conducted to provide evidence for the feasibility of delivering online Dance On sessions.

The emphasis on care and social contact is a core value of Dance On. The pandemic has brought these values right to the foreground, recognising that in this incredibly difficult time, the most important thing is to look after each other.

Further information Dance On is a partnership programme, funded by Sport England, with One Dance UK, Yorkshire Dance, Darts (Doncaster Community Arts) and the University of Leeds. yorkshiredance.com/project/dance-on

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trinitylaban.ac.uk/study/dance/moveforward Photo: Chris Nash

The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 43

Special Focus on Re:imagination

Eating Disorders and Body Image Concerns in Dancers One in eight dancers experience eating disorders and this rate goes up to one in six for classical ballet dancers.

This is a shockingly high rate.

Accredited Practising Dieticians Fumi Somehara and Shane Jeffrey explore the do’s and don’ts for the prevention and early detection of eating disorders and low energy availability in dancers. They previously presented on the topic at the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) international conference in 2020.

Photos: Top: Courtesy DDD Centre for Recovery; Bottom: Courtesy River Oak Health

Fumi Somehara

Shane Jeffrey

44 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

Eating disorders Eating disorders are serious mental health illnesses characterised by an unhelpful preoccupation with eating, exercise and weight. Highlighting the serious nature of eating disorders, they are known to have the greatest mortality rate of all mental health illnesses, suggesting that the prevention and early detection of eating disorders is important. So where do dancers come into the picture?

In 2013 a group of researchers published a review of 33 studies analysing the rates of eating disorders in over 3000 dancers between 1966 and 2013. This review found the prevalence of eating disorders among dancers was 12.0%, rising to 16.4% among ballet dancers. Of particular note, the review found that dancers were three times more likely to develop a restrictive eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa when compared to non dancers.

Interestingly, an older study from 2005 found that ballet dancers attending highly competitive schools and preparing for a professional ballet career have higher incidences of eating disorders.

At this point it must also be said that there are many other factors that influence the development of an eating disorder, such as genetics, psychological and socio-cultural factors, and that many, many people participate in dance and ballet without being at a heightened risk of developing an eating disorder.

RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport) RED-S can be defined as a negative imbalance between energy input and energy output that results from low energy availability and is associated with impaired performance, health and wellbeing. Common signs of RED-s can include absence of menses, poor bone health, reduced immunity, low energy levels and poor concentration.

RED-s can occur in conjunction with or separate to disordered eating and eating disorders and is not always accompanied by food, weight, or body image concerns. This is an important distinguishment between the two presentations.

Facts on dancers' nutrition One of the top 5 factors to prevent injury in dance is adequate nutrition and rest. Despite this, the current status of dancer’s nutrition is such that; • 1 in 3 teenage dancers are at risk of iron deficiency • 1 in 3 teenage dancers engage in disordered eating behaviours (these are risk factors for developing an eating disorder) • Dancers with inadequate nutrition have higher incidences of injury • The most common nutrition that’s omitted by dancers is carbohydrate Dancers with inadequate nutrition have higher incidences of injury. To improve this situation, the authors have developed five fundamental steps for dancers to optimise their nutrition.

Special Focus on Re:imagination

Nutrition guidelines for dancers

1. Regular rhythm Just like in dance, rhythm is important in your eating too. Eating regularly means eating every 3-4hours and topping up fuel throughout the day. This prevents going into a state of low energy availability and RED-s and allows your body to dance at its best.

Benefits of regularity: • Improved digestion, gut function and metabolism • Stabilise blood sugar levels • Reduces the risk of binge eating • Topping up your energy reserves throughout the day Risks of not having regularity: • Inadequate energy status • Fatigue, lack of concentration • Reduced efficiency of digestion, gut functioning, blood sugar control & metabolism 2. Adequate energy and nutrition The body can only perform at its best when it has adequate fuel, a.k.a. energy.

Benefits of adequate nutrition: • Optimum bone and muscle health • Optimum performance • Optimum recovery Risks of not having adequate nutrition: • Greater risk of injuries • Greater risk of RED-S • Greater risk of eating disorders 3. Enjoy a variety of foods Benefits of variety: • Greater abundance of vitamins and minerals • Reduce dichotomous thinking

Risks of not hydrating enough: • Poor balance and concentration • Overheating • Dizziness 5. Optimise bone health Bone health is an important consideration in dance as the bones bear significant levels of mechanical stress. This, combined with the risk of inadequate nutrition and loss of menses means that dancers, despite regular movement, can be at risk of bone loss, especially during the teenage years.

Benefits of good bone health: • Prevention of osteopenia and osteoporosis • Reduced Injury Risk Risks of poor bone health: • Increased recovery time from bone injury • Largely irreversible bone damage Late menarche and/or irregular menstruation increases the risk of stress fractures in adulthood. The most common factor leading to later menarche in dancers is negative energy balance.

How can we help dancers?

An important initiative in the prevention of eating disorders and RED-s in dancers is the implementation of a screening and prevention. One screening tool that is both practical and easy to use is the ‘Eating disorder Screen for Primary care’ (or the ESP), a five question tool that can be useful for ruling out an eating disorder. In particular, the best individual questions from the ESP to ask somebody to rule out an eating disorder are: 1. Does your weight affect the way you feel about yourself?

2. Are you satisfied with your eating patterns?

A “no” to question 1 and a “yes” to question 2 has been shown to be an effective yard stick to ruling out an eating disorder or eating disorder risk.

In addition to screening tools, it is encouraged that dance schools work with suitably qualified health professionals to develop a protocol for nutrition and eating disorders management, that sits within a body positive dance culture.

Further information Shane Jeffrey Accredited Dietitian and Sports Dietitian, Australia riveroakhealth.com.au Fumi Somehara Accredited Practicing Dietitian, Australia. dddcfr.com.au One Dance UK’s Healthcare Practitioners Directory helps find dance dieticians in the UK: onedanceuk.org/health-practitioners-directory See an information sheet about RED-S and dancers written by Dr Nicky Keay: and about nutrition for dancers, written by Jasmine Challis: bit.ly/RED-SforDancers

Photo: Dani Bower for One Dance UK

Risks of not having a variety of foods: • Limited availability of certain nutrients • Greater risk of nutritional deficiencies

4. Hydrate well Adequate hydration is often overlooked in the area of nutrition and dance performance, however it remains an important consideration in both health and wellbeing - because just like a plant, our body needs adequate water.

Benefits of hydration: • Improved performance • Preventing fatigue • Preventing cramp

The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 45

Show Business

Special Focus on Re:imagination

Finding funding, seeking sponsorship and being a business by Fred Hopkins, Head of Membership and Business Development.

Fred Hopkins Head of Membership and Business Development

Karenza Doughty and Thomas Harden

Photos: Dani Bower for One Dance UK

Looking to the coming months and what we hope will be the recovery and rebuilding of our sector, seeking out new sources of income or venturing into the world of trusts and foundations, sponsorship and grants may well become a new normal for companies and freelancers who have never done so before.

What follows are some very basic guides to approaching these different sources of income that are aimed at helping you have the best chance of success: 1. Know your audience Regardless of who you are seeking to engage with to fund your next project, you need to know a little bit about them. An easy checklist you should run through before applying might include: • Do they regularly fund projects like yours?

• Do you understand their funding criteria?

• Do you know who you are writing to and what their role is?

46 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

4. Know how to speak to them Some funders or sponsors will respond very well to a more formal and technically worded approach. Others will find this hugely off-putting and would prefer a more personal, honest approach. By reading their websites, 2. Invest your time funding guidelines or speaking with Much as with applying for a job, them informally, you will be able to funders and sponsors will spot a copylearn what approach suits them best. pasted email or letter from a thousand Seeking out external funding or yards and likely consign it straight to the changing the way you approach it (or junk. While it might feel efficient to do who you approach) can be daunting twenty emails like this in a day, if not a if you have never done it before. Be single one gets read then ultimately you methodical, seek out other advice will not have achieved your goal. and support and work with your prospective funders to ensure that both 3. Load your dice your aims and theirs are met.

If you are working in a particular area of the sector then pick funders Further information or sponsors with an interest in the One Dance UK members can contact our work you are doing. Not only are Business Development team for advice on they more likely to understand your fundraising and sponsorship. work and be interested in it but there is an increased chance that you might For further training and resources, visit: artsfundraising.org.uk/programmes already have some connection to them creativeindustriesfederation.com - make use of that! theatremeansbusiness.info • Have they recently supported a project like yours run by someone else?

• Are you able to have an informal conversation with someone there about supporting your work?

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The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 47

Preparing to Perform Special Focus on Re:imagination

Laura Nicholson, Head of Children and Young People’s Dance, on successfully developing a measured return to performance in secondary education.

Dope Male Performance Company perform at U.Dance National Festival 2019, London

Photos: Left: Dani Bower for One Dance UK; Right: Brian Slater

Laura Nicholson Head of Children and Young People’s Dance

At One Dance UK we are lucky enough to regularly witness the magic and energy of children and young people taking part in dance performances. Our flagship U.Dance National Festival, which brings together young people from across the UK to perform, celebrate and learn about dance in a vibrant weekend each year, is nothing short of electric. We hear from participants about the ‘buzz’ and sense of euphoria they achieve from performing. There is something about the energy, creativity, and sheer passion in young people’s dance work that - for me – elevates it even beyond professional work!

During this most turbulent of years, we have heard repeatedly from our dance teacher colleagues working in secondary education about how much they miss working towards dance shows, festivals and productions – highlights on the academic calendar for the whole school community. For those teachers with students enrolled on a dance qualification at Key Stage 4 or 5 or who aspire to study dance at the next stage of their education, there may be a worry that they are not meeting the criteria or reaching their potential.

As we tentatively look towards a return to the studio and face-to-face learning, the desire to work towards shows and events and to help students to ‘catch up’ on performance skills will 48 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

understandably be strong. Effective planning and taking our time, however, are critical tools for a gradual and safe return to performance for our students.

“Dance holds a unique position in the educational curriculum as an art form and means of expression as well as a physical activity.”

Longer periods of inactivity may also have impacted students’ posture. Use of imagery – such as imagining a piece of string gently pulling the top of the head towards the ceiling - is a simple Physical or technical skills and powerful tool to help students A notable impact of the turbulence of focus on improving their posture. If the last year is the reduction in fitness learning remotely, with cameras on, levels and physical activity across students can easily check a partner’s society. Data from Sport England’s posture and when returning to the Active Lives Children Survey Coronavirus studio, mirrors (if you are lucky Report1 tells us that during summer enough to have them) will help 2020, when compared to the year students to monitor their own. before, there was a 2.3% drop in the Lesson planning should also focus number of students taking part in the on safe development of flexibility. recommended daily hour of physical Time away from training, coupled activity each day and a 1.9% increase in with the fact that flexibility fluctuates the number of children considered to be anyway in pubescent young people the ‘least active’, taking part in less than as their bodies develop, may lead 30 minutes of daily physical activity. to frustration for students. Further When working towards a return to resources on developing fitness in the studio and (eventually) the stage, it dancers can be found on One Dance is likely that students will not have the UK’s website2. same levels of stamina they had pre Even when a gradual return to pandemic. In some young dancers, this face-to-face teaching is possible, a may cause frustration. Coupled with the hybrid model with some remote excitement of returning to classes and learning taking place may be around rehearsals there may be a temptation to for a while yet. This provides an go “full out” and do too much too soon. opportunity to set specific exercises Lesson and rehearsal planning at home that focus on physical skills should include effective sequencing of or to signpost students to the wealth activities to respect students’ stamina of online technique classes led by levels and to include training that goes professional artists and companies. beyond the often ‘stop/start’ nature of Suggestions can be found in One dance classes.

Dance UK’s Remote Learning Pack3.

Special Focus on Re:imagination

Photos: Brian Slater

Drishti Dance perform at U.Dance National Festival 2018, Ipswich

Expressive or interpretive skills A well-rounded young performer also requires effective expressive or interpretive dance skills, such as projection, musicality, and sensitivity to other dancers in order to effectively communicate the mood and meaning of the dance to an audience.

These key skills are assessed in Key Stage 4 and 5 dance qualifications.

Working remotely in dance significantly diminishes the opportunity to make human connections directly between dancer and audience member. Dancers are tasked with communicating choreographic intent and drawing the audience into the dance, connecting with them, and making dance more than just a series of movements. This is certainly a challenge when your ‘audience’ is the other side of a screen – and even more so in some cases, when students do not have cameras on.

Using verbal cues and imagery can support our young learners to capture the mood, meaning and expression of a dance movement, transcending beyond the simple mechanics. “Lift your arm” may produce a very different response, for example, to “Float your arm up gently as though it is weightless”. Students might benefit from opportunities to rehearse those expressive qualities as discrete skills.

Choreographing the use of focus explicitly into taught routines and gradually increasing the size of the performance space and changes of direction/orientation are both ways of helping students return to form.

The difficulties of using music for dance classes delivered via Zoom and other platforms are well documented!

The gradual return to the studio provides opportunity for students to engage with a wide range of pieces of music, including those they may not ordinarily choose to listen or dance to, exploring their musicality through distinctive styles, cultures, moods and tempos.

Rehearsing and performing Dance is an inherently sociable activity, requiring physical, emotional, and creative connections with other people. Socialising is a skill that needs practice. Dancing in a group will take time to readjust to, as will the feeling of being exposed that can come with performing to an audience. As our students reacclimatise, remember that ‘performance’ can be low-key, through activities like sharing work-in-progress with a classmate.

A supportive performance environment can be established by giving clear parameters on what is expected of the audience and how feedback to performers is provided.

Students may take longer to retain movement material accurately and this should be factored into lesson planning and the pace of delivery, allowing additional time for consolidation.

Teaching students to use strategies like mental rehearsal can avoid the fatigue of physically repeating movements.

To motivate your students, consider opportunities for public performance - as a presentation to another class, in a school assembly or in the wider community.

This should be a high-quality, positive, and enriching experience. They should feel proud to perform and have a sense of ‘ownership’ over the piece, perhaps contributing to the choreographic process or at least having a sense of investment in the dance content. One Dance UK’s U.Dance network4 provides opportunities to perform at local, regional and national level.

With its many documented positive benefits for physical and mental wellbeing, and the sheer sense of joy it can bring, there has never been a better time to get the UK’s young people experiencing the power of dance!

Further information 1 Sport England’s Active Lives Children Survey Coronavirus Report bit.ly/ActiveLivesReport 2 One Dance UK Fitness and Strength Resources bit.ly/FitnessResources 3 One Dance UK Remote Learning Pack bit.ly/ODUKRemoteLearning 4 U.Dance network udancedigital.org/about The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 49

Special Focus on Re:imagination

Safeguarding and the Dance School Sector

Peter Flew, Director of the University of Roehampton’s School of Education, on the creation of a new safeguarding group for children and young people in out of school dance settings.

Participants in a class at U.Dance 2019

Photos: Left: David Tett; Right: Brian Slater

Peter Flew, Director of the University of Roehampton’s School of Education

As an experienced educator who is also a trustee at the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD), safeguarding is very important to me. Recent allegations of abuse at a vocational school were seen by the RAD as a ‘wake up call’ for the dance teaching profession and so I volunteered to bring together a number of interested parties to see what we could do to support better safeguarding practice in the sector.

The Dance School Safeguarding Working Group now contains members from major sector organisations including One Dance UK, the CDMT, the RAD, the IDTA and the ISTD. We also have current and former dance teachers, parents, safeguarding experts and education experts.

Within the group, we try and take a holistic view of the problems facing the sector, considering all possible ways to succeed while ensuring the focus remains on the needs of children. The group’s initial aim is that “Children who attend dance teaching in out-of-school settings in the UK are safe because settings follow good safeguarding practice.”

The initial focus of the group is education and the start of this project 50 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

coincided with the Department for Education publishing safeguarding protocols for out-of-school settings in England1.

Splitting our group into workstreams, we have one looking at the specific areas where children may be at risk when learning dance and competing in dance competitions, e.g. inappropriate touching, bullying, grooming and more. That collected knowledge will inform an awareness raising campaign for children, parents and teachers. We recognise that this awareness campaign will need funds for development and dissemination and we are currently searching for grants.

The second workstream is directly approaching those organisations which have dance schools and dance teachers as members, aiming to engage in an open conversation about safeguarding.

With over 40 such organisations in the UK, this large piece of work will commence during the spring of 2021.

This dual approach is very much a carrot-and-stick approach for the sector.

Organisations who need help can access experts in safeguarding, while the

envisaged improvement in awareness among children and parents should ensure that the plea for improved safeguarding cannot be ignored.

And after that? We have had calls to consider the needs of at-risk adults, we have been to asked to look into safeguarding in the vocational school sector, and we also want to work with international partners to broaden our impact.

I hope that all who have a love of dance will support us by engaging with our group and by supporting our awareness campaign. The latter is very much dependent on support for the creation of resources. Please get in touch if you can help!

Further information 1 gov.uk/government/collections/keepingchildren-safe-in-out-of-school-settings The Dance School Safeguarding Working Group dsswg.org.uk For advice and support on safeguarding issues affecting adults and young people at risk, please contact the Ann Craft Trust: anncrafttrust.org

Teacher Resource

CUT OUT AND KEEP

Key Stage 3: Exploring the professional work MADHEAD Resource written by Justine Reeve with edits by One Dance UK, in partnership with National Youth Dance Company.

This resource is adapted from One Dance UK’s MADHEAD scheme. The full scheme, with additional video clips of the work including warm ups led by choreographer Botis Seva, is available free to members on the One Dance UK website.

Introduction Led by Sadler’s Wells, National Youth Dance Company (NYDC) is England’s flagship youth dance company. Each year approximately 40 young dancers aged 16-19, or up to the age of 24 for deaf or disabled dancers come together to create and tour brand new dance work. The dancers come from across the country and from diverse training routes. Each year the company works with a new Guest Artistic Director who leads the company- giving them an insight into their own professional practice.

Whilst working with NYDC, London-born choreographer Botis Seva was inspired to create MADHEAD. Lesson objective Use repertoire and ideas from NYDC’s dance piece MADHEAD to inspire students and create choreography.

Starter Discussion around two questions: What is inspiration? What inspires you? Confirm the definition of inspiration in dance (an idea that motivates you to make something creative) and explain how this relates to ‘choreographic intention’ (the aim of the dance, what the choreographer aims to communicate).

Photo: MADHEAD NYDC Lead Image Portrait by Manuel Vason

Provide details of Seva’s inspiration and the intention behind the work: In creating this piece Botis Seva considered the things that he went through and had to deal with as a young person at school. He felt that these young people in NYDC were going through the same things. MADHEAD is about youth energy, about what they feel, truth in young people and trying to be heard. The theme of MADHEAD is youth’s right to be heard, touching on aggression, vulnerability, community and individuality.

Watch the MADHEAD trailer and identify where these themes can be seen: youtu.be/AU1rDX0zQ6M Alternatively students could view this specially commissioned short film, directed by Ben Williams, inspired by the full-length theatre work: youtu.be/XFnhReSE_LY

Designed to pull out and keep, we will offer fresh ideas for lesson plans for various Key Stages in each issue of One magazine.

For further resources and teacher information, go to onedanceuk.org

Teacher Resource

Warm up Explore jogging and skipping around the space in any direction to music. Use the rhythm of the music, picking out key accents to relate to, relaxing/shaking out the wrists, head, shoulders and arms. Progress to circling the arms whilst skipping. Move on to reach up and down, dropping the torso forwards on the downwards movement.

Combine the actions, stepping and dropping the torso forwards before releasing and circling the arms backwards.

You could progress to adding in commands to stay on the spot for a few counts springing from one leg to the other.

Suggested music: Exodus by Bob Marley Task 1 Learn a walking phrase from MADHEAD. Step 1 Start with the feet close together in parallel.

Step 2 Walk forwards through the feet taking small steps, rolling through thinking about the contact the feet are making.

Arms are out to the side as if you have a ball under each arm and chest is lifted, focus diagonally upwards. As you step the shoulders and body sway slightly.

Task 2 Develop the walking phrase in groups.

Step 1 – Walking phrase • In small groups students devise a walking pattern. For example: 4 walks forwards, 8 walks on the diagonal, 8 walks in a curved line or a circle.

• Challenge students to create a formation in their group and stay in the same shape whilst walking.

Step 2 – Using stillness • Find moments to be still together as a group within the walking pattern. For example: Be still for 4 counts after the first walks forwards, then 2 counts after the 8 walks on the diagonal.

Encourage your students to start simple and make sure they know what they are doing before adding complexity to their phrases.

Task 3 Creative challenge Create an 8-count solo phrase using the themes for MADHEAD, focusing on exploring actions that use grabbing and letting go. Allow students time to rehearse the phrase so that they can remember it.

Peer feedback In pairs, students show each other their eight-count phrase.

52 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

CUT OUT AND KEEP

Partner to provide feedback. Students continue to work in their pair devising another eight-count phrase, this time focusing on ‘powerful movement’. You could refer back to the trailer and identify movements that convey power before continuing with this task. Once students have created this movement, refer to it as the ‘Powerful Phrase’.

Task 4 Students rehearse the eight-count ‘Powerful Phrase’ either in pairs or individually.

Group challenge Returning to their groups from Task 2, students put together the ‘Walking Phrase’ (Task 2) with the ‘Powerful Phrase’.

Encourage them to consider how they could put the two phrases together to create a section of dance. Reinforce that that “anything goes” - there is no wrong or right answer!

Once the phrases are linked, allow students to rehearse in their groups to help them remember it and perform it accurately.

Task 5 (or extension task) Creative challenge To contrast with the ‘Powerful Phrase’ create a ‘Soft Phrase’.

Students improvise to create ‘soft’ movements with a partner. It may be useful to refer back to the trailer or for you to model some examples of ‘soft movement’ taken from the work. From their improvisations, students should select actions that they like and put these movements together to create a phrase of eight counts. Allow time for rehearsal and peer feedback. This will become the student’s ‘Soft Phrase.’

Plenary Share the work created with the rest of class. Students could share one, two or all of the phrases created. Questions to guide student feedback: • What worked well in each group, what could be better and why?

• How does the dance reflect the inspiration for MADHEAD? • What inspiration did you take from MADHEAD for your own work?

• What did you enjoy?

• What did you find challenging?

Cool down Reverse the process of the warm up: include ‘follow my leader’ stretches to calm music, stretching upwards with both arms, making a circle with the arms to the side and then bringing the torso forwards hands touching the floor, jogging, then walking slowly around the room.

Further information nydc.org.uk @nydcompany fromthenorm.com @FarFromTheNorm

Teacher Resource

CUT OUT AND KEEP

Key Stage 1 Primary Dance Spring into spring – dance in outdoor spaces

By Eve Murphy, founder of Dance to School

The key to delivering high quality curriculum primary dance lessons is involving pupils in the process of dance development, as well as the performance of dance ideas.

Simply put; involve children in the ‘how’ (dynamics), with ‘who’ (relationship) and ‘where’ (space), as well as just the ‘what’ (action).

Once we can get outside and enjoy the fresh air, this resource can be used to incorporate the outdoors into your lessons.

Here are five top Dance to School tips for curriculum dance delivery, with some practical examples to get your children moving. Included are some delivery ideas to help you to create your own dance scheme of work: 1. Make it theme related Choose a theme from your broader school curriculum to help reinforce and deepen existing learning in a practical setting.

Get your children to create a mind map of all the words that they can think of relating to your chosen theme. Spring words might include seeds, shoots, growth, grass, daffodils, snowdrops, sunshine, showers, rainbows.

The children can experiment with creating movements for the different words. The children can piece 3 or 4 actions together into a short motif. A motif is a set of actions that represent your theme. For quality, you may want to get the children to consider how they transition from one action to the next so that the actions flow nicely, rather than in a stop-start, abrupt nature.

2. Choreographic approaches Use different ways of creating ideas, not just a ‘copy me’ approach with the teacher at the front or a video playing for the children to copy.

A small group choreography task: Put the children into small groups and give each group a theme related object or item that you (or they) have collected. Using the spring theme; they could search the outdoor space to see if they can find seeds, leaves, flowers, blades of grass etc. Alternatively you could source items from home or in your local area and bring into school for the lesson.

Get the children to examine their item as a group. Can they look at it, feel it, describe it? Get them to think about the colours, the textures, the weight, the way it moves when dropped. How can all these things be translated into movements? For example, if a leaf floats gently side to side when dropped, can they create a gentle floating, swaying, movement to replicate this? These adjectives and adverbs link to the ‘how’ (dynamics) of a movement.

Now ask the pupils to work together in their group to create a 4 or 8 count movement that their item and discussion have inspired. Try to make sure they are displaying the appropriate dynamics that they discussed previously.

Perform these actions with the dynamics to the other groups. You then combine the actions that each small group has created into a short motif to be performed by the whole class in unison.

3. Use an inspiring stimulus.

A stimulus is something that a dance can be based on. Try to find pictures, poems, articles, videos or props related to your theme to spark pupil imagination and movement ideas.

Example: Spring Tiny green shoots pushing up through the ground, Crocuses, daffodils, dotted all around Blossoms bloom, green branches sway Spring is in the air and it’s here to stay

Written by Eve Murphy, Dance to School If you were to use a poem, begin by reading it aloud to the class.

Encourage your children to identify inspirational words and discuss how these could be translated into movements. Experiment with one word as a whole group to build confidence and share ideas.

Next, put your children into pairs and give each pair one of the words from the poem. Get the children to experiment and improvise with ideas with their partner, finding different ways that they can move relating to the word they have been given.

From this, ask the children to create a short, 16 – 32 count motif in pairs.

As an extra challenge, see if they can incorporate mirror image. This encourages the children to consider ‘who’ they are dancing with.

You could develop this idea with the children deciding how they perform this motif. For example, back to back, side by side, far away or close together.

The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 53

Teacher Resource

4. Consider the ‘where’ as well as the ‘what’ The ‘what’ in dance are the actions. Once children have created some theme related actions using the ideas above, get them to experiment with different levels, pathways and directions. This is the ‘where’ in dance.

This is a fantastic opportunity to make the most of the outdoors. Can your students take inspiration from the space they are in? What can they see? How can this be translated into interesting use of pathways, levels and directions of movement?

Examples: The weather: a breezy afternoon could inspire swirling, circular travelling pathways.

Nature: swaying trees could inspire changes in direction and moving from side to side.

Urban landscape: the different heights of surrounding buildings could inspire actions on a variety of changing levels.

5. Performance and appreciation Always provide opportunities for peer and selfevaluation during your lessons; this is part of the appreciation strand in a dance class. Performance and appreciation can happen at any time in the class, not necessarily at the end. Link the appreciation to your lesson objective.

Example: Create a simple checklist for children. You may choose to focus on any of the following: accurate timing, use of levels, direction, pathway, canon, unison, mirror image, good extension, good posture, control etc.

You could use a digital device to film performances at the end of each week to document progress and for the children to watch back in class.

Music suggestions Early Years: How’s the Weather? Super Simple Songs Key Stage 1: What a Beautiful Day The Levellers T Shirt Weather Circa Waves Young Chasers

Further information We would love to see some of your spring themed dance ideas so feel free to share any pictures or videos with us on Facebook or Twitter @onedanceuk @dancetoschool.

For further support, resources, and teacher CPD please visit www.dancetoschool.co.uk or contact eve@dancetoschool.co.uk 54 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

CUT OUT AND KEEP

Special Focus on Re:imagination

Performance Optimisation Packages (POP) One Dance UK’s Performance Optimisation Packages, otherwise known as “POP”, are a One Dance UK membership add-on, consisting of a Health Cash Plan with over £700 worth of benefits, and optional musculoskeletal screen.

POP is specifically designed to help maintain health, fitness, and optimum performance, and is a great way to build upon existing knowledge of your dancing body. POP serves to complement the existing specialist healthcare available through the National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science (NIDMS). Here’s what some POP experts and NIDMS partners have to say…

A word from our experts about screening:

Photos 1 & 2 : Dani Bower for One Dance UK, Photo 3 : Emma Redding

Matthew Wyon and Lauren Hewett at University of Wolverhampton Dance Science lab

“I’ve been involved in developing POP from the outset with colleagues at the other centres and One Dance UK. POP is about providing relevant, individualised and evidence-based information to dancers so that they can feel empowered and knowledgeable regarding their own development as artist-athletes. It has always been important that POP addresses the current needs of dancers no matter what style of dance they practice or what their previous experience might be.

This is why we are constantly reviewing and improving the methods we use to profile/screen dancers at each centre. While the screening will help dancers learn what their current physiological capacities are and how best to improve these, the cash plan ensures that if an injury is sustained, affordable and immediate treatment can be sought.”

Professor Emma Redding Head of Dance Science, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance

"POP gives us the opportunity of supporting dancers to achieve their goals and potential by providing them with individualised training and rehabilitation programmes based on the comprehensive POP screen. It also provides us with new data so that we are continually improving our knowledge.

This is the exciting side of working with dancers when you are helping them along their journey. It is always great to see them year on year and help them monitor their progress and fine-tune their training."

Professor Matthew Wyon Course Leader and Senior Lecturer in Dance Science, University of Wolverhampton Jason Reese Boyle and Jessica Lowe at University of Wolverhampton Dance Science lab

BA student undergoing musculoskeletal screening in the lab Trinity Laban Dance Science

"NIDMS partners undertook research looking at the impact of screening in dance - such as the POP screening- as part of an injury prevention strategy. The results showed that when combined with a specifically designed conditioning programme, we saw a significant reduction of injuries.

Given that injury can be one of the challenges to a dancers performance, screening can be an important step forward to enhancing performance capacity.”

Dr Nick Allen Clinical Director, Birmingham Royal Ballet Company, Jerwood Centre

Find out more bit.ly/POPHealthcare The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 55

at 20

HOTFOOT at 20

HOTFOOT Online, the UK’s only magazine dedicated to dance of the African Diaspora, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Read how and why this magazine has amplified the voices of Black dance in the UK and abroad.

Throughout 2021, One Dance UK will be celebrating the milestone.

“HOTFOOT was borne from a need to network, profile and develop opportunities for ourselves as Black dancers, producers and administrators in the UK. It gives Black artists a national profile with a global influence.”

2002

• HOTFOOT Critically Crucial writing scheme launched

2007

• Publication of Voicing Black Dance, part of the ADAD Heritage project

Judith Palmer MBE Chief Executive Officer, African Heritage UK Ltd, Former Chair, ADAD

1994

• Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD) is founded

2001

• Inception of HOTFOOT magazine led by S. Ama Wray

2003

•H OTFOOT goes online following strategic links with Dance UK • Trailblazer Fellowships start

“HOTFOOT has led and set the pace for African Diaspora dance in print and online, and has been a pivotal recourse of Black dance.”

Robert Hylton Choreographer, Movement Director, Dance Researcher and Filmmaker 56 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

HOTFOOT at 20

Critical discourse, international resource

Dr ‘Funmi Adewole , Lecturer in Dance, De Montfort University, HOTFOOT Online Editorial Focus Group member

“HOTFOOT is critical for holding the history, detailing developments and leaving a legacy of the form.”

Beverley Glean MBE Founder and Artistic Director, IRIE! dance theatre

In 2001, the steering committee of the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD), led by Sheron Wray (now S.Ama Wray), shifted the organisation’s focus to promoting choreography and dance practices based on African, Caribbean, African American or Afro-Latin forms. With the strapline ‘from the margins to the mainstream’, the organisation decided to upgrade its regular newsletter to a magazine.

The name “HOTFOOT” was proposed by the readership of the newsletter through a competition organised by Debbie Thomas, the

2016

• ADAD 21ST Anniversary special HOTFOOT edition • One Dance UK launches with ADAD part of the consortium

2010

• Inaugural Re:generations International Conference lead by Jeanette BainBurnett • ADAD 15th Anniversary – special HOTFOOT edition

Development Manager. Since six of the seven aims of ADAD were related to the production of critical discourse, the magazine was extremely important. At the time there was little writing on black British dancers who felt marginalised in the dance profession as a result.

In 2003, when ADAD formed a strategic alliance with Dance UK, the publication went online. Now an international resource, HOTFOOT has not only contributed to the critical discourse for the sector, it has helped raise the profile of black British dance artists and companies.

At 20, it is part of the history it was set up to create.

2021

• HOTFOOT Online turns 20

2019 “HOTFOOT is not simply a magazine; it is a living artefact that embodies the histories, tells the stories of the now, then, and what might be, and maps the roots and routes of the dances of the African Diaspora. ”

• DAD Mapping Project maps dance of the African Diaspora in the UK

Dr Sarahleigh Castelyn Reader in Performing Arts, University of East London, Editorial Focus Group member The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021 57

Book Reviews for his pieces. Life cycles, wordplay and the breaking of heterosexual norms are explored, paired with details of how each are used in different choreographic works. Despite remaining loyal to his classical roots, bringing non-dancers, sculptures and musicians into his creative process speaks of Clark’s ability to reach wider audiences through dance, allowing individuals to interpret his work through limitless means. Continuing to aid the reader in understanding his work, the archive images within the text provide a stunning display of stills from performances and moments from his eponymous company.

The text concludes by sharing an interview with Clark, in which he explains the anchors for his choreography and key moments in his professional development; an interesting insight into his thought processes.

Profiling a man whose life has been spent testing where life ends and dance begins, the text is a beautiful depiction of Clark’s work as a constellation of art, music and fashion.

Review by Lucy Jennings

Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer

By Florence Ostende Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer is an honest portrayal of the work of a true artist. Exploring Michael Clark’s development as a choreographer and dancer, the text takes a close look at his key influences, alongside vivid narratives of his work.

From his first exposure to dance in Scotland, to training at the Royal Ballet School and his discovery of London punk culture, Clark’s artistic voice made a mark on the entertainment world.

His fascinations don’t lie strictly within the label of “dance” and the text respects this as the groundwork

many of us during moments of disconnect and adversity. In doing so, Lovatt's writings speak to dance as enlightenment, as being sensual and liberating.

It is Lovatt’s portrayal of his own insecurities – as a victim of persecution, as a receiver of rejection, as a neurodiverse learner - that make The Dance Cure relatable and indeed, motivating.

Lovatt describes dance as a sophisticated language system, as a force to create synchrony in both space and relationships, and as a medicine to help treat and heal. He touches on profound topics in which dancers and dance scientists are well-versed, yet thanks to

the reflective nature of Lovatt’s narrative testimony, these otherwise complex dimensions of dance become palpable and perceivable.

Not only does this gift the reader with a sense of having been empathetically vindicated for the emotions that we feel when we move, but as we leap, macarena, tango, box-step and grapevine our way from cover to cover, we become familiar with the evidence base that exists in support of ‘the cure’.

Review by Jessica Lowe MSc.

The Dance Cure

By Dr Peter Lovatt The Dance Cure serves as an evidenced, yet light-hearted, reminder of the power harnessed by dance - in our biology, in our cognition and in our spirit. It makes prevalent the value of enabling space for dance that is organic and in the moment, as well as that which is prescribed, by regaling stories belonging to Lovatt but familiar to many of us.

In the early pages, we learn how Lovatt had subconsciously trained his body in such a way through dance, that even unintentionally without conscious arousal, dance came to his rescue, as it does for

One Dance UK Staff Barny Darnell Membership Manager

Giulia Ascoli Advocacy Manager Maternity Cover

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Christopher Rodriguez Deputy Chief Executive/ Finance Director

Cameron Ball Special Projects Manager

Frederick Hopkins Head of Membership and Business Development

Erin Sanchez Manager of Health, Wellbeing and Performance and the National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science

Amelia Bickley Membership and Business Development Assistant

Lucy Jennings Projects Assistant (Surrey University Placement)

Chloe Sprackling Marketing and Communications Assistant

Dani Bower Marketing and Communications Manager

Jessica Lowe Administrator, Dancers’ Health, Wellbeing and Performance

Katie Stevens Office Manager

Lara Coffey Head of Marketing and Communications

Purchase ISBN: 178072411X peterlovatt.com/portfolio/author

Board of Trustees

Andrew Hurst MBE Chief Executive

Dann Carroll Project Manager

Purchase ISBN: 3791359843 bit.ly/MichaelClarkBook

Hanna Madalska-Gayer Advocacy Manager Laura Nicholson Head of Children and Young People’s Dance

58 The One Dance UK Magazine | Spring 2021

Alan Tuvey Finance Manager Amy Williams Dance in Education Manager – Maternity Cover

Amanda Skoog Chair Anthony Bowne Principal, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance Andrew Carrick Director of Carrickworks Julian Flitter Partner, Goodman Jones LLP Anu Giri Head of Business and Operations, BFI Vicki Igbokwe Choreographer and Director Uchenna Dance Denise Nurse Legal Consultant

Patrons Piali Ray OBE Freelance Artistic Director and Choreographer

Carlos Acosta CBE Children and Young People Patron

Susannah Simons Arts Strategist and Director of Partnerships, Marquee TV

Peter Badejo OBE

David Watson Executive Director of Audiences & Media, National Museums Liverpool

Bob Lockyer Arlene Phillips CBE Sir Richard Alston Champion of U.Dance and Young Creatives

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