Inspire. Dance in the UK (FCO, 2003).pdf

Left: The Northern Ballet Theatre

perform Romeo and Juliet

Right: CandoCo contemporary dance

company. Choreographer Jamie Watton

Far right: DV8 Physical Theatre

Companies and

choreographers

The Royal Ballet is Britain’s

national ballet company, founded

in 1931. With a strong repertoire of

classics and modern works, it also

has the proud legacy of two of the

most important choreographers of

the twentieth century: Frederick

Ashton, whose works include La

Fille mal gardée, Symphonic

Variations and A Month in the

Country, and Kenneth MacMillan,

choreographer of Manon, Elite

Syncopations and an ever-popular

Romeo and Juliet.

Originally formed in 1946 as the

Royal Ballet’s touring group, the

Birmingham Royal Ballet, under

the directorship of David Bintley,

has since 1997 been a fully

independent company. English

National Ballet was founded in the

1950s as London Festival Ballet,

and currently tours a strong

programme of popular ballets and

accessible contemporary works.

Newer ballet companies include

Northern Ballet Theatre, with a

distinctive reputation for

producing theatrical story-ballets,

and Scottish Ballet, founded in the

1960s by Peter Darrell and now

directed by Ashley Page.

Contemporary dance took off in

the late 1960s, with the founding of

London Contemporary Dance

Theatre and with Ballet Rambert

changing from a classical to a

contemporary style. Ballet Rambert

continues as Rambert Dance

Company, Britain’s largest

contemporary ensemble with an

eclectic repertoire of works by both

UK and international

choreographers.

Though disbanded in 1990,

London Contemporary Dance

Theatre helped to generate many

new companies and gave rise to

such important choreographers as

Richard Alston and Siobhan

Davies, whose companies now

produce some of the finest work,

by some of the finest dancers, in

the country. Like them, Rosemary

Butcher also began

choreographing in the 1970s, and

continues to develop her own

distinctive abstract style.

The 1980s saw an explosion of

contemporary dance activity, with

the growth of many independent

choreographer-led companies,

accompanied by a proliferation of

artistic styles and personal

approaches that continues to this

day. Lloyd Newson’s DV8 Physical

Theatre developed a high-risk

performance style, and fostered

such idiosyncratic dancemakers as

Nigel Charnock and Wendy

Houstoun. Lea Anderson’s

companies the all-female

Cholmondeleys and the all-male

Featherstonehaughs specialise in

quirky gestural observations on

human behaviour. The last decade

has seen the emergence of many

acclaimed choreographer-led

companies, including those of

Charles Linehan, Henri Oguike,

Fin Walker and Jasmin Vardimon,

as well as Wayne McGregor’s highly

successful Random Dance

Company, which has pioneered the

use of digital technology and

computer software in

choreography and performance.

Several repertory-based companies

also continue to thrive, including

Ricochet, Diversions (the national

dance company of Wales) and

Scottish Dance Theatre. Candoco is

a groundbreaking repertory

company that commissions new

works from acclaimed

choreographers for its integrated

group of disabled and able-bodied

performers.

For some time the borders between

ballet and contemporary dance

have become blurred and broken

down. Many ballet-trained dancers

have forged successful careers as

contemporary choreographers,

notably Michael Clark, Matthew

Hawkins, Jonathan Burrows and

Russell Maliphant. Contemporary

choreographer Matthew Bourne,

with his companies Adventures in

Motion Pictures and later New

Adventures, scored huge successes

with his reworkings of classical

ballets, and former Royal Ballet

dancers Michael Nunn and William

Trevitt recently formed George

Piper Dances which showcases a

popular and eclectic mix of

modern ballet and contemporary

dance.

But these are not the only borders

being crossed. Alongside the

classical and contemporary scenes,

Britain has established traditions of

South Asian dance and African

People’s dance. Drawing on these,

several choreographers – notably

Shobana Jeyasingh, Akram Khan

and Peter Badejo – have developed

their own hybrid and highly

individual contemporary styles.

Both Phoenix Dance Company and

Union Dance Company have long

been inspired by the diverse idioms

of black dance, while

choreographers Robert Hylton,

Jonzi D and Benji Reid have more

recently explored street dance and

hip-hop in contemporary

performance.

Another thriving field is dance for

screen and dance technology. The

annual Dance for the Camera

scheme has, since 1992,

commissioned dance for television

and video, while since 2001 the

Capture series has commissioned a

variety of experimental screen-

based dance works encompassing

film, digital video, and multimedia.

The annual Dance Umbrella

festival also features a special

Digital Dance showcase of

interactive and installation-based

work. The resulting collaborations

between choreographers, directors

and digital artists have produced

startling and award-winning pieces.

Festivals and venues

Founded in 1978 by Val Bourne,

Dance Umbrella has grown to

become the largest contemporary

dance festival in the world,

presenting the best of both UK and

overseas dance and attracting

visiting companies from around

the globe. Based in London, the

festival has also shown

performances in other towns and

promoted national tours by visiting

groups. The Resolution! festival at

London’s Place Theatre is a

platform for a wealth of aspiring

and emerging new choreographers,

with visits from selected European

newcomers.

NottDance (Nottingham) and New

Moves (Glasgow) are two festivals

that programme stimulating

seasons of experimental dance

from both UK and visiting

companies. Dance also features in

many arts festivals across the

country and forms a vital part of

the annual Edinburgh

International Festival, and there

are several specialist dance centres

that organise performances, classes

and workshops, including The

Place (London), Laban (London),

Dance City (Newcastle), Dancebase

(Edinburgh), Thamesdown Dance

Studios (Swindon) and Yorkshire

Dance Centre (Leeds).

!nspire

Sylvie Guillem as

Manon, Jonathan

Cope as Des Grieux,

Royal Ballet

Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company

in a piece called (h)Interland

Support and

development

Formerly divided into Regional

Arts Boards, Arts Council England

has recently been centralised into a

single body, with those of Scotland,

Wales and Northern Ireland as

separate entities. More than 30

dance companies and individual

artists are funded, across a range of

dance forms. Funding is offered

both as year-round support and on

a project-by-project basis.

Britain is renowned throughout the

world for its community and

audience development

programmes, through

organisations such as the

Foundation for Community Dance.

There are also several professional

support schemes in the UK,

including Dance UK’s innovative

Healthier Dancer Programme, the

network of National Dance

Agencies, Dancers’ Career

Development, and artistic

development programmes such as

Choreodrome, Performing Arts

Lab and the Choreographers and

Composers Exchange.

Useful websites

Arts Councils

www.artscouncil.org.uk [England]

www.artscouncil-ni.org [Northern

Ireland]

www.sac.org.uk [Scotland]

www.ccc-acw.org.uk [Wales]

Council for Dance Education and

Training

www.cdet.org.uk

Dance UK

www.danceuk.org

Foundation for Community Dance

www.communitydance.org.uk

London Dance

www.londondance.com

The Place

www.theplace.org.uk

TheatreDanceUK

theatredance.britishcouncil.org

Magazines/Reviews

Critical Dance (www.criticaldance.com)

Dancing Times

Dance Now

Dance Theatre Journal

Dance Europe

Researched and written by Sanjoy Roy

Picture credits

Paul De Backer

Anthony Crickmay

Bill Cooper

Richard Farley

Jika Jansch

Kit Van-Laast

Chris Nash

Michael Rayner

Published by the Foreign &

Commonwealth Office July 2003

www.fco.gov.uk

Details of other FCO Publications are

available from

www.informationfrombritain.com

Dance in the UK

Education and training

Britain is home to some of the

world’s most renowned training

institutions, including the Royal

Ballet School, English National

Ballet School, London

Contemporary Dance School,

Laban and the Northern School of

Contemporary Dance. Many of

these schools also run

undergraduate and postgraduate

degree courses, alongside those

offered by academic institutions

such as the University of Surrey,

Roehampton, and Middlesex

University.

Dance is part of the National

Curriculum, an optional subject in

secondary schools and a prescribed

part of primary education. Many

dance companies offer education

and community outreach

programmes, while the long-

established Ludus Dance Company

specialises in working with schools

and youth groups.

What is British dance?

Perhaps its most outstanding

feature is its sheer diversity. A

mere thirty years ago there

existed just a handful of

companies, but now there are

several hundred, encompassing

the whole spectrum of sizes and

styles. Add to that the flourishing

worlds of dance in education and

in the community, in screen

dance, and cross-arts and

intercultural experimentation,

and you begin to sense the

breadth of British dance today.

Vibrant and innovative, UK dance

is a wide-ranging and varied mix

that is uniquely British while truly

international in outlook.

Scottish Dance Theatre

Rambert Dance Company

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