Memorandum submitted by the Department
for Culture, Media and Sport
The Department welcomes the Select Committee's
interest in dance and can offer the following information about
the Government's involvement in the development of this art form.
CURRENT SITUATION
What is the current state of the dance economy?
The value of dance to the UK economy; the infrastructure of dance
and the built environment surrounding this; the economic prospects
for dance; and the relationship between public and commercial
investment.
The popularity of dance both as an art form
and as a recreational activity has grown substantially over the
last two decades. We now have a very vibrant and diverse dance
economy in this country, and dance is playing an important role
in encouraging children and young people (and girls especially)
to take part in physical activity.
Last year 12% of the population attended a live
dance event. Total attendance at ballet and contemporary dance
performances was 5.1 million. Dance, along with music and the
other visual and performing arts, accounted for 0.5% of GDP (DCMS
Creative Industries Economic Estimates, 2001). Dance alone employs
around 30,000 people. Our contemporary dance scene has an international
reputation, and London sits alongside New York as one of the world's
leading centres of contemporary dance. One in five overseas visitors
told Visit Britain that attending a performing arts event was
an important factor in making their decision to visit the UK.
Dance is also one of the most popular participatory
artforms. "Clubbing" is the second most popular arts
activity after reading—some 26% of adults aged 16 or over
reported that they had gone "clubbing" in 2001. 13%
participated in dance for fitness, including aerobics, 9% in other
dance forms including African, South Asian, Chinese, jazz or street
dance and 1% took part in ballet.
Arts Council England (ACE) has a central role
in supporting the development of dance as an art form. Exchequer
funding in the arts has increased from £186 million in 1997-98
to £411 million in 2005-06, a real terms increase of 73%.
Dance has been a major beneficiary: total funding for dance has
risen from £24.7 million in 2002-03 to £30 million in
2004-05, and it will rise again next year to £32.3 million—a
22.4% increase over 3 years. These figures exclude support for
the Royal Ballet which forms part of the Arts Council's grant
to the Royal Opera House—£21.75 million in 2003-04.
There is increasing evidence that this increased
investment is helping to lever in more funding to dance from other
sources: in 1998-99 ACE funding accounted for 56% of the total
funding for dance, by 2001-02 this figure decreased to 43%.
Dance has also benefited from substantial investment
through the National Lottery. This has enabled the development
of an infrastructure of new professional facilities for dance
across the country. The re-development of the Royal Opera House,
Sadler's Wells and Birmingham Hippodrome have provided first class
performance venues. The new Laban Centre in Deptford, which received
£12 million from ACE, has provided first class training facilities
and has helped re-generate the local area, as have the Yorkshire
Dance Centre in Leeds, Dance City in Newcastle and The Place in
King's Cross, London. In all, over 1,100 dance projects have benefited
from nearly £183 million from the Lottery since its inception
in 1997.
Dance facilities in schools have also improved
through the joint DCMS/Department for Education and Skills (DfES)
initiative Space for Sport and Arts, which is creating new, and
rebuilding existing, primary school sports facilities that can
also be used by the wider community. Out of the total budget of
£134 million, at least £27 million is being spent on
facilities for dance and the performing arts. Also, through the
New Opportunities for PE and Sport programme, £581 million
is being invested into good quality sporting facilities for young
people and for the community. So far, 81 facilities have included
space for dance.
Alongside this capital investment, ACE has promoted
the development of a strong support infrastructure for dance.
This has included the 10 national dance agencies, dance companies
and development organisations, like Dance UK and the Foundation
for Community Dance. They are all working to increase access for
all to high quality dance experiences on a range of levels through;
professional dance; community dance; and youth dance.
Are the benefits of dance as a sporting activity
recognised and built upon effectively?
Sport England is becoming increasingly aware
of the importance of dance in terms of promoting physical activity.
A client manager for dance has been appointed to co-ordinate their
approach to funding this sector and ensuring cohesive partnerships
between sports and arts organisations.
The joint Department of Health/DCMS Activity
Co-ordination Team also recognises the value of dance as a recreational
activity, particularly for young and older people. The Government
would particularly encourage the dance community to contribute
to the ongoing consultation on the Public Health White Paper,
and its physical activity strand in particular.
EFFECT OF
PUBLIC POLICY
AND INVESTMENT
How have public investment and policy initiatives
influenced the development of dance as an art form in the UK?
Dance as an art form remains heavily reliant
on public subsidy from Arts Council England, although as noted
above there are signs that this investment is helping to lever
in income from other sources.
Nearly £27 million of ACE's funding for
dance is in the form of core funding for regularly funded organisations
to exist and produce work. Dance companies receive 78% of this
core funding and play an important role in upholding the ground
breaking international reputation that British dance enjoys. The
remainder supports the network of national dance agencies and
key development agencies for the art form and promoters, including:
Youth Dance England and Sadler's Wells. In 2004-06 ACE are increasing
the support to regularly funded dance organisations by over £3
million.
£6.9 million of the current ACE expenditure
on dance is provided through the Grants for the Arts programme
which supports Individuals, organisations and Touring.
With this increasing investment, ACE is focusing
its efforts on three priorities for dance:
— Audience provision—choice of
high quality, adventurous dance product and opportunities to engage
with dance as audiences and participants;
— Artistic development—nurturing
the creativity of dance artists, experiment and professional development;
and
— Environmental conditions—adequate
working conditions, education and training, partnerships, public
perception of dance.
More emphasis is also being placed on building
a sector that is demographically and culturally diverse. Policy
initiatives in recent years have focused upon reaching out to
people from under-represented groups to encourage engagement with
dance as both participants and audiences. In particular, work
has been done in marketing dance to people with disabilities,
black and minority ethnic groups, young people and those in economically
disadvantaged areas. This work has impacted heavily on the development
of the art form, generating a wider understanding of the many
benefits it has to offer. For example, Candoco Dance Company creates
cutting edge dance with an integrated company of disabled and
non-disabled performers.
How effective is Arts Council England at developing
policies, deploying investment and implementing policy initiatives?
The increased investment that Arts Council England
has made in dance in recent years has been central to the development
of the art form, and its current healthy state. The main achievements
have been:
— a 13% increase in audiences for dance
from 1995-2001;
— the establishment of the network
of National Dance Agencies, to build up regional support structures
for dance;
— supporting the professional sector
through initiatives like British Dance Edition, an international
showcase of British dance;
— its central role in setting up the
first national youth dance agency, Youth Dance England; and
— commissioning research and producing
information, for example the British Dance Directory of companies
and artists.
Is public investment in dance at a sufficient
level? Considering the importance placed recently on "active
lifestyles" by the Government, does the funding level need
revision?
Dance clearly has an important role to play
in helping to deliver on the Government's healthy lifestyles agenda.
There is a wealth of evidence showing how dance can uniquely attract
people who may not be interested in other forms of physical activity:
dance can be an attractive form of exercise particularly to girls,
some of whom may be turned off by sport; it is acceptable to different
cultural backgrounds and religions; it has no language barriers;
it is generally not competitive and anyone can take part; it has
positive effects on social behaviour; and, it can also encourage
people to express themselves through creative experiences.
Over three years to March 2006, the Government
is investing £459 million into the Physical Education, School
Sports and Club Links (PESSCL) strategy. The DCMS/DfES share a
Public Service Agreement (PSA) target to enhance the take-up of
sporting opportunities by 5 to 16 year olds by increasing the
percentage of school children who spend a minimum of two hours
each week on high quality PE and school sport within and beyond
the Curriculum from 25% in 2002 to 75% by 2006. The PESSCL strategy
and the Activity Co-ordination Team (ACT) are consulting the dance
sector to identify how best dance can play its part with the £80,000
it has been allocated through PESSCL over two years.
Through the "Club Links" strand of
the policy, DCMS is working to bring together the National Dance
Teachers Association and Youth Dance England by funding a part-time
position to bridge the gap between dance in schools and dance
in the community.
In the professional development strand, LEAs
will audit teaching across six Curriculum activity areas, including
dance, and teachers will be able to access support and resources
to improve their dance practice.
Sport England also provides £117,000 per
annum to support a number of dance and movement governing bodies,
and is currently working to form a strategic Movement and Dance
partnership under their modernisation programme. The aim is to
help the partnership to link into national and regional funding
streams and the health agenda. An additional £1.12 million
has been provided to dance through Sport England's Lottery fund.
YOUNG PEOPLE
AND DANCE
What opportunities and support currently exist
in order to promote the inclusion and progression of young people
in dance?
DCMS is committed to enhancing access to opportunities
for young people, ensuring they get the opportunity to develop
their talents, and promoting lifelong learning and participation.
Our overarching strategy for dance education (and for education
in all our artforms) is to identify coherent pathways for young
people, whatever their background or financial means, to progress
from:
— to opportunities to deepen their
interest or develop their talent;
— to support for the most talented;
— to careers in the arts, for those
who choose to pursue them.
We work with our partner organisations to identify
barriers to progression or gaps in provision and develop each
stage of the pathway. DfES funds dance in schools and has policy
responsibility for the dance curriculum (within PE). DfES also
funds vocational training schools for dance, just as it does other
FE and HE training through the Higher Education Funding Council
and the Learning and Skills Council.
There is also a growing network of support bodies
for dance around the country that work to promote dance to young
people. Many of them focus on progression routes for young people
and inclusion to ensure that fair opportunities exist for everyone
to experience good quality dance as participants and audiences.
Current work under our key priorities for dance
includes:
FIRST ACCESS
TO DANCE
— Creative Partnerships (CPs)—DCMS
is investing £110 million in a national programme to develop
sustainable partnerships between schools and creative and cultural
organisations and individuals. There has been 150 dance projects
supported by CPs to date, plus 364 combined arts projects, many
of which included dance. For example, Safahr an 18 month project
between Birmingham Creative Partnerships and Birmingham Royal
Ballet, which involved over 500 young people aged 3-19 in composing,
choreographing, designing, promoting and performing in a professional
dance production;
— Artsmark—over 1,700 schools
are now Artsmark schools, including 1 in 5 secondary schools.
This popular scheme, managed by ACE, seeks to recognise schools
for their arts provision and requires schools to dedicate a minimum
amount of time per week to dance and to provide additional out
of hours opportunities in dance.
DEEPENING INTEREST
AND DEVELOPING
TALENT
— Youth Dance England—funded
by DfES Music and Dance Scheme and ACE (£300,000 over 3 years),
initially to scope and develop the capacity of the youth dance
sector, with a view to identifying or growing high quality provision;
— The Young People's Arts Award will
provide a means for young people aged 14-19, to increase and sustain
their participation and enjoyment in the arts. The Award is currently
being piloted by Arts Council England in 15 organisations across
the country. Pilots will run until September 2005;
— Specialist Arts and Sports Colleges—there
are now 231 sports colleges and 260 arts colleges, many of which
will be offering high quality dance experiences. They are also
having a positive impact on first access to dance in their feeder
primary schools;
— Set Step—ACE has been working
with examination boards to produce videos of cutting edge British
dance for use in A level and GCSE curriculum.
SUPPORT FOR
THE VERY
BEST
— DfES Music and Dance Scheme (MDS)—offers
300 subsidised places per year, at a cost of £4.8 million,
at four full time independent dance schools for 11-16 year olds.
Places are awarded on the basis of talent, and the level of grant
for each pupil is means-based. The schools are the Royal Ballet
School (Richmond), Elmhurst (Birmingham), The Hammond (Chester),
Arts Educational (Tring). Further detail at Annex 1;
— MDS Junior Centres of Advanced Training—MDS
is currently looking to designate new regional centres around
the country which will deliver excellent dance tuition to many
more pupils, with a better geographical spread and perhaps better
suited for those young people and their families for whom boarding
does not appeal. There is also a drive to diversify the range
of dance forms on offer. MDS plan to offer 100 new awards for
dance in 2004-05 at three new centres;
— Dance and Drama Awards (DADA)—525
DfES-funded places per year at 22 schools. In the 18 participating
dance schools, there are currently 270 continuing awards for dance
students in years 2 and 3 of their courses and 206 new awards
for those joining in September 2004. These courses are currently
both FE and HE, although the scheme will become FE only from September
2004. Further detail at Annex 2;
— DADA disability steering group—work
is in hand to address the low numbers of students with disabilities
taking up awards. DCMS contributed to a conference for trainers
and employers in January 2004. We are working with DfES and ACE
to develop plans for accessible courses for students with disabilities
and disability training for DADA schools;
— Dance Conservatoires—a number
of dance, drama and music schools have combined forces to become
the first HE level conservatoires in the performing arts. Current
examples are the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama (which includes
the London Contemporary Dance School and Northern School of Contemporary
Dance) and a recent collaboration between Laban and Trinity College
of Music.
CAREERS IN
THE DANCE—INCLUDING
DEVELOPING THE
DANCE EDUCATION
WORKFORCE
— Specialist Schools Best Practice
Dance Network—developed by the Specialist Schools Trust,
Youth Sport Trust and National Dance Teachers Association, with
support from ACE. The network will improve standards in dance
education within Sports and Arts Colleges by highlighting examples
of high quality teaching and providing opportunities for professional
development and performance at the highest level.
What is the role of dance in education at present?
Should this change in the future?
DfES funds dance in schools and has policy responsibility
for the dance curriculum (within PE). DfES also funds vocational
training schools for dance, just as it does other FE and HE training
through the Higher Education Funding Council and the Learning
and Skills Council.
Dance is one of six areas of activity for which
programmes of study have been drawn up within National Curriculum
Physical Education.
When the original National Curriculum was being
drawn up in the late 1980s, consideration was given to whether
dance should be a subject in its own right. However, given the
precedent this might set for other physical activities, the decision
was taken not to do so. Because of its physical nature, however,
dance was identified as one of the areas of activity within National
Curriculum for PE. It retains this important position in the National
Curriculum, being compulsory in Key Stages 1 and 2 (5-11) and
optional at Key Stages 3 and 4 (11-16). It remains the only area
of activity within National Curriculum PE that has its own accredited
GCSE.
Since 1997, there has been a steady increase
in the number of young people taking dance at GCSE (up from 4,742
in 1997 to 7,416 in 2002) and A Level (up from 698 in 1997 to
983 in 2002), as well as a rise in the percentage of good passes
in the subject.
The Government has no plans to change the status
or nature of dance in schools.
Annex 1
MUSIC AND DANCE SCHEME, DFES
The aim of the Government's Music and Dance
Scheme is—"to help identify, and assist, children with
exceptional potential, regardless of their personal circumstances,
to benefit from world-class specialist training as part of a broad
and balanced education, which will enable them, if they choose,
to proceed towards self-sustaining careers in music and dance"
Just over 300 children aged 8 to 19 are supported
at MDS dance schools at a cost of £4.8 million. These children
get the best specialist training alongside a good academic education.
Through outreach and partnership working the schools share their
expertise and provide music and dance experiences for many who
would not otherwise get the chance.
The MDS Advisory Group was established in 2000
by Estelle Morris, with Roger Lewis, MD and Programme Controller
at Classic fM as Chairman. In 2003, the Group commissioned John
Myerscough, a leading cultural planning consultant, to carry out
a mapping study to identify gaps in provision and suggest ways
in which the scheme might improve its reach nationally, in geographic
terms, in the range of genres available and in broadening the
socio-economic mix of pupils participating in the scheme.
Following this study the DfES is carrying out
the following tasks over a five to ten year period:
— establishing additional, non-residential
centres for specialist advanced training in music to serve as
focal points in regions currently poorly served;
— designating a chain of advanced training
centres for talented children in dance, to cover all regions of
the country; and
— introducing a new national grants
scheme for music and dance to enable children to access the best
available training on the basis of talent alone.
It is intended that these developments will
enhance the opportunities for a greater number of highly talented
children to access the best available training on a local and
regional basis without the need to attend residential schools.
A wider range of dance genres will be supported ranging from classical
and contemporary ballet to South Asian dance, Jazz, Flamenco and
Folk.
Annex 2
DANCE AND DRAMA AWARDS, DFES
BACKGROUND
In 1998 the Government decided to create new
and lasting arrangements to meet its manifesto commitment following
recommendation 94 from the Dearing report.
"that there must be a permanent solution
to the plight of students and their parents preparing for careers
in the Performing Arts" and feedback from the sector.
Ministers agreed to fund 2,200 scholarship places (800 HE and
1,400 FE)—The Dance and Drama Awards (DADA). These are now
in place and the first cohort of students commenced training in
1999. DADA are designed to widen access to the best, private dance
and drama institutions on talent rather than on ability to pay.
Whilst DfES provides a range of courses in Further and Higher
Education in the publicly funded sector, the Awards provision
is specifically for the most talented students to learn performing
arts skills.
WHAT ARE
THE DANCE
AND DRAMA
AWARDS?
The Awards are for individuals who want to become
professional dancers, actors or stage managers. They offer students
reduced fees and financial help with living and learning costs
at some of the leading private dance and drama training providers
in England. Students must be aged 16 and over for dance courses
and 18 and over for acting and stage management courses. A new
suite of qualifications that are relevant to employment in the
industry were developed by the sector, for the Awards. These Trinity
College London qualifications ensure that students have the vocational
competences required for professional performance. The Qualifications
and Curriculum Authority (QCA) required a number of additional
improvements to the qualifications to make them even more responsive,
before accepting them at Level 4. This equates to a first degree.
These qualifications prepare successful candidates for a professional
career and the emphasis is on competence rather than knowledge.
Qualifications provide for professional acting,
dance, musical theatre, production skills, and classical ballet.
There are 18 participating dance schools in
the Awards that offer a mix of classical ballet, contemporary
dance, jazz and musical theatre with over 500 new Awards available
each year for students. The geographical spread of the dance Award
schools in England is 7 in London, 5 in the home counties and
6 in the regions.
PROGRESS TO
DATE
DfES have used independent evaluation by the
University of Warwick to assess progress. The Awards have had
notable success in their first four years, this includes:
— providing over 4,000 students with
vocational training;
— open and effective public auditions
that follow a new code of practice;
— consistent occupancy of places at
over 96%;
— all students completing courses achieving
the qualification;
— high rates of progression to relevant
employment;
— "knock on" effects whereby
improvements made to training for the Awards have led to similar
improvements to the wider sector training and qualifications infrastructure;
and
— improved working and collaboration
between the providers and their sector bodies.
Issues for further improvement include greater
diversity of student intake, better regional coverage and student
tracking post learning.
DISABILITY AND
DADA
Following specialist advice, the DfES has drawn
up a 3 part strategy to make the Awards more responsive to the
needs of students with disabilities. This includes training, information
and bespoke training bursaries. In addition we are using consultants
to advise on marketing and communities for students with disabilities
and from minority ethnic groups.
30 April 2004
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