Memorandum submitted by Chinese Cultural
Centre
CHINESE DANCE
DEVELOPMENT
The Chinese community began actively developing
its traditional and contemporary dance programmes in the UK since
l990. However we are saddened that to-date, its progress has been
limited to the point of stagnation due to lack of support from
government funding bodies.
It is a well-known fact that there is a skills
shortage in Chinese arts in the UK. Anxiety has been expressed
at the dwindling number of Chinese people going into dance, music,
film-making and to a lesser extent drama. There are no schools
or institutions adequately equipped for the training of Chinese
dance. There is no structure in the arts for their career development
and this is especially so in dance where a dancer's performing
life is limited. Currently, there is only one organised dance
company in the UK—The Chinese Dance & Mime Theatre Company.
It was formed in l989 comprising of a group of professional and
semi-professional dancers trained in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
It is presently a resident dance group with the London Chinese
Cultural Centre (CCC). The CCC produces its new dance productions
annually for touring nation-wide as part of its annual Chinese
New Year Festival and other on-going programmes for the benefit
of approximately 10,000 Chinese and non Chinese audiences per
year. Notable venues are the annual Mayor's Chinese New Year Festival
at Trafalgar Square, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Cockpit Theatre, Linbury
Studio Theatre (Opera House) and Harrow Arts Centre as well as
the Civic Theatre (Doncaster), Mitchell Theatre (Glasgow), The
Tyne Opera House (Newcastle), The Guildhall (Cambridge) and Oxford
Town hall. Resources for the productions came out of the CCC's
annual festival budget and occasionally project funding from foundations
and trusts.
In the last decade various Chinese dance groups
have approached the Arts Council of England and more recently
their regional office in London to seek opportunity for development
funding. It is our dilemma that there is no progress in their
efforts. Without a consistent and long term nurturing scheme for
Chinese dance in the UK, new young individual/group finds it particularly
hard to establish themselves in the absence of an infrastructure
and clear career paths.
Chinese dance derives from Chinese Opera and
the rich diverse dance and music culture from over 50 minority
nationalities in China. The London Chinese Cultural Centre is
in a position to access China's leading dance doyen who would
be more than pleased to accept our invitation as a resident dance
consultant to assist in the development of training and education
for Chinese young people—thus enabling a resource of future
artists.
The success and popularity of the dance training
classes for the Chinese Supplementary Schools conducted by the
CCC is an indication of the potential need for more extensive
training provision for the younger generation. Presently due to
limited teachers and finance the classes are only available to
the students on Saturdays and Sundays.
Our objective is to seek support in the development
of traditional dance in order to provide cultural continuity.
In the meantime we intend to develop and create new dynamic contemporary
dance projects, neither East nor West but a cultural fusion expressive
and relative to the arts in Britain today.
The Chinese community has a potential to contribute
a wide range of colourful and wonderful multi-disiplinary and
inter-disciplinary activities for the advancement of the Cultural
Diversity Programme for London. This would not only provide a
service for the improvement of the quality of life in the Chinese
community but also indirectly offers its traditional festivals
into a tourist attraction in London for the local and overseas
tourists.
We therefore welcome this opportunity to bring
the awareness of the lack of Chinese dance development opportunity
to the select committee.
30 April 2004
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