Dance Mapping - Arts Council England

Contemporary 516 64.3%
Creative 253 31.5%
Other 206 25.7%
Ballet 148 18.5%
Urban/street 139 17.3%
Folk dance 123 15.3%
Musical theatre 71 8.9%
South Asian dance 50 6.2%
African Diaspora 45 5.6%
Ballroom 29 3.6%
Table 44: Engagement with diverse genres
Source: Dance mapping workforce survey (2009)
Research carried out by Arts Council England in 2008 to provide evidence to the Home Office
highlighted the crucial importance of overseas performers to the dance workforce. Whilst
some of the performers had trained in England, many had not. The major ballet companies
employed between 15–32% of their workforce from a wide range of countries including South
America, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, South Korea, Russia and other parts of Europe. South
Asian dance companies appear to be heavily reliant on artists trained in India, with one
stating that 40% of the workforce were working on visas. The smaller companies appeared to
depend less on overseas dancers but there was still a significant number of dancers being
contracted from USA, Australia, Japan, Taiwan and Europe.
It is for this reason that in future the categorisation of ‘contemporary dance’ must be wide and
all-embracing.
3. Identification of issues
An initial environmental analysis of the dance field, carried out during stage one of the
mapping research, highlighted the following five key issues being faced within the field.
Perception and confidence
• The way the field sees itself is rooted in a historical perception that dance is lagging
behind other fields and needs to catch up and yet it is a world leader in some areas,
such as education, community and participatory dance
• Confidence is lacking and this is often reflected in the language used to describe
ourselves – ‘Cinderella artform’
• Whilst contemporary dance may be a relatively young dance form in England, the
overall field of dance has a much longer history – with folk forms, ballroom and ballet
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