Dance Mapping - Arts Council England

At this stage in her career she has considered moving south for a more mature cultural
landscape. ‘It can be exhausting if you are not part of a fully fledged dance ecology – or if you
are the mainstay of support for that ecology.’ She feels the need to see a lot more mature
work, while she is making her own. Touring makes it difficult to see shows.
She is passionate about working with mature artists – her peers, and observes that artists
who are still in the dance world at this stage of their careers are in the south; perhaps
because there is more opportunity to sustain themselves there. She observes that as artistic
voices get more mature their aesthetic choices mature. ‘You can’t rely on what you know.
You’re taking a craft and adapting it to what is now more suitable for the body and what the
weight of your mind is carrying.’ Acknowledging the importance of mature practice and how it
shifts the aesthetic is crucial for Charlotte. ‘Without it we are left with a naïve dance
landscape.’
12. Key Findings
The dance ecology is best understood as being concerned with the professional and social
interaction of the people who work together to make dance possible. The dance ecology is
complex. Careers in dance are multifaceted, with individuals engaging in ‘multiple job holding’
and often working across sectors within the field. This makes it challenging to quantify the
workforce accurately.
• the workforce is larger than previously estimated. Including people engaged in a
voluntary capacity brings estimates nearer to 40,000 in total. Those who teach make
up the largest group within the workforce
• the workforce needs to be equipped with teaching, entrepreneurial and management
skills alongside performance and choreographic skills
• the number of students on higher education programmes has increased by 97 per cent
over the last five years. The major focus for these courses is performance. In 2006/07
there were 3,645 dance undergraduates and postgraduates. The number of students
in further education and accredited vocational dance/musical theatre training was
6,237; a total of 10,000 are in training in any one year
• the workforce is slowly increasing its diversity, reflecting an artform interpreted through
many different styles and genres, beginning to be reflective of a multicultural society. It
is also diverse in relation to gender and ability and dance has led the way in
integrated practice and disability work.
• the field is small yet complex. It is comprised of both subsidised and commercial
organisations that work across other cultural fields such as theatre and music,
computer games generation and broadcast and film. As a result many individuals
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