Dance Mapping - Arts Council England

• ‘Give subsidy to the venues to commission and develop the work with the artists they
want their audiences to see and not to companies to sustain administrative structures
and then hawk work about that nobody wants.’
• ‘Dance company fees are greater than those of theatre companies, they need an
extra day in the theatre, fewer people come to see them and ticket yields are lower as
the audience is predominantly student. Perhaps better touring subsidy to fewer
companies in order to minimise financial risk/impact to venues.’
• ‘Many companies have good education programmes, but few have audience
development strategies aimed at adult ticket buyers who are (a) self-determining in
what they buy for, (b) generally more affluent and pay full ticket prices and (c) are
more powerful advocates/opinion-formers amongst their peers.’
• ‘Most young people coming to see dance are brought through school/college and are
not necessarily converted into ‘avids’. There are some fantastic theatre/contemporary
performance, audience development (not education) models at regional venues –
possibly transfer some of these to dance.’
• ‘Artistic leadership in dance is impoverished: with some notable exceptions
(principally choreographer-led companies) the level of dramaturgical or curatorial
expertise is woefully inadequate and audiences are presented with incoherent
programmes.’
(Respondents to venues survey)
The larger companies have strong brands and on the whole a committed audience, this
particularly applies to the ballet companies and Rambert, although, changes in artistic
leadership has an impact on the company, as well as touring with new repertoire. For the
middle and small-scale companies the audiences on the whole remain venue loyal.
There are some big issues highlighted in the unedited comments above, as well as issues of
branding, which should be debated between venues and companies to improve work that
tours – artistically and administratively to increase reach and impact.
In the comments from venues, 42.4% of them worked with dance agencies. This relationship
was not referred to in later comments and perhaps needs to be explored more fully in the
audit of dance agencies. One example of a partnership that is working towards being a world-
class centre for dance is the relationship between Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre,
Birmingham Royal Ballet and DanceXchange. An illustration of this partnership is set out
below.
243