Dance Mapping - Arts Council England

This is in direct contradiction to the notion of interconnectedness within the workforce. The
workforce is not operating in isolation from one another, but people are crossing from one
area of work to another both in skills and in sectors. An individual may be teaching,
choreographing and managing and is likely to be working in more than one style or genre of
dance. Similarly, the workforce are crossing over between commercial and non-profit sectors
and this impacts on business models as well as the overall economy and appears to be
having an impact on product too. This interconnectedness is reflected in distribution as
venues don’t differentiate between commercial and subsidised product selecting in relation to
quality and the appropriateness of programme rather than the economic model.
So, where do we want to be?
A vision for dance in the year 2020 must be one of a confident field with a workforce that is fit
for purpose. The workforce will be better distributed and so will the work ensuring that
engagement and participation is possible no matter where you are in England. We see a field
that is informed and guided by a holistic understanding and approach of what we mean by
dance.
We see ongoing development and active support for the development of new business
models. We see greater partnership working between agencies, touring and production
companies and venues dependent on collaborative structures, strategic alliances, co
productions and networked business models.
What will help us to get there?
There are many audiences for this research and making the narrative available will hopefully
open up important dialogues between the different segments of the field.
For example,
• We need strong dialogue between the field and the trainers and educators to ensure
that we are training the workforce of the future and that it is fit for purpose.
• We need stronger dialogue between funders at a national, regional and local level
and this needs to encompass potential funding partners in the social enterprise
sectors of the economy as well as commercial for profit organisations and investors.
For Arts Council England, it is clear that dance is a success story. The potential for dance to
meet Arts Council England outcomes is rich but the field remains under resourced and lacks
a building based infrastructure that will facilitate its growth. There is a need for the Arts
Strategy to take this on board and consider how the overall portfolio can support the
development of the artform. Furthermore, there is a need to consider the overall portfolio and
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