Dance Mapping - Arts Council England

living through dance but also amateurs – those who work in a voluntary capacity to support
dance activity. We examine the workforce in Part Five of this report.
Formal/informal are often terms applied to dance and by this we interpret ‘formal’ to entail
the provision that is part of statutory provision, whilst ‘informal’ is that provision which exists in
community/ voluntary and amateur sector contexts. Thus, a youth dance group is operating
within the informal sector whilst a school dance group is in the formal sector.
Private sector as a term is applied to those organisations and individuals who provide dance
education and training (acquisition of skill to execute the work) for profit. Thus, a dancing
school offering tuition in ballet, tap and stage within a locality is operating within the private
sector and is regulated through the awarding bodies with whom it is registered.
Engagement is also a term that needs to be defined and in this research it encompasses
both participation – actively taking part in dance – and attendance – viewing dance
performance.
We have chosen to refer to dance as a field. This was because there are many
inconsistencies in the language used to refer to dance as an organisational area. Sometimes
it is referred to as ‘world’, sometimes as ‘sector’ and sometimes as ‘industry’. Each term
brings different connotations so it was decided to apply the more neutral sociological term
‘field’.
3. The dance field
In order to carry out this Dance mapping research it seemed important to understand how the
dance field works, its dynamic and the various segments of it. To this end it was necessary to
undertake an investigation of the literature surrounding organisational field analysis in order to
provide some theoretical framework for interpretation.
The concept of field theory is defined as:
‘By organisational field we mean those organisations that, in the aggregate, constitute a
recognised area of institutional life: key suppliers, resources and product consumers,
regulatory agencies and other organisations that produce similar services or products.’ 5
Thus, the dance field can be analysed by considering the aggregate of organisations within it.
Simply, our understanding of any one individual organisation within a field requires that we
understand how it relates to other organisations in the same environment (Pfeffer and
Salancik, 2003). Using this approach a field can be viewed as a network of organisations in
constant struggles for autonomy and discretion, dealing with constraint and external control.
5 Di Maggio and Powell,(1991) p 64
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