Dance Mapping - Arts Council England

• As we have become less rooted in our geographical communities we have more in
common with the people we work with and with whom we share interests
• As technology has developed a new economy has emerged that is rooted in
information, connectivity and the virtual world. This has led to shifts in participation as
technology has enabled people to become producers as well as consumers of art.
This will be examined in Part Six of this report
• Globalisation – enhanced by technology as well as disposable income and reduced
cost travel – has created greater expectation through exposure. This will be
examined in Part Six of this report.
Robert Hewison stated, in his essay accompanying the Henley report, that: ‘The challenge
here is to understand the complex matrix of known trends and future possibilities that will
affect the context of the arts …. These outside forces come in four principal forms:
demographic, economic, technological and political. Each is subject to its own unpredictable
variables, but in a rising order of certainty’.
In 2009 it is arguable that the rate of demographic, economic, technological and political
change is greater than ever before and that dance must seek to respond to these trends and
shifts to move forward with confidence and strength, not least because of the recession we
are facing and the world-wide impact on economies. This will be explored further in Part
Three: Political.
In mapping the dance field it was important to contextualise the work within an enhanced
understanding of its overall environment.
The ecology and economy of dance is in a dialogue with its environment. As Hewison noted:
‘The arts are not merely reflective of social developments: they interact with them, and may
even deliberately run counter to them.’
A preliminary analysis of the dance environment was carried out in this first phase of the
research and the hypotheses this generated were subsequently tested in stage two of the
research.
Appendix Four outlines the environmental analysis in relation to six key areas. This was
tested throughout the research with various groups 9 :
• political
• economy
• ecology
• technological
• social
• aesthetic
9 Groups and meetings included: National Dance Network, Dance Practice Group and strategic agencies.
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