Dance Mapping - Arts Council England

As a direct result of the review, the announcement in March 2008 of a joint funding package
between Arts Council England, DCSF and DCMS, to be managed by a strengthened Youth
Dance England, created a major step change for dance and young people in England and
brought with it workforce development initiatives.
The review also led to the establishment of a programme board, which would create a more
joined-up approach to developing strategy for dance. However, this programme board was
time-limited and its remit was primarily on the development of dance for young people:
‘It is clear that the way dance is funded, developed and delivered across many
different agencies and government departments is complex. There is therefore a
need to bring these agencies and departments together to ensure a coherent
approach to how we deliver the recommendations of the Review. The purpose, of
course, is to deliver a high quality, well rounded offer of dance to young people.
The new Board will only meet four times and will focus on delivering key initiatives
from the Review. These include advising on the development of a strengthened
Youth Dance England, analysing the data from the Youth Sport Trust survey and
determining how the other recommendations in the Review can be taken forward.
This board will bring together key funders of dance schemes across DCSF, DCMS
and Arts Council England as well as key education stakeholders and agencies such
as Ofsted and the QCA who influence the direction of schools and the national
curriculum. Most importantly we want to include the voice of young people within the
work of this board and will be inviting young dancers to contribute. 18
Collectively these developments are of enormous significance for the dance field:
1. The Government’s response to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee findings on
dance promised an undertaking to adopt a more joined-up approach to dance in
recognition of the fact that the field impacted in several areas of government policy
2. The response also recognised that dance needed to be nurtured as an artform as
well as for its impact on other social agendas
3. The emphasis on developing pathways to experience dance and extend involvement
in the response, led to the review by Tony Hall and investment in dance for young
people
4. The Dance Manifesto and the lobbying that ensued had originated and represented a
joined-up approach from the dance field and the fact that we were speaking with one
voice appeared to engender greater faith from government in our ability to deliver
18 Department for Children, Schools and Families and Department for Culture, Media and Sport (2008) Government
Response to Tony Hall’s Dance Review. London: DCSF
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