For as long as I have been involved in the dance world, about 12 years now, I have heard stories from artists who are gasping for air. These are people that want to spend more time in research and development, step out from under the grindstone of making, performing and facilitating, to reflect, to re-assess and take specific steps towards ensuring that they are artists of integrity. These are people rarely satisfied with the status quo and as a result are actively curious and always in search of new challenges. Meanwhile, it has also been obvious that the funding system needs results, highly visible results and quite often the artistic and funding objectives do not always dovetail smoothly.
It strikes me now that the arts world has a unique opportunity to address this issue through the activity currently being called Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
It is well established in all other industries and proving to be a beneficial way for the funding system to support artists in the process of structured exploration and experimentation, whilst being able to account for public funds as money well spent on the 'professionalisation' of the industry.
When you consider that the nature of the creative industries is that of constant renewal and change, and that CPD, in all its many forms, is the engine of that renewal, the industry would be investing wisely every penny it allocates for artists to step out, refresh and step back in ready to push industry practice once again. Not only would this raise standards, and make artists and their work more attractive to promoters and for export to other sectors it would save the industry considerable money replacing disillusioned artists who leave to pursue other careers.
In order to survive as an artist, most have had to develop a strong and diverse range of skills. So how do you actually get these skills?
- College? - although not suitable, accessible or relevant for some, full or part time courses can be the answer
- Learn alone, on the job? - this is what most have done usually out of a need to earn, but this 'seat of the pants' learning really is the hard way to go about it
- From a friend/colleague? - at best this is a great source of learning, at worst its unstructured and there just never seems to be enough time. Are all practitioners good trainers? Should the industry be reliant on this hidden subsidy?
- Pay for it? - Cheshire Dance calculated that for every day that an artist trains, it can cost them up to 2.5% of their annual income if it is not subsidised. Course fees, combined with travel, accommodation and loss of earnings all add up to make CPD very expensive.
- Search far and wide? - for relevant opportunities, how can I tap into the growing CPD network and get what is right for me?
The Arts Council seems to be catching on to this. CPD awards for individuals, investment in the national CPD initiative 'creative people' and CPD programmes such as Cheshire Dance's 'Bloom' which has just received considerable lottery backing, all demonstrate that CPD is here and is here to stay.
'Bloom' is Cheshire Dance's annual development programme for community dance artists, and with a recent RALP award it now has more than half the ideal level of funding in place. It is for both emerging and established artists alike.
We anticipate that emerging artists will use the programme:
- to develop their key skills and broaden their skills base
- to combat isolation
- to learn from role models and peers
- to gain confidence in their own practice
- to make new contacts and promote themselves for future work
- as a resource for information and advice
- to ensure they are still involved in their chosen profession in five years time.
Whilst established artists will use the programme:
- as something they can both contribute to and benefit from
- to take time out to reflect and look in-depth at their personal development
- to develop their skills from specifically identified needs
- to share practice
- as a re-entry point to the profession, after maternity leave for example
- to set themselves up as a role model for those with less experience
- to ensure they are still involved in their chosen profession in five years time.
In shaping the 'Bloom' programme and to ensure its relevance to artists' needs, Cheshire Dance conducted a series of in-depth skills development interviews across the country, each one lasting around three hours. Through this survey of practising artists we sought to find out more about the diversity of backgrounds artists have and the breadth of experience they bring to the industry. We were trying to understand what has shaped their personal development up until now, and at the same time encourage reflection. Our aim was to get beneath the surface of current practice, examine it at micro-level - the devil-in-the-detail type stuff - to understand what makes the artist/community relationship work and understand from a wide range of different perspectives, how artists make dance such an exciting medium through which to enthuse individuals and engender notions of community. We asked about how initial training could be different, how people best learn, in what context? Our quest was about skills and knowledge. What tools do people carry around with them? What special knowledge do they have that enables them to get to work with a group?
For some it was the first time they had looked at their work in this way, actually using the interview itself to start their own skills assessment. People described the pool of skills, knowledge and experience, that they draw from to stimulate creativity. And of course, people talked about confidence, getting a difficult group started and working with what works. People talked about feeling exposed, feeling like they had to be the 'jack-of-all-trades'.
The pool of skills and knowledge people were describing centred around the following areas:
- artistic development - many people felt a need to re-stimulate the artist in the teacher
- body knowledge - continual awareness and work on artists' own physicality was deemed essential
- planning - meticulous or simple? Above all, effective facilitation with an emphasis on work in a social inclusion context - when to facilitate / when to direct / when to teach?
- evaluation - do we use evaluation to open up the world of dance/or close it off? Is it for debating the issues or presenting the glossy findings?
- self-organisation - can we deal with the big issues before they become pressing?
- networking/promotion/getting support - how do we get known and noticed, by groups, peers and during funding decisions?
Armed with so many in-depth views we could genuinely inform the development programme both in terms of detailed content and the underlying principles that artists were demanding:
- access to an open learning environment with physical, financial and attitudinal barriers removed
- flexibility to respond to working needs and patterns
- quality of input required to ensure lasting impact for both emerging and experienced artists alike
- challenge to stretch individual and industry practice
- wide ownership of the programme itself to ensure continuing relevance.
The resulting programme is quite simply a means by which the variously dispersed pools of skills and knowledge around the country could link up and be opened up to others in the industry. The programme itself will be led by leaders in the field, sometimes in conventional ways through specific courses or in less conventional ways such as shadowing.
The programme content itself looks like this:
- match-making - buddying, shadowing, team teaching and mentoring opportunities
- advice surgeries and action learning sets (group mentoring) for emerging and established artists
- a combined arts residential course for artists to develop their collaborative skills alongside other artform artists
- 'Fresh' residential course for artists' personal and artistic development
- Faith, Hope and Clarity - a short course focusing on project management, self-organisation and self-employment
- issue based, project related training - (funded through other sources but integrated with the rest of the Cheshire Dance programme)
- an annual apprenticeship opportunity- fixed term, part-time
- individual plans - an optional skills assessment and planning tool
- update - newsletter of the skills development programme
- website - of the Skills development programme and sounding board for ideas and feedback
- how to... fact sheets - information gathered as a result of artists requests
- signposting - to other programmes and working with others to offer need specific complimentary programmes, including the availability of bursaries for artists to pursue their development needs outside 'Bloom'
- feedback - links to existing artists' fora and individual project evaluations to inform the programme
- annual programme evaluations, with rolling recommendations for the future.
Various elements of the programme have been piloted to good effect - the action learning sets for example, where anyone involved in dance can come, share key issues and through a series of 'questions only' from the group, guide themselves to the right solution. The first Fresh course has had lasting impact too - practitioners have continued to find it useful to start up a daily diary during difficult or pressured time, to open up the discussion with themselves, be it for an artistic or organisational issue. They also realised how hungry they were to move regularly and further explore and even challenge their own physicality. And of course, everyone remembered the food. Cheshire Dance itself, as an organisation, has developed a genuine and open learning culture - an example of which is that now all job adverts 'seek an active learner as well as deliverer'.
As I understand it, CPD is anything to do with experimenting, exploring, research and development, learning or study, once a practitioner has entered his or her profession. Across the country, the range and breadth of opportunity is endless. That is why the 'CreativePeople' initiative is seeking to map it. Unless you entered the profession yesterday, you have probably been doing some CPD, be it attending class, a training day or even going to see a performance. The question is, 'is it good quality CPD and is it getting you where you want to go?'
For the dance industry to really grasp CPD as an opportunity, I think two things are required:
1. That artists see CPD as a means to stay curious with the world and skilled enough to impact on it.
2. That funding bodies continue to be bold and support CPD in all its many forms and not demand that flexible, responsive CPD programmes like 'Bloom' have to become bogged down with accreditation until artists actually start asking for it, and promoters and purchasers start demanding it.
Contact Cheshire Dance on +44 (0)1606 861770, Adam Holloway: adam@cheshiredance.org and Yee Ling Tang, skills development officer: yeeling@cheshiredance.org