The awards, designed to offer students the opportunity to train to the highest standards of professional competency in dance, drama and stage management/production, offer greatly reduced tuition fees and help with living and learning costs. Only twenty-three schools offer awards - schools like Ballet Rambert, London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Italia Conti and Webber Douglas. Each year 820 Awards are given to these providers to pass on to the most talented students at audition/interview.
So are disabled people getting awards? Not yet. Less than 2% of these scholarships, funded by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), are currently going to students who identify as disabled people.
The research found that the schools were nervous of admitting disabled students as they felt their staff had little experience of working with disabled students. They also had concerns about the physical accessibility of their sites and the limited resources they had to provide support. The DfES is supporting the schools, through guidance, training and specific initiatives, to move forward and develop more inclusive practices. But the picture is much bigger than the DaDA schools alone. What did the research into disability and the DaDA find that might be useful to the Performing Arts sector as a whole?
Access to pre-vocational training
One of the starkest findings was that disabled people are still finding it hard to both access and maintain access to pre-vocational training. Physical access to spaces, the attitude and lack of knowledge of teaching staff and also the attitudes of the parents of other children were some of the blocks facing young disabled people wanting to sustain an early interest in dance. The research picked up desperately sad tales of disabled people being asked to leave Saturday dance classes as the parents of other children felt their presence inappropriate and restricting; children choosing not to audition for school performances as they felt no one should have to look at them; and classes moving location through shortage of funds, leaving wheelchair-using members unable to attend.
Access to inspiration
Self-censorship is still rife. Many disabled children and young people still feel the performing arts for 'not for people like them'. The majority of the examples they see - on TV, in films, on the stage, in shows - are still populated by non-disabled people. There are some brilliant examples to the contrary, but not enough. Young disabled people are not being 'switched on' to the performing arts as a potential career opportunity.
This leaves a real and difficult question: how are we going to inspire the next generation of disabled dancers and actors? We can work on improving access to training at all levels, but if no one comes forward to take the places available within that training framework, then it will have been pointless.
Access to opportunities
When disabled dancers in particular do get access to opportunities to train and perform, it is often in a very limited environment, for example, through constant access to one company and their working methods. This has been recognised by some companies who seek to bring in a variety of choreographers and dance workers to address this isolation. But that demands greater capacity and resources, things that only a few companies have access to. For disabled dancers, it means a lack of choice. Of many it is only a choice between working in one way or not working at all.
Access to employment
The employment situation is changing, becoming more positive for disabled performers, particularly in relation to the demand for disabled actors for TV and film. But what about the employment prospects in dance? On one hand, the situation is good - there are a growing number of disability-related, integrated or inclusive dance companies in the UK working at different levels and a number of disabled dancers are carving out niches for themselves as choreographers and workshop facilitators working with community groups. On the other hand, the situation is less rosy. Unlike in small to mid-scale touring theatre, the number of mainstream companies who have utilised the skills of disabled dancers are small, and in many fields of dance, the thought of visibly disabled dancers is still seen as a ludicrous ideal of political correctness.
Challenging assumptions
The research highlighted the need to go back and challenge a number of the assumptions that we all, the sector, the funding system, the individuals involved, have about dance and the performing arts. What do we mean by the term 'a dancer' or 'an actor'?
Do we mean the ability to take on character, emotion, feeling and communicate that to an audience, the ability to command attention on stage, and perform with integrity and honesty? Or do we still mean the ability to talk in a particular way, walk in a particular way or look a particular way?
This naturally leads to questions about assessment, aesthetics and ethos. How do we compare work between dancers, between companies when the work may have such different aims and purpose? How can we support dancers, and companies to develop disability-specific or inclusive practices if we do not know where that 'fits' into the sectors own development? Many companies, organisations and individuals are currently working hard on knitting parts of this puzzle, and others on drawing those strands together to provide some form of overview and direction. Perhaps greater clarity here will help to provide some of the inspiration that is currently lacking?
Joined up thinking
The DaDA awards are a small scheme operating in one highly specialised area of training for the performing arts. The work that they are undertaking to improve access to both the school and the scheme is extremely valid and should have profound effects internally, but on its own it just will not work. Nor will any of the efforts to improve access to a specific company, training route or product. It needs a joined up approach.
All the Government departments (such as the Department for Education and Skills, The Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport) need to work together. They also need to ensure the bodies they fund are linked into the jigsaw: organisations like the Disability Rights Commission, the Arts Councils of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, training bodies, lead organisations and so on.
The time is right
I sense there is a growing feeling that we are on the edge of something. That this might be, finally, the time when things could come together. We have a higher profile - we are at the end of the European Year of Disabled People, about to hit the implementation of the final part of the Disability Discrimination Act in relation to access to goods and services.
Through the appointment of a new Director of Diversity at Arts Council England (Tony Panayiotou) and the prioritisation of Capital bids from Disability Arts organisations, disability seems to have gained back a profile and status within the Arts funding system, one which it appeared to be in danger of loosing.
The broadcasting networks are increasingly interested in disabled performers - partly due to the commitments made by individual broadcasters that are members of the Broadcasters Disability Network.
Individual companies, directors and choreographers - within both dance and theatre - have become interested in the creativity of disabled performers. Dance companies such as DV8, and choreographers such as Suburo Teshigawara have repeatedly used disabled dancers in their work.
We could fail to build on the profile and interest that there is in the work of disabled performers at present. We could choose to ignore the bigger picture - each just seek to perfect our own small part of the puzzle rather than to look at where and how it fits into the others. Or we could make the effort to all get round the same table and draw the bigger picture. We could work together to ensure that quality and equality are not mutually exclusive concepts.
For further information on the Dance and Drama Awards, contact Beverley Walker, Young People Learner Support and Dance and Drama Team, DfES, Moorfoot, Sheffield S1 4PQ. Telephone 0114 259 3764, fax 0114 259 3744 or email beverley.walker@dfes.gsi.gov.uk
Jo Verrent: ADA inc
The research for the Dfes was conducted by ADA inc (Access, Disability and Inclusion). ADA inc is run by Jo Verrent who is a consultant providing training, research and project management in inclusion and disability access, specialising in creative and cultural provision. Jo has won two accolades of which she is equally proud - the national Cosmopolitan Woman of Achievement Award and her village horticultural show's award for 'Best Preserve in Show' (for two years running).
Jo Verrent can be contacted at ADA inc, Spring House, Spring Farm Lane, Harden, West Yorkshire. BD16 1BS or telephone/fax 01535 274277, email joverrent@adainc.org Or visit www.adainc.org