All building projects which fail have much in common - those that succeed on the other hand have an individual story to tell.
Dance Base in Edinburgh is Scotland's recently opened National Centre for Dance. Its overnight success is, in some ways, a surprise; but in other ways, corroborates the adage that behind success lay hard work and the imaginative energies of many. Scotland has at last a centre for dance worthy of its recently devolved status. Launched officially in September 2001 by the Prince of Wales and Prince William, it is a memorable example of what can grow from a strategically placed acorn.
But let us go back almost a decade and a half and consider the beginnings of the project. In 1988, a three-year dance artist-in-residence post was established in a little-used room in the King's Theatre Edinburgh. Something of its size and status may be guessed at from its title - Dance Attic. With the initial funding provided by Edinburgh District Council and the Scottish Arts Council, the post relocated in 1989 to the Assembly Rooms in George Street.
A project director was appointed two years later. Dance Base became a company limited by guarantee with charitable status and by 1992, a board of directors was established to implement their first business plan. During this period, two full-time posts were funded - artistic director and general manager - and a continually expanding programme of classes, workshops and outreach activity was instigated in the environs of Edinburgh.
However, it would be wrong to consider that the present outcome has always been the preferred option for the growth of Dance Base. Many times in the 90s when the future was being reviewed, other solutions were put under the microscope. For a long time, an expansion plan based on partnership with the Assembly Rooms was actively pursued but changes in the building's policy made this impossible. Thus, the demand for more space necessitated a site search and by 1994 a building brief was developed - the hunt was on. The time spent researching the elements required of a potential venue was to pay dividends. After a long and exhaustive search, a site owned by a brewery was located in the historic Grassmarket area close to the old city walls and directly below Edinburgh Castle. It proved to have much in its favour:
- a good central location with potential parking
- citywide public transport links to Edinburgh and the surrounding district
- inclusion in a world heritage site
- proximity to internationally recognised features
- major performing spaces within walking distance
- high visibility to the non-dance world through its placement on a main city street.
However, despite these favourable circumstances it did not prove to be an easy choice. Many problems arose during its development. Top of the list must be the difficulties encountered in attempting to unlock the funding needed for such a vast undertaking. Most organisations would have been defeated by one rejection from the Lottery Board - Dance Space survived two. But there was an inevitability about this particular project. Everyone I spoke to about it identified it as an idea, which was always going to succeed no matter what unforeseen difficulties had to be overcome. As a corollary, an Arts Council of Scotland spokesperson admitted that its timing was one of the lucky factors connected toit. If a similar project were to present itself now it could not be supported at a similar level because the Lottery no longer has the funds to award to applications of this scale. It was the right thing at the right time.
The nature of the site necessitated negotiations with three different owners - negotiations that were to prove difficult to keep in tandem. There were a multiplicity of planning issues that had to be potentially solved and the back wall unexpectedly needed reinforcement - incurring the equally unexpected costs. Of course, had there not been difficulties associated with this particular site, then it would have been snapped up long before.
The dereliction of the site defied imagination. But an unlikely alliance between architectural firm, Malcolm Fraser Architects and Dance Base was to prove an electric combination. In fact, Cindy Sughrue, the organisation's first general manager, maintains that it was this potent combination together with the nature of the brief, that led to the creation of four very special studios - each with their distinct personality - each bathed ill natural light. Their functional differences will in the future prove invaluable to the development of the artistic programme; whilst providing inspirational workspaces for practicing professional artists and dance beginners alike. Any architect could have produced a quartet of spaces to work in. It takes someone with both talent and understanding to create four such contrasting spaces where individuals feel they can take flight. The time the architect spent personally experiencing dance classes and growing close to the artform has paid dividends - the aura the building reflects - of being planned with understanding, conceived with love, makes you want to dance - and to dance with your utmost. That is the measure of Fraser's success.
One or two critics have asked whether this is the time to be celebrating spending so much money on bricks- and-mortar but the imagination with which this building is imbued has provided Dance Base with the perfect answer to such Jeremiahs. We need such soul enhancing architecture now more than ever.
In all operations, there is always a critical turning point when the tone is set for the future and when the scale of the operation is established. For Sughrue this was the chairmanship of Lianne Hackett, whose dynamic target setting identified with Dance Bases' search for a new home, placed beyond dispute the need to take the vital decision to go large-scale. Through her leadership the safe option was taken off the agenda - there would be no compromise. From that time forward her strong steer plus the energetic and deeply committed building sub-committee ensured that the project was able to survive all traumas.
But for a building to be a public success, it needs a human face for the public to identify with it. For the new studio complex on the Grassmarket, this has been supplied by Morag Deyes who was appointed as artistic director of the Dance Base operation in 1992. Since then, she has been one of the major reasons for the ultimate triumph of the undertaking. It was a role that site was born to play. An enthusiast for dance in all its forms, she exemplified the importance of the human factor in the assessment of any project. The job needed someone for whom dance was not merely an interest but a passion. With her flagrantly colourful character, she furnished the leaven any activity needs to create for the wider world all that was fizz and fermentation.
It is pointless being an artistic director and dressing like a banker from Morningside. Morag does not dress like anyone else in or out of Morningside. However, not only is she is modishly memorable (think of Audrey Hepburn's wardrobe in Breakfast at Tiffany's and double its kooky voguishness), but she also knows a great deal about the art and practicality of making dances. Despite this expertise, she puts her case for dance in very unthreatening language. The Edinburgh worthies she had to win over to her side would never be driven away by her presentation. Her strength is that she always makes all forms of dance seem a perfectly natural function for any sensible society, open to all and disturbing to none. No one could believe that dance was exclusive or snobbish once they had heard her enthuse on the subject. So much so that I am sure that she would be open to running a class for those with two left feet; except that she does not believe that any such phenomena exists.
An association from an early age with maverick theatre magus Lindsay Kemp has ensured that she has always known what a personal aesthetic means - yet she possesses the breadth of understanding to value and protect aesthetics that she does not share or does not like. Her role at Dance Base has been an invaluable strength and this in turn has meant that the organisation can call on a wide constituency within the dance profession, which has underpinned support for their expanded vision throughout all its stages.
She exemplifies what the words artistic director should mean. Artistic directors are the people paid by society to dream the impossible dream and to go 'where the brave only go'. They are the absolute opposite of what Billy Connelly calls the beige cardigan brigade. I cannot imagine Morag in any beige article of clothing (1). Nobody in their right minds should want a 'sensible' artistic director, for they never deliver the unforgettable, they cannot make a lasting impression, they never make history because the role of the bold dreamer is absent from their team. Ultimately, Dance Base's new premises in the Grassmarket are such a success story because the process was driven by a team of contrasting personalities who were guided by a unique woman who understood the true meaning of two of the most misunderstood words in the language namely, artistic director.
Dick Matchett, dance consultant.
Lessons to be learnt;
I believe success is science and as such, it has laws, which can be learnt and put into practice. Are there any lessons to take away from this story of the transformation of a Dance Attic into four international scale studios? The Scottish experience and personalities are unique. Still there are a few truths, which may be of interest to other schemes.
- From the beginning take time to employ an imaginative team and identify partners of quality the people you work with give credence to a project (or not)
- Take time over making your arguments sound and people friendly. Then do not be afraid to repeat these arguments - and then re-repeat your repetitions. You can never have too much of a strong argument
- Ensure that the case you make is about people first and art second. Learn from Samuel Beckett when faced with failure(2), namely continue with the project even if this means failing for a second time but be sure to fail better
- Take the Stephen Sondheim quotation from Gypsy to heart: 'If you are going to bump it - bump it with a trumpet.(3) In other words (as Tony Blair did not say) to succeed with a big arts project there are three things that must be done publicize, publicize, publicize
- Councillors are most likely to come on board to support a project if the high art aspects of the artform are presented alongside the health and recreation benefits of dance; indeed on occasions it might be more effective to place the health and recreational case upfront
- The social importance of dance has to be married to its aesthetic significance before politicians will take it up in any helpful way. In other words, first the case has to be made that dance classes make better people before you can win the argument that dance classes need supporting to make better choreographers and performers. All amateur's and dance activists who wish to take their programme forward have to quickly learn to live with this however much it hurts.
References
1. Connelly, B. extract from Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, London, 2001
2. Beckett, Samuel, Source unknown
3. Sondheim, Stephen, Quotation from Gypsy, New York, 1959