Community Dance Wales (CDW) is certainly continuously developing its professionalism, as an organisation. Having evolved from a voluntary supportive network of dance practitioners across Wales, it is now a well-established and respected, national body, representing the sector alongside its peers such as Foundation for Community Dance, Dance UK and Dance Scotland.
Progress in just the last couple of years has been significant. From one part-time employee, working out of a home office, CDW has grown to a team of three, based in a dedicated office in a brand new community building. This has been matched by a dramatic growth in active membership, as the status and profile of the organisation has inevitably increased. And most of all it has been matched by a real uplift in core revenue funding, from the Arts Council of Wales, which after many years of paying lip-service to the importance of CDW, finally reflected this in a grant increase. And the reason for this step-change? The recognition of the need for training and development of existing and potential community dance practitioners to meet the ever-growing demand for dance in communities across Wales.
'There is pioneering work to be done in community dance... we need more people with the skills, knowledge, experience, attitudes, values and vision to take this further'
Dianne Hebb, Senior Strategic Development Officer, Arts Council of Wales
It has never been possible (and this remains the case now) to achieve complete dance training without leaving Wales. Talented individuals leave to find better training and new opportunities elsewhere and often do not return. Sustaining a career in Wales as a dance artist and performer is difficult, but as a dance practitioner and leader it is more than possible.
Timing, of course, is everything - in the late nineties CDW commissioned research into training and development needs, specifically for this sector, which resulted in a published report 'Steps in Time'. This was launched with some pizzazz, in April 2000, at the newly established National Assembly for Wales and benefited from coinciding with the Assembly's own review of the arts in Wales. This in itself was a coup, in that the arts review was the first priority of the then Post-16 Education Committee. This Committee subsequently, (and not without much lobbying by the broader arts fraternity,) evolved into the first ever Committee for Arts & Culture (& Sport & Welsh Language) in Wales with its own first Minister for Culture, Jenny Randerson. A number of Assembly papers have followed 'A Culture in Common', 'A Platform for Improvement' and ultimately, 'Creative Future'. All of these documents take on board the value and impact of dance in the community and strategies reflect the fact that community dance can make an enormous contribution to fulfill the Assembly's own social agenda.
'to... develop forward strategies which will recognise the importance of community, grass roots voluntary activity in the development of arts and culture in Wales.'
Jenny Randerson AM, in response to Culture in Common, March 19 2001.
Demonstrating our ability to address issues of social inclusion, equality of opportunity, cultural diversity, ability and disability is easy for us because it is what we are all about. It is not an add-on, to meet funding requirements or an afterthought because it looks good on the application form, it is the fundamental ethos on which community dance is delivered. Finally in Wales we are beginning to feel that this is genuinely welcomed - another big step forward for community dance.
In common with the experience of Eire over the past ten years, Wales is now benefiting from an injection of European money through Objective One funding - large areas of the principality have been designated as below the accepted levels of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). One of the main purposes of this funding is to deliver training for the up-skilling of a Wales-based workforce: in simple terms, enabling people to earn their living. Many Local Authorities and other organisations are beginning to access money to improve the quality of life of their constituents and are realising that the arts, and often dance in particular, has huge potential in this field. Not only can we motivate people to become more active citizens, we can deliver multi-layered benefits, which transfer into achievements in other walks of life.
This has resulted in a problem for CDW - a good kind of a problem, but a problem all the same - in that we do not have enough skilled, knowledgeable and experienced community dance practitioners to meet demand and ensure a quality dance experience. But it has also resulted in an opportunity for CDW too; in that we can access this funding to meet our own objectives ie. to increase the pool of skilled practitioners who are available to offer a variety of skills and expertise to deliver dance in the widest range of community contexts.
'Steps in Time' identified key issues about delivering training, some of which may be particular to the situation in Wales. It is not a huge country in size, but transport systems are abysmal; population is concentrated in the South East and access to dance provision, especially through educational systems, is patchy and dependent on geography. Many dance practitioners live in isolated rural areas, maybe do not drive, have family commitments and yet are dedicated to delivering dance in their own community and deserve the support to enable them to pursue their chosen professional career.
'Training is never finished. It needs to be continual'
Dawns Dyfed
Training opportunities need to be bite-sized, and accessible in every sense of the word - economically, geographically, linguistically and in terms of time commitment for busy dancers. Language is a sensitive issue, particular to working in Wales, where development of the native language is given high priority. CDW's remit has to be to ensure that activities are available through the preferred language of the participant and yet we are desperately short of dance practitioners who can lead dance through the medium of the Welsh language. There are some notable areas of expertise such as Dawns Dyfed and Dawns i Bawb, where local demand is high and dance leaders have a deep and genuine commitment to their Welsh culture and language, though in other areas such as Cardiff, where Welsh medium schools are keen to offer dance activities in Welsh, it is a problem.
To get things moving in January 2002, CDW launched into a whole range of one-off training events ranging from Capoeira to Samba Percussion to Anatomy & Physiology to First Aid to Business Planning to Arts Marketing. This created a real buzz in the dance world in Wales because this level of quality specialist training had never been available before: these one or two day events are held at different locations across Wales and designed to meet specific requests and interests of the sector.
'We walked in not really knowing what to expect and we walked out with a new vision of movement'
Practitioner who attended our first event - a two-day Capoeira workshop
Importantly, these events are open to potential community dance practitioners, not just members of CDW. Emphasis is placed on nurturing and stimulating those bodies and minds exhausted by delivering different dance activities, week-in, week-out, with no refreshment or renewal. The aim is to broaden the skills base and create more specialist expertise to meet the demands of myriad client groups. These events have now evolved into a theme-based termly programme and incorporate three areas of training need, identified as core skills, community skills, and inspiration - participants choose the learning they need for their own personal progression.
Funding from Education Learning Wales (ELWa), has enabled CDW to implement other schemes which provide alternative access points to training, and Individual Training Grants allow people to attend special interest, one-off courses whilst Personal Development Partnerships provide some financial support to a trainee on placement with an experienced practitioner. Mentoring Partnerships are the next initiative about to be tested, offering nourishment to practitioners, perhaps further on in their career, but in need of guidance and support of a different kind.
'The placement has helped my career progression and I feel I am now earning my place in the dance community'
Rebecca Carpenter on a Professional Development Partnership with Lizzie Davies at Valley & Vale
And the challenges for the future? I guess old clichés are just that because they are all too true - you can not please all of the people all of the time and no matter how hard we try to take the right course, to the right location, on the right day, it does not suit everyone. 'Steps in Time' attempts to remove barriers identified as standing in the way of people attending further training. Not only are the courses heavily subsidised - each course costs only £10 - but participants can apply for help with travel, accommodation, child care, even class-cover, if that is the key which unlocks the opportunity for them.
But as we all know, the hardest thing for anyone to find is time, especially time to invest in ourselves. The individual is at the heart of what we are trying to achieve and we are aiming at a relatively small group of overstretched individuals.
It is important to recognise that providing the best opportunity to a particular dance artist, the one which allows them to continue their own personal development and make their contribution to community dance, is invaluable. So an important challenge is to find meaningful ways of evaluating these experiences to demonstrate what a difference they make. It is the personal successes which make the strongest case so we are working on diaries of trainees and case studies of participants and collaborating with Arts Training Wales on exploring new methods of making this work more visible.
And then there is accreditation. Not everyone wants a certificate to authenticate their achievement, but we are working in an environment where the community centre or local authority department now requires documentation of professionalism e.g. as proof of insurance, child protection procedures etc so some practitioners do welcome the chance to undertake training, which carries a recognised qualification. But it is a difficult balance - where is the qualification that proves you can motivate a group of boys to Break Dance or persuade a bunch of young mums to put down their cigarettes and try fitness related dance? How can we use the training development to work towards some kind of guarantee of a quality dance experience?
It is only just one year since CDW took a huge step up the ladder and dived into this pool of possibilities and we are still finding our way. My feeling is that the one-off courses will gradually give way to a more thoughtful and organic development of learning modules, from which practitioners will be able to pick and choose an accredited route to their own goals. New opportunities have yet to be explored such as on-line and distance learning and the new look Modern Apprenticeships in Wales. CDW will continue to work with valued colleagues who share our aspirations such as University of Wales Institute Cardiff, Diversions, the national dance company for Wales, ACW, ELWa and Arts Training Wales to help to change the picture for dance training in Wales. Our aim - to complete the circle of opportunity for training in dance within Wales so that it flows continuously from that first step right through a dancing life.
Gillian Dale, Development Officer, Community Dance Wales, +44 (0)2920 575 075, email Gillian@communitydancewales.com www.communitydancewales.com