People Dancing

Nina Simone, who described herself as an activist and an artist, and indeed fought for civil rights through her artistry, is quoted as saying: “How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?”. This edition of Animated provides a platform for the diverse voices of dance artists and leaders sharing what drives them. How is their practice situated in and informed by the current climate, moving between and connecting the bigger picture with closer concerns? In her article, Jackie Richards talks about “more dance, more peace and a better world”.

And so to Our Dance Democracy: Dance, Performance, Culture and Civic Democracy, a conference organised by Merseyside Dance Initiative (MDI) and Liverpool Hope University, which I was fortunate to attend recently. Presenters talked coherently about artistic and creative leadership practices – ‘their practice’ - that spanned different contexts, communities and intentions. There were compelling narratives about artists and people working together through participatory practices and processes to create, and in some cases perform together, artistic works. Others described a palpable sense of communities created by people dancing through responses to shared experiences, cultural traditions, location and landscape. We hope to share some of the conference presentations in the next edition of Animated.

This experience, for me, cut straight back to one of the more useful descriptions of participatory dance I’ve heard used, which is that of people ‘making meaning for themselves and their communities through dance and dancing’. At one point in discussion a presenter asked, ‘what are we calling this thing?’ and we all nodded, and chuckled, and didn’t have an answer. Or at least, we didn’t have the same answer. There was a sense of shared and deeply understood ethics, and absolute respect for the participants, but I felt then perhaps more than ever that language, or at least our use of it, needs revisiting. So perhaps it is time for some more debate about this, about the why as well as the how.

Meanwhile in other news Matt Hancock, the current Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and former culture secretary, has stated that “Arts on prescription should be at the centre of the UK healthcare system” going on to say prescribing arts and culture should become an “indispensable tool” in tackling loneliness, mental health and other long-term conditions. These words are reinforced by a survey of GPs that showed significant support for the positive contribution engagement with the arts can make to preventing ill health and improving people’s health.

This is quite something, though of course for some healthcare professionals ‘social prescribing’ and support for dance and the arts is nothing new. Dance artists, teachers and organisations have been pioneering work in this field for many years, often in partnership with healthcare champions. But while the argument to occupy the space has been successful, the next challenge is to secure consistent resources to put policy into action. We know that dance can be a ‘cost effective’ way of enabling people to live creative, engaged and healthy lives - but it’s not free. It is simply a fact that dance artists and teachers must be supported in their work and properly paid for what they do.

Chris Stenton, Executive Director, People Dancing

chris@communitydance.org.uk