From the editor
Ken Bartlett, Creative Director, Foundation for Community Dance
People, communities and the art of dance are central to what community dance is about. This issue of Animated explores with individual artists, companies and agencies the ways in which communities of dancers and dance communities are encouraged to flourish,and their reflections on this experience.
Linking with the last issue of Animated,with its focus on cultural diversity, Scilla Dyke takes an in depth look with Marie McCluskey at how Swindon Dance has worked closely with culturally diverse artists and communities to build a continuum of developing practice that places the aspirations and ambitions of those artists and communities at its centre. We also feature an article by Eckhard Thiemann who describes the approach taken by Woking Dance Umbrella in building new relationships with their local Muslim community.
The importance of respect for the individual within their community - and their unique strengths and contributions - is a common theme, and reveals the high artistic demands being asked of and achieved by community dancers. As Kevin Finnan, Artistic Director of Motionhouse Dance Theatre, reflects: his vision for the massive-scale Road to the Beach project and the performance of The Edge at Watergate Bay, Cornwall,was achieved by "a cast of performers", who "just happened to be from the community, but the standards that were demanded, and
achieved were those that would be expected from a professional company. There were no compromises."
Angus Balbernie takes a personal view of the dancing communities he has been a part of and reflects on what it means to be part of a community of dancers, whilst Chris Lewis-Smith considers the shifting nature of community in TAN dance's Summer performance project. Jenny Potkins looks over at 21 years of Chisenhale Dance Space developing a community of dancers and community dance by putting the artist and the person at the centre of their vision.
Elsewhere in the magazine, and focussing on dance,young people and technology, Rachel McCartney of Random Dance reveals some of the processes, challenges and successes of TEN@Random - a project taking place across London secondary schools,including some boroughs prioritised by the Department for Education and Skills as being areas of social and economic depravation. CandoCo's Sue Smith and Stine Nilsen draw our attention to a landmark in professional dance training with the launch of the UK's first Foundation Course for disabled students.
Our international section features Ludus Dance Company, and their recent
international youth dance exchange between young people in Lancaster and a group from Northern Bulgaria,whilst Christina Tsoules reports back on the Community/Performance conference held at Bryant University, Rhode Island, in June 2004.
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Animated: Autumn 2004