From the editor
Ken Bartlett, Director, Foundation for Community Dance
Over the past year Work in Dance, a consortium of organisations including the Foundation for Community Dance, Dance UK and Artists Development at the Place have, through research, meetings and informed guesses begun the process of attempting to generate a map of the issues of professional development to be addressed within dance as well as a map of the opportunities available to support ongoing learning for long term employment in the sector.
This and the next issue of Animated focus on professional development for people working in dance, it begins the process of making more apparent the issues facing the profession and identifying some of the solutions on offer around the UK.
Gill Clarke in the opening article of this first issue sets out a vision for an education in dance truly suited to the needs of artists, the art form and society; placing the future of dance in the hands of 'creative and talented individuals who have a confidence in their imagination and skills; individuals who are bursting with energy and ideas, backed up by the practical know-how to navigate, and influence, the existing structures to make things happen'.
'Across the country, the range and breadth of opportunity, for professional development is endless', according to Adam Holloway - Liz Aggiss experimenting with her vision of herself as she begins her sabatical; dancers and choreographers exploring the act of creation together with artists from other forms, cultural traditions and media in the PAL Labs; artist and teachers researching what they have to offer each other in the Animarts initiative; Retina Dance taking both the risk and the responsibility with new graduates; building on existing traditions of 'shishya' at Akademi.
In his article, Leading the Way? Duncan Fraser urges us find ways to encourage, develop and support leaders in dance and Judy Bird, quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson, suggests that we should not 'go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.'
Sue Williams reminds us that we don't all start from the same place so this issue of Animated stresses the need for learning opportunities that place individual curiousity at the centre of the experience, that help us as individuals take control of the decisions about our own professional development suitable for how we learn, as well as what we might need to know. Experiences that value what we know already and recognise the value of learning from each other as well as from outside expertise. Centrally, several authors have placed dance itself as a site of learning - creatively nourishing the very instrument on which dance as an art form depends - truly building bodies of knowledge.
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Animated: Winter 2003