Onwards and upwards

Whilst preparing this article, StopGAP found out that it has been awarded three years of funding as one of Arts Council England’s (ACE) National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs). In the announcements we are cited alongside other contemporary dance companies such as Hofesh Shechter and Vincent Dance Theatre. It is something we feel comfortable with. When StopGAP first started in the 1990s however, integrated dance struggled to get such recognition and acceptance.

We started as a community project, blissfully naïve, focusing on developing our principles for the honest, integrated dance that we wanted to pursue. Our ethos was that everyone contributed equal effort. Our community work was available for all but our performance work was by selected individuals. Recruitment and retention of the right dancers was key, with length of service creating a depth of understanding in the team. Sounds quite normal to me now, but at the time it felt revolutionary.

Then, CandoCo was becoming established and StopGAP, Blue Eyed Soul, Anjali, High Spin and Touchdown Dance were finding their way. Southbank Centre was key, with Ballroom Blitz giving such companies a national platform and igniting debate. Its support was hugely influential, enabling us to commission a new work ‘properly’ for the first time, giving us the tantalising glimpse of where we wanted to be. ACE, led by Lauren Scholey, spent time investigating what was happening in this emerging sector, and pulled everyone together for the first time. StopGAP looked to Graeae with a sense of wonder and aspiration as it didn’t seem to have to fight for acceptance. Our sector was emerging and learning, but it felt fragile.

It was hard to find dancers with the right skills and attitude, so we did all the training ourselves. We made and performed our work but struggled to secure the resources to enable us to invest in our art as an equal in the mainstream dance sector. Conferences I attended and spoke at were led by development organisations not by artists. The events themselves were invaluable, but I remember the feeling of frustration when the debate got caught up with semantics rather than focusing on the leading artists’ current thinking and discussing how to develop. Despite being proud to be integrated, we didn’t fit comfortably in either the dance or the disability world, which was disconcerting.

Now, the quality of integrated dance astounds and challenges. The UK leads integrated dance on the world stage with key companies firmly established. We enjoy making work with internationally acclaimed choreographers and playing at major dance spaces all over the world. There are exciting developments: the new generation of integrated dance companies and independent artists with disability; and some non-integrated dance companies casting dancers with disabilities, such as Scottish Dance Theatre and Ballet C de la B. Our artists are invited abroad to share practice and demonstrate what can be achieved, resulting in integrated dance initiatives that have the capability to become worthy ‘rivals’ to the UK – Epic Arts in Cambodia is an exhilarating example.

The longest-running dilemma is training. How can more integrated companies sit comfortably in the mainstream if there aren’t enough trained dancers with disabilities to make auditions as competitive as they are for equivalent non-disabled positions? It needs resolving, and integrated dance companies are working together. Discussions about how to lead and develop the sector are being led by artists for artists (for instance CandoCo’s latest series of events), and there is an exciting feeling of acceleration in the development of the sector. We still haven’t cracked the training issues, but we are heading in the right direction and there are some amazing dancers with disabilities who are emerging despite the lack of traditional routes.

So? what? next? The issues for integrated dance companies are the same as our mainstream colleagues, it’s simply that the repercussions hit us harder, faster and with more devastation. The main issue at the moment is financial survival in a time of unprecedented change. The NPO decisions have yet to be fully absorbed, but they and the impact of future local authority funding will change the arts scene dramatically. The old debate of “is disability dance harder to sell than dance?” will be replaced by questions of whether any kind of touring is sustainable. Gone are the days of being able to do our usual touring of 35 venues a year. We will have to be more inventive and strategic in our choices, visiting fewer venues, but embedding ourselves in local communities for longer. These are both long-held ambitions for us, but I would have preferred to choose the time-scale. It is deeply concerning that there are fewer regularly funded integrated dance companies now, so it’s crucial that everyone continues to work together to ensure our sector continues to develop.

But I feel optimistic. Over the last six months, the integrated sector and dance world in general have fiercely pulled together to make the political arguments that are needed. I’m proud to be part of the dance scene in the South East and the leadership that has been shown already will be needed even more over the next year. My personal priority is to retain my staff to protect that longevity and depth of knowledge, to enable us to continue making remarkable dance. But at a time where I should be feeling most fearful, I am nurturing the strongest feeling of hope and pride for integrated dance in the UK, and am humbled and amazed about how much progress has been made over the past decade. Let’s hope that momentum continues, somehow.