Title: The Dancers World of Work
1- The Dancers World of Work
- Entrepreneurship in Dance Higher Education
2The Dance World
- Dance deals in the generation of intellectual
property through original choreography - that is then performed by dancers in live, filmed
and broadcast contexts. The - performance is the result of many other processes
that are essential to making it - possible, including management, technical support
and training and education. This - means that the dancers world of work is complex.
It is multi facetted with a - framework of interconnected employment sectors
characterised by complexity, - creativity and dynamism.
- This is a socio economic network.
- It is an aggregation of many smaller micro-worlds
or subcommunities, a social - network emerging from the cooperation of these
micro worlds all with greater or - lesser knowledge of the entire network.
- These subcommunities are best viewed as art
worlds.
3Dance Entrepreneurship
-
- The ability to balance creative independence with
the ability to work collaboratively - The ability to manage artistic integrity with an
understanding of finance and self management - The ability to create financial self sufficiency
through a creative and lateral approach to the
management of skills - The ability to create networks, maintain and
manage them and communicate effectively - Above all the ability to be proactive, pragmatic
and flexible -
- In addition, dancers work differently to
- entrepreneurs in different sectors
-
- Dancers work as part of a cluster, a creative
community that brings the collective set of
skills required to realise production and
distribution. Collaboration lies at the heart of
the dancers world. - Dancers create products that are not always
market orientated. Instead they need to find
markets for it after creating it. This requires
different approaches to marketing creating
demand rather than meeting it. This therefore
requires an understanding of the market, its
trends and an understanding of context and what
has gone before. -
4Characteristics of Employment within the Creative
Industries
- The sector is highly fluid characterised by rapid
change - It is comprised of a small number of large
enterprises and a large number of small
enterprises with a huge number of sole traders,
freelancers and micro businesses - The age profile of the sector is young with those
working as freelancers and sole traders largely
within the 22 40 age range, though there are
wide variations across different sub sectors - Davies and Lindley (2003) found that 39 of those
employed in cultural occupations as a main job
are self employed. This compares with 12 of
those in non cultural employment. - Permanent employment is declining and self
employment growing. - Flexible employment is increasing, with multiple
job holding and portfolio careers becoming a norm
5The Research
- Mapping the sector
- Interviews with Leading Industry figures
- Desk Research
- Mapping HE provision
- Desk Research
- Questionnaire
- Identification of Good Teaching and Learning
Practice - Sampling
- Case Studies
6The Dance Labour Market
- It is widely recognised that artists labour
markets are different from other labour markets.
(Towse, Baumol and Bowen, Throsby) - The labour market is fragmented and the artist
must use their art form knowledge as a flexible
resource for many purposes. - A narrow depiction of the dance world would
revolve around those directly engaged in
performance. But this group is small in
comparison to other parts of the sector.
Performers only make up a small proportion of the
dance labour market. - The largest group (estimated at around 75) is
teachers of dance. - There are a myriad of people supporting dance
including those managing, presenting and
organising it, those offering dance therapy,
journalists and critics. - There is often overlap between different roles
due to multiple job holding
7Peculiarities of Dancers Career
- Dancers are usually drawn to the discipline as
young children. Their dancing life may have
started as young as three or four and may have
informed their overall education. Time is a major
pressure for the aspiring performer. - The dancer uses their body as their instrument
and as such there are particular issues around
injury, ongoing training and maintenance of the
body. Dancers need to have a good understanding
of nutrition, health related issues and must
maintain their own physical well being to
minimise risk of injury - Dancers face short performance careers. The
physical demands they face mean that dancers know
that their career as a performer is likely to be
time limited and they may have to develop a
second career which may or may not be dance
related at some stage. Lack of performance
longevity means that there is a need to consider
how a dancer can sustain a career after retiring
from performance - The field is predominantly female. The demand for
good male dancers is strong whilst it is highly
competitive for women.
8Employment in the Dance World
9Dance Courses at FE/ HE Level
- Institutions offering Dance at FE/HE and
Vocational Levels 80 - HE Institutions 43
- FE Institutions 23
- Vocational Schools 15
- Number of CDET Accredited Institutions 15
- CDET Accreditation of HE courses 7
- BA Single Hons programmes 55
- BA Top up programmes 8
- Foundation courses 22
- HND 7
- National Diploma 19
10Student Numbers
- Full time Undergraduate places Dance
- 2002/03 1540
- 2003/04 1790
- 2004/05 2335
- 51 increase in full time undergraduate places
since 2002/03 - Unprecedented expansion in HE dance provision
- Size and scale of the sector suggests potential
over supply - BUT, demand for community dance artists and dance
teachers is high
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12Course ContentLevel of importance allocated to
differentareas of study within courses
- Choreography and Composition
- Technique
- Theoretical Skills
- Improvisation
- Production
- Management Skills
- Education/ Workshop skills
- HE appears to be developing conceptual dancers
able to conceive and create work within a
theoretical context - Lower importance appears given to the education
and workshop skills which are in demand within
the dance world - Management skills are ranked lower than
conceptual and theoretical skills
13Course ContentEntrepreneurship
- Some Key Findings
- The skills associated with entrepreneurship
including Self Management, Reflection, Creative
Problem Solving, Communication, Negotiation and
Networking are all being taught in an explicit
way by the majority of courses over all three
levels. - Strategic thinking is more often covered in an
implicit way (76) - Aptitudes such as flexibility, ability to take
risks, work in complex situations,multi task and
manage independently are encouraged by the
majority of courses at all levels. - 82 of programmes explicitly encourage the
ability to work collaboratively and in teams over
all three levels - Knowledge of the sector (policy, infrastructure,
support agencies etc) are delivered in an
explicit way over all three levels - Knowledge of business planning, self employment,
marketing, finance, CV writing, job search and
audition techniques are mainly delivered at level
3 (79) in an explicit way.
14Links with the Professional Dance World
- 79 of courses surveyed offer placements at level
2 and 57 at level 3. - All courses surveyed work with Dance
Practitioners in teaching, assessing and as guest
choreographers. - Case studies are used as a method of teaching and
learning with 69 of courses citing them at
level 2 and 77 at level 3 - 46 of the courses surveyed use professional
artists as mentors for students at level 1 - The majority of courses surveyed have close links
with professional dance organisations and/ or
professional dance companies
- Students are gaining professional practice
through projects which appear to support the
dance worlds need for resources - There are few pure academics working in the
field. This practitioner emphasis means courses
are well connected to the dance world and respond
and adapt rapidly to its needs - There is a direct connection between research,
teaching and learning and knowledge transfer
within many courses - Of the 8 courses sampled, 5 have recently
revalidated or are about to revalidate to ensure
the course remains relevant.
15Case One Embedding Knowledge, Skills and
Aptitudes
- De Montfort University BA (Hons) Dance
- Interaction with professional practitioners and
organisations enable students to appreciate
current practice and policy. - This helps students form real world conceptions
of how dance artists currently work and enables
students (from Level 2) to begin to re-envisage
themselves as providers - (rather than consumers), as professionals (rather
than students) and as autonomous (rather than
dependent) learners. - This is met by a curriculum design that enables
increasing student choice, independent learning
and negotiated study. - The Universitys Personal Development Planning
initiatives have encouraged students to think
more strategically about their futures from the
start of their courses. Most students are
thinking seriously about their futures at the
start of year 2. - Students become more aware as they progress in
the course and dialogue with practitioners and
representatives of dance and other cultural
organisations of the range of possible
opportunities. - They begin to appreciate that career paths are
not pre-determined.
16Case Two Delivering Entrepreneurship in an
Explicit Way
- Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts has
embedded modules within the BA (Hons) Dance
programme at all three levels that develop the
students professional practice skills. - The course was designed to meet the varying
demands of the dance profession. - Level One Professional Development Module
- The aim of this module is to provide students
with the necessary skills, knowledge and
experience to take full advantage of their
programme of study. The module will develop both
the generic study skills required of an
undergraduate and the specialist skills required
of a student of dance. - Personal Development Planning (PDP)
- Level Three Professional Preparation The
Independent Dancer - This module aims to direct the student to
organize and present themselves and their work to
a professional level, demonstrating a thorough
range of management, performance and promotion
skills. This is to prepare them to seek out and
create employment opportunities in and around
their chosen dance field(s). They will produce a
portfolio, including personal and company
business plans. They will gain experience in
audition and interview techniques and leading a
community workshop.
17Case Three Professional Practice and Engagement
with the Dance World
- 'DanceUS.Com'(Dance and the University of
Sunderland and Community)project. - Arts Council England / City of Sunderland funded
programme - Aim is to establish the University as a centre of
excellence for dance activity in the City.
Provides professional practice whilst also
meeting the needs of the community - The post of 'Dance Entrepreneur' - based within
the Dance team/managed by subject/programme
leader for dance at the University to develop a
range of community projects, enhance networks and
involve under-graduates in projects (on both a
voluntary and for assessment basis). This in turn
is generating employment for dance graduates. - The Entrepreneur also acts as mentor for
students. - The dance team is currently working on bids for
new projects which will also have a research
outcome For example - 'Small Steps, Giant Jumps' - Healthy Nurseries,
working in conjunction with City of Sunderland
Family Learning to develop dance project with
nurseries across the City (growing out of
government papers eg Every Child Matters etc) - 'Down our Street' tri-partite University project
for URBAN II funding - will address Engaging
Young People specifically linking education to
employment - Dance element will focus on raising
aspirations and self esteem. - 'Phoenix House' working with Drug and Alcohol
Rehabilitation Unit
18Case FourPartnership Delivery
- Northumbria University and Dance CityNational
Dance Agency for the North East of England -
partnership in developing and delivering the BA
(Hons) Dance Choreography - Professional concerns, which arise through Dance
Citys role as a producer of contemporary dance
performance and curator of regional, national and
international artists, informs curriculum design.
- The collaboration enables synthesis of the values
of professional practice and university
education. - Teaching Artists, resident at Dance City, lead in
many areas of the programme, where their
knowledge of professional practice supports
students in their artistic development. - Teaching Artists and Dance City staff lead in
areas such as performance and dance management. - In addition, artists and companies visiting Dance
City also contribute to the programme. - Dance City Visiting Dance Artists teach and
assess 25 of the curriculum - Challenges in building a team comprising
artists and academics - Students benefit from formal and informal advice
and mentoring.
19Case FivePlacement
- University of Surrey offers a unique 4-year
degree programme that has a Professional Training
Period of 30 weeks in Level P (third year). - During this period, students work at a host
organisation within the dance sector Dance
Company Education, Dance and Disability, Dance
Education, Community Dance or Dance Management - CV preparation, application and interview process
- Three way relationship between Host/ Workplace
Mentor, Placement Tutor and Student - Assessment includes high level of self evaluation
and critical reflection - The year transforms people they come back as
mature confident professionals. - Employability high with many students graduating
to work with host - Reputation built over long period of time pre
existing list of hosts