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Editorial Archive

• The Open Letter Over the last couple of years the talk in the wide world of culture has almost incessantly been about funding cuts. Alongside that has been some fairly muted counterpoint from a few, some would say, privileged members of the arts community. Filed in Editorial on January 15, 2013 10:45 PM
• A Letter To Equity On January 17th Equity, the performing arts union, will be holding an open meeting for actors and dancers so they can discuss the issues that are important to them. Writer and Editor Francis Richard sent a letter to that organisation,... Filed in Editorial on January 8, 2013 3:50 PM
• What Needs to Happen in 2013 More than five years ago we published a piece entitled "10 Things That Need To Happen in 2008". As the dance profession, en masse, moves into another new year what better time to take a look back and see if any of the things we discussed actually happened. Filed in Editorial on January 8, 2013 1:04 PM
• A Year Out Of Focus 2012, for us at least, started with some trouble after we published a piece that suggested Resolution, The Place's annual new-dance bun fight, could probably do with an overhaul. Funding the choreographers that take part was one of our suggestions. Filed in Editorial on December 11, 2012 8:34 PM
• On Equity As any of you Equity members out there might know, if you go on their website in the members section, there are quite a lot of different categories that Equity provide guidance on. There are different guidelines, conditions, and rates specific to the 17 different categories, each one with documents for performers/directors etc. Filed in Editorial on May 29, 2012 4:51 PM
• The United States of Nobody Gives a Sh*t The tale of professional dancer's pay is a very long story that's never going to go away but things have reached a new low with the revelation that dancers working on the English National Opera production 'The Death of Klinghoffer' are being paid just £327 for what amounts to a 40 hour working week during rehearsals. Filed in Editorial on March 7, 2012 1:48 PM
• Stress Test Arts Council England refuses to talks to Article19 about the Catalyst Arts project. Their refusal to do so makes them look weak and they look weak because they are weak. Filed in Editorial on November 28, 2011 2:46 PM
• Misfire by Article19 Following Arts Council England's announcement of their NPO portfolio on Wednesday March 30th it's not too difficult, even with a cursory analysis, to determine that, as predicted, ACE has simply rearranged the deck chairs on a certain sinking... Filed in Editorial on March 31, 2011 5:25 PM
• Action Reaction ACE has a plan, a philanthropy plan! Well, it's not their plan it's the DCMS's plan and it was, evidently, dreamt up in a hour during a coffee break while the political hacks were figuring out how to work their new microwave oven. Filed in Editorial on March 15, 2011 4:14 PM
• The Open Letter Should you choose to remember 2010 for anything, as far as the arts are concerned, then it should probably be for the brutal hatchet job meted out by the coalition government on all things artistic and creative. Not only did... Filed in Editorial on December 24, 2010 2:05 PM
• Neverending Nonsense Trying to make a salient point on a rapid fire radio programme is no easy task, as I found out the hard way whilst appearing on a live programme a few weeks ago on BBC Radio 4. Filed in Editorial on September 20, 2010 2:44 PM
• The Good Soldier Jeremy Hunt is a political climber and he's in charge of the DCMS. Mr Hunt is using the DCMS to prove that he's a hard case and nothing more. Filed in Editorial on August 2, 2010 2:04 PM
• Get Off The Floor The arts world has been in a bit of panic over the last few days since it became clear that the Conservative Party had, apparently, won the general election in the UK and, in short order, the arts would be doomed. Filed in Editorial on May 13, 2010 1:31 PM
• Creation If you follow politics anywhere in the world, especially around election time, there is a one subject that dominates almost all others that politicians will speak about and that subject is job creation. So let's do job creation for dancers! Filed in Editorial on March 17, 2010 7:13 PM
• Cheerleading Shooting the messenger is a flawed strategy, all you end up with is a lot of dead bodies, blood on the carpet and the message never gets through! Filed in Editorial on January 6, 2010 5:34 PM
• The League of Extraordinary Bullshit If you're a sports fan imagine that your annual league championship was decided not on one team beating another by scoring more points/touch-downs/runs or whatever but by the pundits waxing lyrical about which team was the best. Filed in Editorial on May 20, 2009 5:18 PM
• The Politics of Women Within the dance profession, especially in big companies, there is a serious issue that needs to be addressed with regard to hiring female dance makers to the top jobs. That issue is diminished and trivialised when those in positions of influence make stupid comments about babies, marriage and insecurity that paint women as a teen movie cliches unable to cope with the harsh realities of the world. Filed in Editorial on October 27, 2008 4:59 PM
• Defending Subsidy Public subsidy of the arts is a broken toy, but let's fix the problems, not kill the idea! Fixing the problems is a harder job and it's a job worth doing. Filed in Editorial on February 21, 2008 3:42 PM
• End of Year Review 2007 2007 comes to an end so we, here in TheLab™ take a look back over the good and the bad things that permeated this addled profession. Filed in Editorial on December 23, 2007 4:36 PM
• Rage Against The Machine This coming November the Government will announce their, so-called, comprehensive spending review. This review will determine just how much money goes where from the national budget of approximately £500Billion. Filed in Editorial on September 30, 2007 7:20 PM
• Yours for a Dollar If the press hacks are to be believed dance is, once again, undergoing a resurgence of popularity with the advent of numerous 'reality' television shows featuring dance as their premise that have appeared on a number of networks, worldwide over the last few years. Filed in Editorial on September 16, 2007 7:05 PM
• Broken Toys "If a professional dancer makes just one wrong move in class, in rehearsal or on stage it could, literally, be the end of their career." That was the opening line to a feature piece written back in April within this very tome. Just last week this became all too real as our cameras caught just such an incident taking place during a live performance. Filed in Editorial on July 24, 2007 5:23 PM
• Begging For More "Through a wide reaching programme of research and consultation the Arts Council will explore how people value the arts and, by gaining a deeper understanding of what is important to them, become more accountable to the public it serves." Thus begins Arts Council England's latest attempt to get the public on board with the whole idea of using their money, through taxes, to pay for the arts. Filed in Editorial on March 26, 2007 1:06 PM
• Contemporary Dance Is Rubbish Do not be dismayed however because we need contemporary dance to be rubbish, at least some of it, because how would we know what the good stuff was until first we witnessed the life changing tedium of a piece of work that is so bad it makes you wonder why human beings are the dominant species on this planet. Filed in Editorial on March 3, 2007 6:03 PM
• Death of the Sequence Several years ago a documentary on William Forsythe showed the American dance maker creating a solo with one of his dancers from Ballet Frankfurt. The two were engaged in a one on one creative battle to squeeze every ounce of precision out of a sequence of movement, the position of a hand, the transition from standing to floor all discussed and practiced in minute detail. Filed in Editorial on February 9, 2007 3:22 PM
• DCMS/DanceUK Keep Quacking by Article19 Article19 reported in January last year on the formation of the Department for Culture Media and Sport's (DCMS) 'Dance Forum' a group of administrators that would gather several times per year and discuss issues pertinent to dance... Filed in Editorial on January 21, 2007 8:53 PM
• 2006 The Year That Was Article19 rolls into its sixth year online with our traditional end of year review. Unlike other publications we actually write ours after the year is over, not like the clowns in the national press who do theirs in July while on holiday in Tenerife! Why else do you think they never mention something that happens in November? Filed in Editorial on January 5, 2007 2:51 PM
• Therapeutic Moves Therapy is one of those words in the English language that is often misused. People talk light-heartedly of going for “retail therapy” and at the other end of the scale we often hear of people going in to therapy to treat drug or alcohol addiction. Filed in Editorial on December 13, 2006 11:52 AM
• Where Are The Dancers? Professional dancers, for the most part, remain mute on the crippling problems in their own art form. It's time to step up and make yourself heard, otherwise just how much credibility do you think you have? Artists should be well versed and speaking up on the issues, so why all the evidence to the contrary? Filed in Editorial on August 9, 2006 5:17 PM
• ACE & Special Interests by Article19 The recent internal review by Arts Council England (ACE) that led to the decision to uphold its own ruling on refusing access to detailed financial information about MJW Productions and Channel 4 Television illustrates that ACE is... Filed in Editorial on June 26, 2006 12:40 AM
• Playing the Numbers by Article19 We begin a detailed analysis of dance funding over the last 12 months and then some with a look at Article19’s local region (the North East of England) covered by Arts Council England North East (ACE NE). Reading... Filed in Editorial on June 13, 2006 1:45 PM
• Value vs Cost We rarely pass comment on the failings of choreographers, particularly those new to the field, when they make mistakes or are flat out incompetent in the running of their fledgling companies. That time has passed however since we can’t hold ACE and NDA’s to a high level of professionalism and not expect the same of our new dance makers. Filed in Editorial on April 2, 2006 10:06 PM
• Dance Europe And Israel by Neil Nisbet The news story reported yesterday on Article19 and a few days before in the dance ‘blogosphere’ concerning Dance Europe and their policy of not featuring Israeli dance companies unless they denounce their own government’s policies regarding The... Filed in Editorial on March 16, 2006 2:28 AM
• Review of 2005 by Article19 Welcome dear readers to our end of year review as we start the new year with a brand new layout and lots of new content to come. Was it a good year? Was it a bad year?... Filed in Editorial on January 6, 2006 1:06 AM
• Dancer's Bill Of Rights by Neil Nisbet One of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, written documents in the world was drafted over two hundred years ago and it is, almost, insurmountable in its ability to safeguard the rights of the people... Filed in Editorial on October 19, 2005 2:50 PM
• The Big Idea by Article19 Our recent news story concerning an undecipherable new programme from Arts Council England (ACE) to advocate arts leadership, we think, has led Article19 to believe that what dance lacks, among many other things, is a big idea. ACE... Filed in Editorial on August 24, 2005 12:00 PM
• What Future For Dance? by Neil Nisbet President George W. Bush is often accused of living behind a so-called “reality distortion field’ that protects him from what is actually going on in the world. No matter how badly things are going in Iraq, how... Filed in Editorial on June 27, 2005 3:50 PM
• Ace and the 3 Year Stretch by Article19 On the 17th of March Arts Council England released its spending plans for the next three years following the governments announcement late last year that arts funding would be frozen at current levels until 2008 at least. With... Filed in Editorial on March 23, 2005 4:11 PM
• Retreats Don't Add Up by Neil Nisbet Documents made available to Article19 under the Freedom of Information Act have shown that your average meeting of dance makers can cost an awful lot more than you might imagine. Such is the case with DanceEast’s “Rural... Filed in Editorial on February 23, 2005 6:25 PM
• Resolution Resolution by Ira Schiff As Resolution progresses through yet another year Ira Schiff asks just what will all the companies do once it’s over? Opportunities are few and funding is a rare commodity. The question is asked by most every year... Filed in Editorial on January 20, 2005 6:51 PM
• 2004 End of Year Review by Article19 The end of the year is nigh and since we don’t know what nigh means and we can’t be bothered finding out writing an end of year review is probably the next best thing. There have been highs,... Filed in Editorial on December 21, 2004 7:15 PM
• 2004 Awards by Article19 It's time to put on your tuxedo and that big puffy ball gown that you have always been ashamed of and those shoes that make your feet wish that your ankles had never been born because the biggest... Filed in Editorial on December 21, 2004 1:37 PM
• Selling The Crown Jewels by Neil Nisbet The notion that The Royal Opera House along with Royal Ballet and Royal Opera, the house’s two incumbent companies, should be privatised to reduce the burden on Arts Council England’s (ACE) funding stream for dance and music... Filed in Editorial on December 17, 2004 7:47 PM
• What Does It Matter by Neil Nisbet Many people complain about the arts or dismiss them out of hand because they can see no clear benefit or any sense of importance in artists doing what they do. Joe Public will push even the most... Filed in Editorial on October 21, 2004 10:01 PM
• Dance Goes Insane by Neil Nisbet Following Article19’s recent experience in Vienna covering the Impulstanz festival here in the Lab we feel it’s time for a wake up call. Contemporary dance, for the most part, is just plain dull and Article19 has a... Filed in Editorial on August 31, 2004 10:11 AM
• Trying To Choreograph by Rosie Kay I’m sure if you ask any choreographer why they do what they do; they will tell you it is not just because they want to, it is because they have to!" Award winning choreographer Rosie Kay on... Filed in Editorial on March 8, 2004 11:30 PM
• Access No Areas by Neil Nisbet Since being refused access to film any part of the British Dance Edition 2004 in Cambridge, organised by Dance East, means we are unable to bring you our planned extended feature on the event we are instead... Filed in Editorial on February 2, 2004 5:40 PM
• Paying To Dance by Helen Parlor "By loving what we do can we excuse the standards of living that our payment offers? " Helen Parlor asks why dancers should expect such poor financial returns for their skills. When I was 18 and deciding... Filed in Editorial on January 19, 2004 11:46 PM
• The Pilchards for 2003 by Article19 It’s that time of year again dear readers as we roll out the awards for 2003. This is the inaugural year of our brand new ceremony “The Pilchards”* as we acknowledge triumph, perfection, pretension, incompetence and stupidity in... Filed in Editorial on December 31, 2003 7:07 PM
• 2003 Review by Article19 Yes dear readers it is that time of year again, the end of the year. Unlike other publications we choose to write our end of year review about as close to the end of the year as we... Filed in Editorial on December 31, 2003 2:01 PM
• Brand New ACE by Article19 As of now the Arts Council of England and the Regional Arts Boards that provided funding and advice to artists from all art forms across the country have ceased to exist. Arts Council, England and 9 regional offices... Filed in Editorial on November 15, 2003 7:03 PM
• Name The Dancer by Deborah Barnard DanceUK recently published a document to encourage all aspects of the dance profession and the arts media to give dancers the respect they deserve by providing full credit for the part they play in this profession. All... Filed in Editorial on September 5, 2003 11:11 PM
• Show Me The Money by Article19 Every so often Arts Council England (ACE) releases a document that tells you exactly what you want and need to know without any of the usual spin we have all become accustomed to from our bureaucratic organisations. One... Filed in Editorial on August 23, 2003 1:32 AM
• ANDA In A Spin by Ira Schiff The UK has been enthralled, (or is it bored stupid?), by the ongoing scuffle between the BBC and the government over “dodgy dossiers”, spin, creative writing and outright lies. If nothing else this little scuffle has highlighted... Filed in Editorial on July 7, 2003 12:52 PM
• Meeting of Minds, Banging of Heads by Neil Nisbet How many Ballet Directors does it take to change a light bulb? 26, one to change the light bulb and the other 25 will do it ‘after’ the first one. If you did not get that joke... Filed in Editorial on February 10, 2003 10:18 PM
• Art At Any Cost by Neil Nisbet This editorial began life as a simple news story about why Whiteoak Dance Project were accepting sponsorship from the world biggest tobacco company, Phillip Morris Industries and what they [the company] had to say about it. Since... Filed in Editorial on October 10, 2002 10:11 PM
• It's All Your Fault! by Neil Nisbet Welcome dear reader. Settle back in your favourite armchair, get a hot cup of cocoa and a rich tea biscuit and make sure you're settled. Why? Because Article19 is about to explain why the lack of funding... Filed in Editorial on August 15, 2002 10:21 PM