Merseyside Dance Initiative
Heros and Zeroes || Friday, 29 February, 2008
Merseyside Dance Initiative: The very small, very modestly funded agency ran the British Dance Edition 2008 in Liverpool like seasoned pros. No delays, no break downs, no four hour wait to get the shows turned around and we had some stunning dance making to watch from the companies on show. Their professionalism was commendable.
Shobana Jeyasingh: For speaking more than a little common sense in our interview with her with regard to the plethora of "cultural diversity" nonsense continuously coming out of ACE and pretty much anybody that has ever been elected to do anything.
Dancers/Choreographers BDE08: For proving without any doubt that the UK is home to some of the best work and the best dancers in this most addled of professions. One show after another produced superb performances and superb choreography and that's what the job and the profession should be about.
Arts Council England: For botching the changes in the RFO funding. Talking about "excellence" and "thrive not survive" whilst canning 194 companies then pretending to reprieve 17 of them like that's not what you were going to anyway is beneath contempt. ACE needs a kick in the pants and we've got a nice big pair of boots to do it with.
DCMS: For their wretched "five hours of culture" nonsense. Put culture in schools or don't put culture in schools but stop pretending you can do it for £15 per child, per year when it costs about £16 to go and see even the cheapest show in London. How can you run a country when you can't even do simple arithmetic?
The Dance Blogosphere: With some notable exceptions there are not a lot of issues being tackled by the bloggers. Adopt a position, pick a fight, argue a point, stand up for yourself, let it out. We don't care if you don't agree with us but get some fire in your veins. Stop being so damn conciliatory all the time.
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