June 10, 2004

Fuel Costs Hurting Dancers?

After receiving an email concerning the ridiculously high cost of fuel in the UK it occurred to us here in the Lab how these costs are hitting professional dancers and hitting them hard (and nobody's hitting dancers while we're looking, Ed!)

Let's face it, most dancers spend a lot of their time driving from one job to the next teaching endless numbers of young people (kids to the rest of us) workshops, classes and lot's more. Since they work in dance the chances are pretty good that their levels of pay are not the greatest in the world.

The options are either do nothing or do something so follow the plan below and perhaps things might change. Try not to be too British about it and give up after 25 mins to go have a cup of tea!

"Here's the idea:

For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY fuel from the two biggest oil companies (which now are one), ESSO and BP. If they are not selling any fuel, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP fuel buyers. It's really simple to do!! Now, don't whimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to a lot of people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get exc ited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it... .. THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all You have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all.(and not buy at ESSO/BP) How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you!  Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE 69p a LITRE RANGE Action: It's easy to make this happen. Just forward this email, and buy your fuel at Shell, Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons (75p)"

Cut and paste the above text and forward it on, it's not spamming, it's taking action, which is OK with us.

June 03, 2004

McGregor and Ataxia! Come Again?

We had to laugh here in the Lab when news reached us of Random Dance Company's new work "Ataxia". The piece is named after the medical condition of the same name that causes the sufferer to lose all physical coordination and muscle control.

Now some folks might say that Mr McGregor's work has been paying homage to that particular condition for a very long time now, so what's new? On the other hand some gullible journalists and the ACE publication Londondance.com may see this as a reason to write a very long, and not at all interesting, interview with good old Wayne.

Most people however may well see this as Random's continuing descent into the world of colossal pretension that's pretty much killing contemporary dance, such as it is.

Here in the Lab we have a better idea, instead of watching Ataxia in whatever venue's it travels to pop along to Newquay in Cornwall on June 25th and watch Motionhouse Dance Theatre and about 500 other participants perform "The Edge". It's on a beach, it's outside in the sun (fingers crossed) and you'll probably have a much better time of it (and it's free by the way, Ed!).

strong>[ link ] Motionhouse "The Edge"

[ link ] Interview with Wayne McGregor

June 02, 2004

Boys in Dance Get a Boost

Laban Centre, London has received almost £100,000 from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation to try and encourage more young boys and young men to take part in dance activity.

The scheme is open to males aged 8-22 and lasts for 3 years. The project aims to give those in the relevant age group the opportunity to take part in contemporary dance, film and video as well as various other dance and theatre related activities.

The press blurb states;

“Gender inequality exists within every aspect of the dance sector in the UK.  Fewer boys and men participate in dance within schools, the community and at a professional level, than girls and women.  This project aims to address this imbalance through a host of exciting and relevant dance activities. In the long-term we hope that the project will help to integrate boys and young men into the ongoing programme of Laban’s youth activities, such as our youth dance company, as well as enrich the dance community throughout the UK.”

In Article19's experience the number of boys in dance workshops is fairly even with girls when you are working in a schools context but as soon as you get into the dance schools (like LSCD) then the number of boys drops off dramatically.

When Article19 interviewed a number of children aged 8-16 recently they were specifically asked the question "why don't more boys dance" the overwhelming response was because they thought it was "sissy" because of the image of male dancers portrayed by classical ballet companies. Take from that what you will.

For more information about the project contact Niki Lavithis on 020 8691 8600 or visit the website link below.

[ link ] Laban's Website