December 20, 2004

ACE Takes A Hit

Arts Council England (ACE) has taken a hit in the shape of a stand still in funding levels for the next three years from the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS). This means a real term cut of £30million over three years when you take inflation into account. Costs get more expensive but there is no new money to cover them.

ACE's response was limited. The Time's reported Sir Christopher Frayling the Chair of ACE as saying;

"It means we are back to the situation we had in the early 1990s of robbing Peter to pay Paul,” he said. “We can’t engage in any serious planning. The idea of awarding funds by Buggins’s turn is fine in accountancy, but in human terms it doesn’t work.”

The effects of this 'cut' will not be felt until the 2006/2007 funding year but small scale arts folk should probably start saving their pennies because they are usually the first to take a beating when this type of situation arises.

It is not clear what ACE plans to do about this funding stand still but if Labour lose the next election there is little hope of it being turned round by the Conservatives (probably more chance of the Conservatives winning the election itself). This might indicate that now would be a good time to run for high political office if any of you out there were thinking about it.

Here in the Lab we would suggest large scale protest, storming the barricades and lobbing custard at all and sundry but this is the British we're talking about so apathy is more likely in the long term. We could also suggest that ACE do something about the £46million they spend on themselves running their offices around the UK and we will be doing that in the new year.

Stay Tooned!

December 13, 2004

Nut Crackers!

LondonDance.com reports today with absolutely no irony whatsoever that dance audiences around the country will have ample opportunity to see the Nutcracker in action performed by almost every Ballet company in existence.

The Nutcracker, written by Tchaikovsky and first performed in 1892 is dragged out for Christmas every year just like irritating relatives and after-shave.

When the show first appeared over 100 years ago almost nobody liked it so its popularity now is nothing if not mystifying. The only reason the show is put on at Christmas at all is because the opening act features a Christmas party, the ballet itself has nothing to do with the annual holiday. Both Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National ballet will be doing the show and Scottish Ballet are also making their annual foray into creative madness this festive season.

Scottish Ballet's production is noted for its somewhat diabolical presentation due to the company having limited funds. Watch out for the particularly flimsy Christmas tree, unless they have bought a new one from Tesco's.

Children across the country, brace yourselves and fight like tigers for your parents/grandparents/rubbish relative to take you to see The Incredibles again.

Nutcracker can be seen across the UK by one company or another starting right now until someone puts a stop to this nonsense!

December 07, 2004

New Galleries

You may not have noticed that we have 60, count 'em, new images online from the Dance City Academy based at Dance City, the National Dance Agency, in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The Academy is a little different to the normal youth group in that the students must first audition to gain entry and when they do get through the dancers have to take part in regular technique classes. Ballet and contemporary classes are on offer to the students and every class is followed by a creative session as the dancers prepare for performances.

Giving the dancers an all round experience of dance and focusing on genuinely creative work is the aim of the Academy. It was set up with the intention of taking youth training just a little bit further than normal and was formed from what was known as the Lindbury Group. (named after its' sponsor)

Our photographer captured all three of the Academy groups, the younger, middle and older group, where Tess Chaytor of TIN productions is the teacher.

We will try and bring you some video from their next performance but getting permission to film and publish video of young people (known as kids in none PC speak) online is fraught with difficulties to say the least.

[ link ] The Image Galleries
[ link ] Tin Productions
[ link ] Dance CIty

Bare Bones Delayed

The graphic on the homepage says December 5th but we have been forced to delay releasing the new video from BareBones for a few days. Fear not though for we have the footage 'in the can' as they say and we will bring to you, online, within the next 7 days so keep your eyes peeled!