Although we reported in April that the show had received less than 100,000 viewers, according to the Broadcast Audience Research Board (BARB), the dance community at large seemed a little surprised, when informed at a gathering in London entitled, without a hint of irony, "Dance Film Day", that the show was not being ordered for another year.

LD.com adopting their typically "disconnected from reality" mode said; "The project had planned to build on the success of last years Dance Film Academy". It is not clear how they are quantifying the programmes "success" when it received so few viewers and no publicity from the BBC to even admit the shows existence. The fact that the show has been cancelled will not make the newspapers and it is unlikely that dance makers will lament its passing.

Just to give you some form of comparison the drama show "Lost" which airs on US commercial network ABC attracts a steady audience of 19.9 million. The X-Factor on UK commercial network ITV attracts 7-8 million per week and more people watch the Pottery Channel™ (which we may have made up) than ever saw the Dance Film Academy!

The National Dance Awards are trying to be a little bit different and are giving you, the general public, as unworthy and unwashed as you are the chance to vote for your favourite dance company using the wizardry that is mobile phone technology.

All you have to do is text the name of the dance company that you think deserves the accolade of best company of 2005 to 07946 702 700 with just the name of the company you want to win.

The cost of the message is at your standard rate and you may only vote once from each mobile number you have access to.

We would recommend Jasmin Vardimon Company, Motionhouse or Charlotte Vincent for this year but you can pick who you want. Just remember, a vote for Random is a vote for the dark side and casting your ballot for the Ballet Boyz is just plain silly.

[ Awards Website ]

Hollywood has been going through a bit of a slump lately with box office receipts down by 11% , results that have film execs. looking for a better way to make a dollar.

Mr Anderson points in the direction of Spider Man 2 and The Incredibles as examples of box office success based around conservative values.

In one particularly bizarre sentence he states; "A worried Violet, the teenage sister, suspecting (wrongly) that her middle-aged father might be having an affair, tells brother Dash, "Mom and Dad's lives could be in danger. Or worse — their marriage."

Marriage is of particular concern to conservatives. It must be because they seem to spend a lot of time and energy telling you should be married, should stay married and have children who behave similarly.

Anderson seems to be wholly unaware that, in the case of the Incredibles at least, the film is made by Pixar who's CEO is Steve Jobs of Apple Computer fame, probably the most left wing capitalist in the world and the line from the Incredibles was a joke! Also, Spider Man is about a particularly dense kid who has the abilities of a spider! It's entertaining, but profound it most certainly is not!

Hollywood needs to make less films like Aliens vs Predator and more like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, that's how you make money. Mr anderson could not be contacted to be ridiculed!

[ Anderson Rant ] (may require free subscription)

The Guardian is reporting today that almost all of the country's orchestras are under threat of imminent closure after it was discovered changes in the law designed to help actors may well mean a huge tax bill for the country's tune-smiths.

Alterations to National Insurance payments that were intended to help pay for benefits for out of work actors may well apply to musicians. If Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (yes they really are called that!), the UK's tax body, determines this is the case then the estimated bill, including back taxes, is put at £33 million. Such a payment would, almost certainly, lead to the closure of most of the country's ensemble's

At this juncture we would like to point out to our overseas readers that almost all arts activity in the UK is funded by the Government or to put it another way, tax payers! The irony of this particular situation would be amazingly funny were it not so ridiculous.

Arts Council England (ACE) appears confident that this situation can be resolved without throwing large numbers of people out onto the street and selling their instruments for scrap metal and fire wood. The information brought to light in the article was actually leaked to the BBC and reported by the Guardian, meaning nobody was supposed to know about it.

Anyone wishing the come and live in this unintentionally hilarious country should make there application to the Home Office on the back of a used $50 bill (the euro isn't worth much these days!)

It may or may not be true that dance companies are soon to be expected to shell out additional taxes to cover the cost of subsidies to farmers so they can afford to eat. No one from the Department of Perpetual Idiocy could be contacted for comment.

[ The Guardian Piece ]

Target Group Index (TGI), the company that compiles the statistics from a source of 24,000 respondents nationwide, have a slightly different take on the numbers printed in the Independent piece written by Lyndsey Winship.

James Powell at TGI who put the percentage increase at 65% not 68% told Article19 via email that;

"[The] thing to point out is although 65% (or 68%) may sound like a huge increase, it's worth bearing in mind the context that attendance at contemporary dance performances is a relatively niche market, so it only takes a small jump in absolute figures to create a big percentage change. In this case, the figures show in 1995 3.56% of adults in Britain said they ever went to a contemporary dance performance. The figure for latest data this year is 5.54%.

Similarly, but getting away from percentages, the overall weighted figure shows that in 1995 1.63 million adults in Britain ever went to a contemporary dance performance and the figure today is 2.62 million. The rise has been fairly steady over the ten year period and there haven't been any inexplicable sudden jumps in the data year on year."

It's important to emphasise that the figures represent those people who say they went to a contemporary dance performance at least once within a year meaning they may have attended a show more than once but there is also just as good a chance they only attended one performance in the entire year.

Placing the figures in context the Film Council reports that 72% of the UK population went to the cinema at least once during the year for 2004. So dance has some way to go in order to catch up.

The piece also credits The Place Prize as playing a part in the "raised profile" of dance using "initiative, leadership and good marketing" despite the fact the figures are for a ten year period and the Place Prize has run only once, last year, and takes place in the small-scale Robin Howard Theatre.

[ Independent Article ]

In case you don't know PP is the Pop Stars of contemporary dance. Each night dancers go before an audience at the Robin Howard Theatre in London and the audience then votes on who goes forward to the next round with the winner also receiving £1,000 and a chance to win £25,000 when the judges decide who's work is the best (or the best of a bad lot in any case but perhaps we're being cynical!)

Despite criticism of the format the last time around, mainly because it was very easy for London based choreographers to stack the deck in their favour by filling the audience with their friends and colleagues, the competition is proceeding with almost the same format as before.

If you wish to take part all you have to do is make a three minute video and send it off to the Place in London for their consideration. Deadline is Tuesday 28 February 2006 so there is no rush, further details available on the PP website which has a link below.

Please be mindful of the following conditions regarding the video;

"The video must be on a digital format (Mini DV), to maintain the quality of the material when it is copied. You provide the tape. The maximum length is three minutes - additional footage will not be viewed. Your material must be recorded at the beginning of the tape with ten seconds of black at the start."

Article19's challenge for this week is to find as many different ways as possible for saying "anally retentive!". Entries to the usual address.

[ Place Prize Webby ]

Quark revealed the logo onto a suspecting world with the rather ironically titled press release "Show everyone why I’m different". The logo is not so much different as exactly the same as the one for the Scottish funding body, an identity they have held for several years.

The press release goes on to say;

“It’s fresh, inviting, and open,” said Glen Turpin, Quark’s director of corporate communications. “It’s radically different from our old logo. That’s why it’s the perfect symbol for the new Quark. Our company has changed dramatically. Like our new logo, once people catch a glimpse of who we are today and where we’re going, we’ll be impossible to ignore.”

More difficult to ignore when they start receiving funding applications from bemused Scottish artists in need of a few quid to get their next project off the ground.

In a response via email from Quarks press centre Jennifer Churchill said;

"We appreciate your concern that it is similar to that of the Scottish Arts Council’s logo. After doing trademark searches domestically and internationally, we are surprised that our logos look alike in some ways. The similarities were unintentional."

Article19 is less concerned than we are speechless at, some might say, the blatant plagiarism employed by Quark in creating their new identity.

SAC to their discredit would provide no comment at the time of writing regarding the issue. They would only state that several enquiries had been made concerning the similarity in the logos.

[ Quark Website ]
[ SAC Website ]

Such was the case with the Sunday Times on September 4th that chose to run the baffling story of Darcy Bussell recounting two, yes two, car crashes, if you can call them that, she had recently and in the dim and distant past.

If ever there was an argument for a complete overhaul of arts coverage in the press this 'story' would be a compelling piece of evidence filed under 'Exhibit A M'Lud'.

[ Darcy Car Crash ]

Almost all of the results gathered from the survey were positive about the respondents experience with the website and some might say the responses were overly enthusiastic.

In the summary of the report the author, Hans de Kretser, freely admits that not all 'respondents' completed the questionnaire. Sources at MORI, one of the UK's biggest polling company's, told us that is a fundamental problem with any survey. You simply do not include incomplete results. They also told us that you must make sure the survey can only be completed once per respondent, numerous methods are available for doing that online.

When Article19 tested the survey when it was online we found there was no mechanism in place to stop multiple entries, we sent in three separate entries to test the system, and there was no mechanism for preventing users from answering single choice questions with multiple answers.

Leading websites such as CNN place prominent disclaimers on web based polls along the lines of;

"This QuickVote is not scientific and reflects the opinions of only those Internet users who have chosen to participate. The results cannot be assumed to represent the opinions of Internet users in general, nor the public as a whole. The QuickVote sponsor is not responsible for content, functionality or the opinions expressed therein."

Although in the summary Mr de Kretser admits the survey only reflects the opinions of those that visited the site there seems to be little concern at the scientific validity of the results or the fundamental flaws in how they were gathered.

[ Read the survey ]
[ Read our take on the survey ]

In case you don't know, Resolution is a platform primarily for new choreographers to display their talents at the Robin Howard Theatre, one of the UK's best known dance venues.

Although you share a moderate financial risk in taking part the dance industry in general, including us, thinks it's a rather good idea and worth the effort of applying.

All you have to do is fill out an application form, available from;

The Place
17 Dukes Road
London
WC1H 9PY

T: +44 (0)20 7380 1268
[ The Place Website ]

Entries are welcome from dance makers in the UK and Europe

Saburo Teshigawara, the much celebrated Japanese choreographer, was advertised as 'leading' the summer school on both Dance City's own website and their advertising material. The information they released stated;

'Dance City is pleased to announce an international summer school led by ground-breaking Japanese choreographer Saburo Teshigawara, Artistic Director of the award winning Karas Company based in Tokyo.'

Dance makers attending the summer school, which for many came at a cost of £100 for the course and travel/accomodation costs for those not based in the city, were both surprised and disappointed to find the course is in fact led by the company's dancers and the man himself will be arriving only for the final day on Saturday. Dance City do mention that the Karas company dancers will be involved in the summer school in their publicity.

The disappointment follows confusion about the audition process for the summer school which involved potential participants making a short solo on film. Some dancers assumed the 'audition' video was to determine selection for a place in a locally based 'Karas' company when it was in fact to determine if the dancer would obtain a 'subsidised' place to the week long course.

In an email response, Stephanie Cribbs, marketing manager for Dance City told Article19;

"The Karas Company may feature the subsidised dancers if selected by the company, but only if they are sufficiently impressed by the quality of an individual performer, they may select no one.

The key word here is 'potential'. The summer school is not an audition (as we wouldn't expect anyone to pay for that), however if the choreographer see someone he likes they may be approached. It would seem unfair not the mention this possibility to the participants, but as I have previously pointed out this isn't necessarily a definite and will be the decision of the company and not DC."

Ms Cribbs response made no mention of the fact Mr Teshigawara would not be attending the majority of the summer school. Despite the no show of the leading man participants are reporting a relatively positive experience from the workshops.

Dance has often used the slightly dubious practice of advertising summer schools or workshops for particular companies whilst failing to mention the actual project will be led by either the company dancers or 'education' staff who may have limited contact with the actual company.

At present any dance shot in widescreen format is converted to our standard video display size which results in a slight loss of quality. From now on though, after some extensive research on the video compression side of things, we have arrived at the ideal setting for you, our dear readers, to enjoy the dance video that is such a big part of what makes us here in the Lab, unique.

Three of the online videos have been upgraded to the new format and we have added a little additional footage to each just to sweeten the deal a little bit more.

So clickety click and enjoy the video clips all over again but with a much bigger, wide screen, viewing frame.

You still need [ QuickTime from Apple ] to make it work so if you don't have it already go get it and the download will not cost you a penny.

[ Motionhouse Dance Theatre 'Perfect ]
[ Jasmin Vardimon 'Lullaby' ]
[ Vincent Dance Theatre 'Punchdrunk ]

Presented in the familiar purple frontage of many ACE documents the 'call for ideas' appears to be some form of initiative to encourage better leadership in the arts. However, the language within the document is so mangled we would helpfully suggest that these characters spend a few days, months or probably years learning good communications skills.

One particularly mind numbing passage reads;

"This programme area will build a clear, long-term plan for leadership skills development in the sector. Through the programme, key areas for investment and development will be scoped out. Pilot initiatives will be tested and long-term funding sought.

Innovation: Building on existing best practice
This programme area will add immediate value to innovative initiatives, building on good practice and seed- funding ideas in development. "

Fauston Carpet, our resident language expert, has explained that the document may well be encouraging suggestions from those in the arts as to how the arts in the UK may work better if the majority of people who were running the arts were not quite so narrow minded, old fashioned and snooty to say nothing of being spectacularly bad at their respective jobs.

The cost of this exercise is put at just under £12Million over the next two years.

If you are in any doubt about this then let's all meet up at the Pop Music Museum and discuss it sometime soon!

Download the document by [ clicking here ]. If you figure out what it all means please let us know at the usual address.

All of this years news has now been integrated into the new database.

Old news can be found [ by clicking here ]

The blogs can be found by hunting through the search engine on the main page. This search engine will be upgraded in the next day or so.

Alberto Vilar whom the Guardian is reporting has made over US$200 million in donations to the arts around the world is under threat of having his name removed from the Vilar Floral Hall at the Royal Opera House (ROH), named for him following written agreements, if he fails to make further payments to the London theatre. It is reported that his donations to the opera house so far have topped £4million.

The ROH would neither confirm nor deny that the hall will be renamed if the donations are not made.

Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas says in today's Guardian;

"the Floral Hall was named the Vilar Floral Hall as part of the agreement made in September 1999 that Alberto Vilar would pay £10m towards the Royal Opera House development appeal ... However, he has consistently failed to reach these new deadlines, and in doing so is in breach of all agreements."

Mr Vilar's business is reportedly in financial trouble and the man himself is facing allegations of fraud in the United States. In fact CNN reported in May that Mr Vilar was incarcerated in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York as he was unable to pay the US$10 million bond to secure bail. It therefore seems unlikely that he will be making the additional payments to the ROH slush fund. His current whereabouts could not easily be determined.

ROH is known to the general public as the home of the Royal Ballet and Royal Opera. They are known to the arts world for spending staggering amounts of money, none of which is their own, on producing nothing that is of much interest to the vast majority of people in the UK.