We passed on making fun of the National Dance Awards (NDA) this year because, let’s face it, there’s not a whole lot more to say that we haven’t said already. The Critics Circle, who decide the winners of these awards, are still picking the usual suspects, still cannot define what an “independent” dance company is […]
Have you ever listened to programmers and theatre directors talk about “their” audience? You probably have at some point, especially if you’ve ever tried to get your work programmed in a theatre of some description. You might have been told that your work is not good for “them” because “their” audience doesn’t respond well to […]
Here in TheLab™ we get a lot of audition notices for a wide variety of jobs. Sometimes there’s a problem though and its usually with the way the notice is written. More often than not notices are composed so that they can be printed out and displayed on a noticeboard (apparently people still use those […]
Last week, Arts Professional revealed that one of Arts Council England’s senior employees, Andrea Stark (Executive Director), had left her position with the funding monolith for pastures new at the High House Production Park in Essex. The chairman of that organisation is Tony Hall, the former CEO of the Royal Opera House, recipients of tens […]
Religion, now there’s a subject folks can have a level headed discussion about over tea and biscuits no matter where you are or who you happen to be talking to. Right? With ‘There is Hope” Rosie Kay, dance maker, has taken the subject by the throat and given it a good shake with a new […]
by Neil Nisbet 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. Every time we read about the case for arts funding it’s […]
Money Money Money! What are we going to do with all this cutting, the austerity, the terrible policies, the madness of it all? The Big Bad (ACE) is about to hand down another, albeit smaller, cut to the arts in the shape of a 3% snip over the next two years. If they do it […]
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, we have copied it below, in full, with the author’s permission, outlining issues that need […]
by Neil Nisbet 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. “ACE needs to support […]
Just before the Christmas break further cuts were announced by the government which were then passed on to their departments which were then passed onto organisations like Arts Council England (ACE). Over the next two years, ending in 2015, ACE will lose another £11.6Million of funding. Since the Big Bad has already cut itself to […]