Report for the Business of Dance About the Seminar –
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Feet on the ground, eyes in cyberspace A report for The Business of Dance about the seminar – Distribution for Dance Works: Getting your work seen The Clore Studio, Royal Opera House, 28 May 2013 by Anne Engel INTRODUCTION Kate Scanlan FROM THE PANEL OF EXPERTS 1. From the community to the mainstream Kendrick ‘H20’ Sandy and Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante 2. New forms of distribution Joe Bates 3. A new approach - from a major booker Tamsin Ace 4. Making work across disciplines, across media and in new venues Adrienne Hart 5. Discussion – summary of key points Led by Kate Scanlan SUMMARY OF THE DISCUSSION o MOVING INTO THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION o THE DIGITAL PANORAMA - REAL OPPORTUNITY (and a few issues) o MARKETING UPDATED o NEW WAYS OF ATTRACTING AUDIENCES AND MONEY FEET ON THE GROUND, EYES IN CYBERSPACE A checklist of ideas and tips Introduction A group of around 40 dance professionals and students trudge up the many flights to the Clore Studio on Tuesday 28 May. We meet in the large, light space. It strikes several of us that we have three front-of-house staff looking after us: here we are, in the venue that probably has the best and biggest infrastructure (of which it is generously lending us a slice) in the world. And we are talking about how to get emerging contemporary dance seen by more people in more places, in difficult times. The thoughtful presentations of the five panellists address the wide concerns of a contemporary dance audience. The audience, in turn, come up with their own inspiring and hot-off-the-press tips. Below is a summary of personal and whole company experiences that make up a useful fund of ideas. Kate Scanlan in the chair, introduced the speakers: she points to the huge increase in festivals, the explosion of Youtube and Vimeo images and ever more commercial work. Set against this growth, touring for small scale contemporary dance is shrinking, in numbers of dates and in fees. The new perception, accepted by the Arts Council, is of ‘distribution’ which can consist of two or more venues or ‘moments’, be they very small or massive. 1. From the community to the mainstream Kendrick ‘H20’ Sandy and Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante We started in 2001 in the youth sector (with Boy Blue Entertainment), performing in parks, working at Stratford Theatre Royal, Stratford Circus and the Town Hall. We weren’t even looking for audiences, we were showing off. Then we did Hackney Empire nights. “We developed 5 minute sets, 3 minute sets” – our reputation in East London grew, mainly because of the shows at the Theatre Royal. With the ‘Book of Koraka’ in 2005, we really got the love from the audience. Then in 2006, came ‘Pied Piper’ with Ultz at the Theatre Royal. Families came to see us and people from the contemporary dance world came too. The Breaking Convention, as a hip hop platform, grew out of what was just a competition at Fairfield Halls in South London, not an artistic platform. Then the audience changed, the Breaking convention mixed it, gave street dance a platform, grew a profile for new companies. Our first UK tour in 2009 started at the Barbican and followed with six London venues, then Birmingham, Sheffield, Exeter, Newcastle, Cardiff. We’d had no vision, previously, of tours. Mikey took the managerial role, Kendrick wanted to do the shows. The energy of Kendrick, his attitude, and the responsiveness of Newham and the area made us very popular locally. But at first we had no thought of going anywhere else. Then we began to see opportunities. With the 2009 show at Barbican, we just thought of it as another stage, the major thing was the work, not a specific mindset, just ‘do a good job, get people to see it, anyone can’. We made the budget work. “We match up the offer to what the booker has available. we make sure the work can fit into any space” Then we went to HongKong in 2012, with our two man show Touch. We see Boy Blue as an opportunity for young people to grow and learn, we give them a live situation. We’ve avoided being in one bubble, we do corporate gigs, festivals, I recommend just getting more gigs but don’t restrict yourself to one particular area. Things outside can help, like Kylie Minogue’s choreographer bringing contemporary into the commercial area. It’s important for dance to be appreciated across the board. ‘Touring’ is just semantics; the artists we work with do ‘tours’ by going to different clubs and putting the list on a poster. We do schools tours; it’s how you put it there out to make people understand. Where there’s a space there’s an opportunity. There’s a certain level of realism, sometimes it’s the technical specification that takes us to an artistic place rather than ‘I must have this or that facility’. The Arts Council invited us and asked why we hadn’t come to talk to them about Pied Piper. In fact, we had just put a bid in – we had never relied on ACE, never thought of them, didn’t know about them. We think about the kind of people who appreciate expression, emotion, that’s not limited to people with an artistic eye. Someone who does not have anything to do with art can be inspired. Sometimes those areas we go to don’t have the privilege of seeing movement, they don’t show any love, because where they live at 7 p.m. everything is closed. “We try to give people an experience, so there’s a legacy. It’s like the ‘experiences’ that are sold by companies...” At the Barbican, 70% of our audience was new. You have to sell, you have to get them to buy tickets. The ages were totally varied, I’m glad we managed to touch so many. Give them a great show, they will come back again: ‘You know what, those performers are good, those people are strong’. If you give them good work, they will come back. We were a 50 strong company then, so mums and dads, cousins, they buy tickets. Boy Blue started with 30 kids in each venue and with a set, which was very expensive. “Two people on the road, that would be great! “ It’s an interesting time, with the necessity for ever more innovative work and greater consciousness of who you want to reach. 2. New forms of distribution Joe Bates Amongst other things, I run an arts services company, Morton Bates, with Claire Morton. We work with independent choreographers, with middle scale touring companies, we do large events. It’s very tailor made to clients, with partnership-building, negotiating contracts, logistics, anything really. Also, we do tour booking, but no longer for small-scale contemporary dance, that’s now too difficult, too labour intensive, too costly. Five or six years ago, it needed roughly one day of our time for a gig, now it needs five or six days. There’s been a shift to fewer dates. We provide a wider package and it’s hard to take on new clients. They might just do a distinct piece to get their name out there with us. Profile-building is important. We make very strong relationships with 2-3 partners. We work with partners who are clear about their own work. It’s part of a package, when we have a relationship with an artist or a company. The ‘Get a date, do it, leave’ approach – that’s over. There are different ways of distribution, often outside theatres. “It involves taking dance to audiences: libraries, museums, bringing children into museums, shopfronts, digital installations, large-scale participation projects, children’s work, the residency model with a community for two weeks, say. “ With Tim Casson, online, for instance, he was getting members of public to choreograph, then performing those pieces in each location and putting the work online. These are the issues I see now: Fees are down – the fees now are lower now for an established company than the fees for postgraduate performers 10 years ago. Bookers know you have to get dates to get Arts Council funding. Dance doesn’t sell as well, it is cut first, many venues programme one dance show per season and there are more companies around. Often people do free events or festivals. How do you make money? Do people expect art to be free? How do we continue to make money? Venues promote dance less, middle-scale companies are moving into smaller venues, say 100-200 seaters. Where does that leave small-scale companies? Venues have less money, they have to prove viability to their boards. It’s hard to give smaller companies all the support they need, when large companies have their own marketing people working alongside. In a smaller company, you would be in the studio all day, or teaching. Communication with venues is hard, they all have different booking cycles, some might be confirming gigs for this July, others are already booked to summer 2014. For instance, Laila Diallo, right now, is touring to seven venues, she’s significantly subsidised, with very strong partners, the Royal Opera House, the ICIA - she could not do it without that level of support. It took three people to get that together. With Yael Flexer, we had to slash the budget in terms of what could be expected from venues. It’s quite concerning how quickly this has happened, despite it being her 20th anniversary tour.