Please register to attend this event on arrival at BDE in The BDE Hub at StageSide. The event takes place upstairs in The BDE Hub, StageSide.
What does diversity in dance look like today? Which important battles are yet to be won?
UK Dance appears confident and diverse. Ethnicity, Disability and new dance styles inform many artists’ practice. Support organisations, initiatives and networks help the creation and dissemination of work from artists of minority origin. Themed seasons reach large audiences. Hip-hop becomes mainstream on our stages and TV. Dancers succeed professionally without formal training.
Hear from and debate with prominent artists, programmers and producers how diversity impacts their work. The debate covers four themes:
- Packaging or pigeonholing? Alistair Spalding (Artistic Director and Chief Executive, Sadler’s Wells) & Kingsley Jayasekera (Head of Marketing, Sadler’s Wells) talk about the role of themed seasons in reaching new audiences
- Making it as a dancer Michael Asante and Kenrick Sandy (Artistic Directors of Boy Blue Entertainment) talk about the rise of the self-trained dancer
- An isolated island? Stefan Schwarz (Head of Programming, Tanzhaus NRW, Düsseldorf, Germany) talks about his personal perspective as an international programmer
- Me and my sector Caroline Bowditch (independent artists and Scottish Dance Theatre) and Jonzi-D (Jonzi-D Productions and Breakin Convention) discuss how they use their background as a catalyst for their own work and that of others
Each talk is 20 minutes. Talk-facilitators include Wanjiku Nyachae, Jeanette Bain Burnett (ADAD), and Eckhard Thiemann.