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October 04, 2006
a chance for dance
Today, on the last day of the Conservative Party Conference, DanceUK organised a congress at the Lilian Baylis Theatre to promote the Dance Manifesto and assist delegates in understanding and focussing their resources for lobbying. Not as crazy as it sounds, it’s better to get your message straight than it is to turn up at a party conference half-cocked, thereby causing more damage than good.
That the first part of the day resulted in mismatched expectations was nobody’s fault. Some audience members expected a more direct set of instructions on how to fund their dance projects. Those with experience seemed quite content. They already knew that lobbying for dance and the acquisition of funding is a long term process. However the case studies by Assis Carreiro (Director of DanceEast ) and Cheryl Butler (funding co-ordinator and Director for Arts in Eastleigh ) were universally acknowledged as inspiring.
The evening panel
photo (c) Carole Edrich, 2006
DanceUK’s task was to produce and deliver the Dance Manifesto to David Lammy MP, the Minister for Culture. A good job undertaken with limited resources, it’s a representative declaration of consensus aspirations but doesn’t go as far as providing business plan or a business case for dance. That’s the next task and is harder than it seems. Most dance enthusiasts don’t have the business background to feed in data and in many cases it’s not just that the figures don’t exist but that the processes and structures by which they should be derived are not yet established.
When in business it surprised me that those putting a business plan together for the first time concentrated more on the words and the message even though they knew that investors base their decisions on the numbers. Hard figures, revenues, cash flows, expenses and profits are the decision maker’s bottom line and this is as true in dance as anywhere else. It’s true that dance has an enormously transformative effect on peoples’ lives, that some things can’t be measured, that it’s an enabler for individuals and society, is socially inclusive and an essential part of our cultural heritage but those responsible for funding will be swayed by its direct and indirect financial impact.
Mike Lee OBE, of Vero Communications and Sir Gerald Kaufman MP both emphasised this point and DanceUK was called to give direction as to how members could contribute such data. This won’t be easy. The financial benefits of dance are difficult to quantify. How should dance organisations estimate the benefit to local businesses, the number of hotel rooms that visitors to performances fill, the reduction in costs to the national health service both direct (as with its benefits to Alzheimer victims) and indirect (as a result of increased fitness of social dancers or in the fight against obesity)? What about the financial impact of the way it’s known to help combat crime or the impact to the local and national economy if we were to stop contributing to the art of dance at the very highest level? How does one value the financial synergies can be found with print, media, internet, music and films? How can you measure the difference in financial impact to both individual and society for a child whose school work and socialisation has benefited through dance and one who hasn’t had the chance? Intuitively we know the value’s immense but just saying so isn’t enough.
Despite the fact that recent surveys in schools show dance to be second in popularity only to football, DanceUK and its constituent members face a difficult time ahead. However the indicators are good; Sir Gerald Kaufman MP is an enthusiastic supporter, Mike Lee talked of a Cultural Olympiad, a comprehensive Report was produced in June 2004, an All Party Parliamentary Dance Group will soon be set up and there’s an opportunity to influence a forthcoming Green Paper.
The biggest challenge is in information gathering and coordination. While many live for dance and promote it to the best of their abilities, they’re mostly artists and dancers, not businessmen or orators. DanceUK’s next lobbying challenge is to gather, consolidate and package hard facts to support its message and to help its membership communicate in ways that will be understood by the powers that be. That after all is what lobbying is about.
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