Carole Edrich Weblog

prejudice, passion or politics?

A long time ago a Southern Italian boyfriend told me stories of his college days. Apparently he'd been one of those earnest young men who staged sit-ins at their university, discussed politics all night and got beaten up by the police the next day. He told me that while expressing oneself as concisely, completely and accurately as possible might be considered an elegant use of English, the same did not apply to his mother tongue. Evidently descriptive, flowery discourse that discussed the same tiny point from every conceivable angle was the only educated Italian way.

I often wondered how much of the desire to express himself in such a long-winded fashion was a result of his education and culture and how much was really just personal preference. I found myself asking a similar question tonight as I watched Déjà Donné at The Place. There’s no doubt that the performance belabours the point or that its politics and message are stark and simplistic, but is this accident, choice or a cultural thing and should it make a difference to my review?

“It’s important to understand we are more than our possessions”, “We should live by the happiness of others and not by greed and selfishness”. It's true that these ideas are often lost, forgotten or ignored, but the naivety of the message is still annoying. If “My Name Is King” had been performed at a matinee and for school children I’d say it was excellent, but this evening’s audience was exclusively adult and although the motivation, intent and actions of the troupe are laudable, I remain antipathetic towards the performance itself.

Writing this review will be a challenge..

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.

back from the gap

Post traumatic stress is very strange. A normal reaction to an abnormal situation, I developed it a short while after returning from the Maldives where I experienced the tsunami. It's interesting that the deepest impressions were not from the tsunami itself but of what I saw, thought and felt while staying behind to help.

My post traumatic stress was never that bad. Even at its worst most of the symptoms described on the internet didn’t apply. Maybe I’m tough or maybe the act of helping gave a greater feeling of control which in turn helped me. I don’t know, but thought I had recovered completely last year. Despite a cursory internet search on post traumatic stress I hadn't realised that it might recur and therefore didn't know how to work through stimuli that might, if left alone, bring back the state I had conquered in 2005.

Raiymandhoo atol around January 7th
photo (c) Mike Hogan & Carole Edrich, 2004

I think the first trigger was a film. I don’t even remember the title but, in passing, and as a very minor part of the plot it showed a tsunami. After this it seemed wherever I was, whatever I listened to, watched or read, that the same message would be shoved in my face: “If you were associated with the London Bombings and have these symptoms, it’s post traumatic stress disorder and we’ve set up ways to help”.

I felt betrayed. The London Bombings were terrible, my heart aches for the victims, their families and friends and I hold myself incredibly lucky that no-one close to me was affected but that didn't change how I felt. How could the government do so much for those involved with the London Bombings when so little had been done for those involved with the tsunami? I knew this was illogical but even though I’ve consulted for Central Government and know how things work, and despite the fact my doctor told me that no more help was available to others than had been provided to me, I still felt betrayed and ignored. This June I realised that the counsellor recommended by my GP in 2005 had been treating me erroneously for depression and not for post traumatic stress at all. I lost faith in the NHS and resolved to work things through for myself. So I reprioritised my work and decided to stop the dance blog until I had recovered.

In the third week of July another tsunami hit Indonesia and about 500 people were lost. I was completely unprepared for the way I was affected. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back and; already shaky, I became unable to work at all and struggled to fulfil my few remaining commitments.

I’m fine now and have been for a while. A Radio 4 programme on how the mind works pointed the way and I'm now working towards changing my response to stimuli that might otherwise instigate or contribute to the symptoms. My network of friends are ready to tell me if they see anything I have missed, so if such stimuli arise I expect to work through their effects before the worse symptoms manifest.

Raiymandhoo atol around January 7th
photo (c) Mike Hogan & Carole Edrich, 2004

Recovery on its own wasn’t sufficient reason to restart the blog and I waited until two other conditions had been satisfied. The first was one of time management and prioritisation. I have months of planning and work to recover, along with deadlines that could not move, and needed to make sure that all the editors I deal with were absolutely confident in my ability to deliver quality work on time. So I concentrated on doing just that. The second was more pragmatic. I pitch to new editors regularly and most are likely to trawl the internet as a matter of due diligence when they consider my ideas. It would have been professional suicide to proclaim to the world I had been ill before I was well and truly better.

for photos of the tsunami and more comment, see my personal blog