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Yorkshire DanceAnnualReview2014 - 2015

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“Yorkshire Dance continuesto play a vital role in the deliveryof dance in Yorkshire, supporting

established artists, excitingemerging talent and youngdancers across the region.”

2 Wieke Eringa photo © Sara Teresa; Margaret Coleman photo © Yorkshire Dance

Cover photo Bodies on the Beach, Big Dance 2014 commission © David Lindsay

Mission

Yorkshire Dance champions the value of dance and its

development in Yorkshire. We do so by raising standards,

increasing knowledge and understanding and fostering

creativity and innovation.

Introduction

This year we put a capital ‘D’ in Development: we

successfully developed our research profile with two

projects that chart the broad spectrum of Yorkshire

Dance’s activity, producing on the one hand new

contemporary practice for the professional stage and, on the

other, grass-roots participatory health and wellbeing work in

areas of deprivation.

respond_ and Dancing in Time enabled us to start

reflecting in more detail on the impact of our work and gave

us a hugely valuable chance to develop new partnerships, so

critical in this time of economic uncertainty. Sketch, our

new dramaturgy project, aligned itself with respond_ in its

quest to open up the creative process to a wider audience

and explore the relationship between dance and its audience

through enhancing critical discourse.

We were immensely pleased with the development of the

infrastructure in the region with a thriving and increasingly

joined-up (youth) dance community and excellent evaluation

of the conference, the regional showcase, substantial new

investment in Hull and East Riding and new workforce

development through Dance Transports. A hugely

rewarding year with new partnerships, a new digital

exploration and much optimism for the role of dance in

answering some of the critical challenges facing our local and

global community.

Wieke Eringa

CEO & Artistic Director

This year is yet another of great achievement and

innovation at Yorkshire Dance. As you read this review

of our activities I am sure you cannot fail to be

impressed by the range of work that pushes creative

boundaries and that demonstrates our continuing

commitment to use the power of dance to work with so

many different people. The board shares my passion and

enthusiasm for this excellent organisation and congratulates

Wieke and her team on an outstanding year.

Margaret Coleman

Chair of the Board of Directors

Alex Croft Dance Relationship

Manager, Arts Council England

Wieke Eringa

Margaret Coleman

“I appreciate the warmth and

support Yorkshire Dance has

shown me, and respect yourcontinued effort to connect

with Europe, London and generally

bring good things North!”

Hannah BuckleyIndependent Artist

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Dancing in Time © Yorkshire Dance

Grace Surman performs at Sketch 1: The Live Masterclass © Sara Teresa

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Snap shot: our achievements

During 2014 / 2015 we:

• Developed a new digital platform respond_ through which

120 people, some frequent, infrequent or non-arts attenders,

actively participated in critical dialogue with two producing

artists, the impact of which was investigated by University of

Leeds (supported by Digital R&D Fund award).

• Produced Douglas and Air Hunger, new works by Robbie

Synge and Hagit Yakira.

• Presented Dance Visions, the region’s Youth Dance conference

bringing together 127 delegates in York to share good practice,

network and increase knowledge and skills.

• Delivered Fresh 2015, the regional youth dance showcase with

a record 255 young people performing and participating in

workshops at Yorkshire Dance and West Yorkshire Playhouse.

• Delivered a high-quality, well-attended workforce development

programme, Dance Transports, supporting 12 selected

regional practitioners and providing access for 69 practitioners

to work with Dance United Yorkshire and Stopgap, Candoco

and 2Faced Dance Companies.

• Supported the development of artistic practice and critical

discourse, investing in 6 new dance ideas through Sketch, an

8-month dance dramaturgy project with international dramaturg

Peggy Olislaegers.

• Presented a thriving Friday Firsts performance series including

work by nationally established artists alongside local artists,

providing opportunities for enhanced critical debate.

• Started Dancing in Time, a research collaboration with

University of Leeds, supported by Leeds Public Health, a health

and wellbeing dance programme for older adults in areas of

deprivation.

• Delivered Bodies on the Beach, a large scale Big Dance

commission performed by an intergenerational cast of 76

people on the beach in Bridlington.

• Re-launched a 3-year Youth Company programme in East

Leeds, supporting a group of young people and their families to

engage with learning, making, performing and watching dance.

• Secured substantial investment for a 2-year strategic

step-change project with Hull Dance and the Hull & East

Riding Dance Hub.

• Co-presented Thinking Dance and Questioning the Contemporary symposium in collaboration with Leeds

Beckett University.

OYO at Friday Firsts © David Lindsay

Fresh 2015 at West Yorkshire Playhouse © Brian Slater

Saturday Street Crew at CBBC event, Trinnity Leeds © Yorkshire Dance

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Leadership and regional

development

We worked in partnership with four sub-regional hubs to improve

access, progression routes and performance opportunities for

young people and professional development for their leaders.

A key development this year was in the East Riding & Hull where,

with our support, substantial new investment was secured for an

artist and practitioner development programme.

The Regional Dance Development Network (RDDN) is thriving

and continues to be a driving force for Fresh and the Dance

Visions conference.

Fresh 2015

The Regional Youth Dance Showcase celebrated the richness of

young talent in Yorkshire through a successful fringe event and

main stage showcase at West Yorkshire Playhouse. 255 young

people took part, many showcasing their work for the first time.

Groups took part from Hull, Bradford, East Riding, North

Yorkshire, Rotherham, Barnsley, Wakefield, Leeds and Pontefract.

The event culminated in a spectacular finale choreographed by

guest artist, Jon Beney.

Thank you for allowing us to give our students such an

amazing opportunity in such a prestigious venue.

412 Dance Theatre

Fresh 2015 was the best night of my life!

Participant

Rotherham Boys Project

The Rotherham Boys Project continued to provide grass roots

youth dance opportunities through outreach sessions that fed into

the core group Rebuzz.

Most notably, the group created new work with Zoie Golding

(FuzzyLogic) and Dave McKenna (Beingfrank Physical Theatre),

performing at local and regional venues.

In February, a two-day taster project led to the creation of a film

Surveillance in which the group worked with CCTV footage,

handheld devices and drones to create a 9-minute dance

documentary.

Rebuzz was selected as one of ten regional youth dance groups to

take part in the regional youth dance project Dance Whispers.

ReBuzz (Rotherham Boys Project) at Fresh 2015 © Brian Slater

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Sub regional Hubs

North Yorkshire & York HubNorth Yorkshire County Council;

Hambleton District Council

South Bank Hub

North Lincolnshire District Council

& Lincs Inspire

Hull & East Riding Hub

Hull City Council & Hull College

South Yorkshire Hub

Wayne Sables Project & Point Blank Theatre

West Yorkshire

is served by two dance strategy groups

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Bodies on the Beach © David Lindsay

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Dance Visions –

the Regional Youth Dance Conference

The Dance Visions Conference was the third and largest regional

youth dance conference delivered by Yorkshire Dance in

partnership with RDDN. The focus this year was on exploring two

core themes of Quality and Content within the Youth Dance

Sector. The conference brought together 127 young people,

delegates and presenting artists. Speakers included Lucy Bennett

(Stopgap Dance Company), Zoie Golding (FuzzyLogic), Vicky

Igbokwe (Uchenna Dance), Linda Jasper (Youth Dance England),

Helen Linsell (Dance United Yorkshire), James Morgan

(choreographer, performer & writer), Lily Turner (professional

dancer) and Verity Clarke (Cape UK).

Really buzzy day, great to explore real dance issues and

understand other situations. Nice to have young people

involved in the initial presentation. Very well organised

event, I look forward to attending next year.

Delegate Feedback

The balance between practical and discussion was great,

very inspiring to see talented young people dancing at the

conference.

Delegate Feedback

The conference was fantastic, one of the best I have been

to as it was honest and open about the work, not

pretentious.

Zoie Golding, FuzzyLogic

It has been a very productive day and it has been good to

be able to bring fresh new ideas away to experiment with

in future sessions and practice.

Delegate Feedback

I have begun to look at how we embed the 12 Visions for

Youth Dance alongside Arts Council’s quality principals in

every aspect of our work. We want to be able to address

the 12 Visions and bring these to life where possible.

Tracy Witney

Northern School of Contemporary Dance

Bodies on the Beach – Big Dance

Commissioned for the national Big Dance programme, Yorkshire

Dance produced a large scale community work led by Susanne

Thomas (Seven Sisters) working alongside Julius Ebreo, Kim

Oakley, Sam Lawrence and a cast of 76 community participants

and young people. It provided a valuable artistic experience for

those young people, groups and schools networked through the

East Riding, Hull and North Yorkshire Hubs and was performed on

a particularly atmospheric morning in July.

www.bodiesonthebeach.co.uk

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Ellen Turner performs at Dance Visions conference © Brian Slater

Dance Visions seminar © Brian Slater

Dance Visions workshop © Brian Slater

Bodies on the Beach © Yorkshire Dance

Yorkshire Dance Youth Juniors © Yorkshire Dance

Dancing into the Third Age, Middleton © Yorkshire Dance

Dancing in Time © Sara Teresa

Yorkshire Dance Youth at Fresh 2015 © Brian Slater

Developing Talent: creating inspiring

dance opportunities with people

with little or no access to quality

dance

Dancing in Time

The longstanding Dancing into the Third Age partnership with

Leeds Community Health and University of Leeds resulted in

research with older adults from various economic backgrounds

into attitudes to and barriers to attending (contemporary) dance.

Initial research led to a new Public Health commission, Dancingin Time, for work in 3 economically disadvantaged communities

in the inner city, the first of which took place in partnership with

Middleton Elderly Aid. The project was a huge success and the

group has decided to continue a weekly session whilst the

Dancing in Time project will move on to Woodhouse and

Richmond Hill, with research outputs due to be published in 2016.

I didn’t know what to expect, I thought it would just be

exercise but it’s nothing like exercising, it’s dancing, which is

great and I’ve really enjoyed it. Making friends, meeting

other people and basically having fun.

Participant

I can already see that people have benefited; one lady has

more mobility in her shoulder than she had before, one

lady has started to feel muscles that she forgot she had

starting to tone up. There’s already an improvement and an

improvement in confidence levels.

Artist

The focus group was lovely to be part of as all the

participants had such overwhelmingly positive things to

say about their time dancing, how it has affected them

and their desire for it to carry on!

Dr Sarah L. Astill, PhDLecturer in Motor Control, University of Leeds

Youth Dance Company, East Leeds

Following a review this popular programme was re-launched,

supported by a new 3-year relationship with the Igen Trust.

Two companies of young people living in East Leeds are creating

and touring topic-based work whilst developing dancing and

leadership skills (through, among others, Arts Award).

The groups benefited from a range of performance opportunities

including Fresh (part of U.Dance), the Rugby Champions Cup

Final (Wembley), Leeds Sports Awards and Aspire.

Two ex-company members successfully entered Higher Education

this year and one is now in paid employment as an assistant on

our Saturday Superstars programme.

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Yorkshire Dance Saturday Street Crew at Fresh 2015 © Brian Slater

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OYO perform at Friday Firsts © David Lindsay

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Youth and Community programme in Leeds

The weekly Saturday Superstars dance programme continues

to be highly popular with a diverse group of families who enjoy

access to affordable, pupil-centred dance provision which is

creative as well as challenging and fun.

The Saturday Street Crew grew in stature and became a hugely

effective flag-ship group for our organisation due to the standard

of performance and skills level of young people. Performance

opportunities included U.Dance, the National Youth Dance

Festival in Nottingham.

The ongoing partnership with Leeds Adult Social Care resulted in

a plethora of work with adults with learning disabilities as part of

the Leaps & Bounds programme. Our weekly Mind the Step

group for adults with learning disabilities was extended with a

pilot project, Raised, bringing together an integrated performance

company.

Ombetja Yehinga Organisation (OYO)

meeting the Tour de France

We were thrilled to offer an unusually inspirational opportunity to

young dancers in West Yorkshire on account of a long standing

partnership with OYO in Namibia. www.ombetja.org

Leeds Inspired supported us to welcome a group of ten young

Namibian dancers to work with Yorkshire-based young people

during an intensive week with input from artists Zoie Golding, Dr

Philippe Talavera and other supporting artists Rachel Fullegar and

Stuart Waters. This culminated in a sharing of new and existing

work at Friday Firsts (Unusual Connections) and Le Grand Départ

(Tour de France), Scotthall Road spectator hub. The participants

were so deeply inspired by the collaboration that one Yorkshire

dancer joined the apprentice programme in Namibia a month

later.

For us the project was very nice, we enjoyed it and

working with young different people from Yorkshire the

creative tasks we[re] perfect. We learned that even if we

are different coming from different places we can work

together and make a difference.

OYO dancers, July 2014

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OYO at Le Grand Départ © Philippe Talavera

Leaps and Bounds, Rothwell © Sara Teresa

Saturday Street Crew at U.Dance 2014, Nottingham © Bobak Walker

Snakebox perform P.L.A.Y. at Friday Firsts © Sara Teresa

Dance Transports with StopGap Dance Company © Yorkshire Dance

Tara Baker / Dance Network Sheffield’s Cityscapes © Charlotte Armitage

Anthony Middleton’s theMiddletonCorpus at Friday Firsts © Sara Teresa

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Developing, retaining & attracting

talent; independent artists

Dance Transports

This new regional workforce development programme was

programmed in consultation with the sub-regional youth dance

hubs and therefore hugely well-attended and well-received.

We championed The Regional 12, selected dance practitioners

based all over Yorkshire who received a small bursary for

professional development and one-to-one support. Two-day

intensive training workshops were held by Candoco Dance

Company, Stopgap Dance Company, Dance United Yorkshire and

2Faced Dance Company.

A much-needed event across Yorkshire. Artists I speak to

comment on the lack of CPD for contemporary dance

practitioners, so an event targeting this was extremely

beneficial. The workshops offered variety, yet the

programme felt cohesive and offered fundamental

information for those working in community dance.

Steph Potter, Regional 12

Open Access: professional development

This year’s open workshops for artists & practitioners were led by

Hagit Yakira, Stopgap Dance Company, Janine Fletcher, James

Wilton, Rita Marcalo, Charlotte Vincent, Peggy Olislaegers,

Deborah Light, Jo Fong and Liz Lerman.

This has already had a massive effect on my practice, I’m

much more aware of details in my work, and how it’s

important those details are meditated upon – not

necessarily changed or altered – but recognised and

reflected upon. I feel I’m more aware, and seek to find

further depth in my work, and hope these skills will stick

with me as I continue to create with my company.

Anthony Middleton

Yorkshire Dance was pleased to support Gracefool Collective’s

popular new Professional Class with free studio space alongside

NSCD, Phoenix Dance Theatre, RJC and Dance Studio Leeds.

Artists members: The Collective

Following a review we re-launched The Collective, our artist

membership (on average 42 artists), through which we provided

141 days of residency space for 47 artists, and 750 hours of free

stand-by space for 49 members. 9 artists / companies amongst

those received specific project support.

Thank you for helping us and providing us excellent

facilities and atmosphere. It’s been fun and a step up for us

to have this time and space to explore a new idea.

Akeim Toussaint Buck & Otis Jones (Snakebox)

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Liz Lerman leading Critical Repsonse Process workshop © Yorkshire Dance

Sketch workshop with Peggy Olislaegers © Yorkshire Dance

Grace Surman with Peggy Olislaegers,

Sketch 1: The Live Masterclass © Sara Teresa

Carlos Pons Guerra with Peggy Olislaegers,

Sketch 1: The Live Masterclass © Sara Teresa

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Developing, retaining & attracting

talent: independent artists

Sketch – artist development project

Sketch was developed as a direct result of the learning of the

previous New Associate programme. For this 8-month project we

invested in the development of artistic practice of 7 artists who

were selected, with the help of independent expertise, on the

strength of their artistic ideas. Sketch included:

• a mini-commission of just under £1200

• a 1-day followed by 3-day dramaturgy workshop with

international dramaturg Peggy Olislaegers

• a series of 4 peer-to-peer learning meetings facilitated by

producer Richard Sobey

• a minimum of 2 weeks of studio time

• 1-2-1 time with a member of the YD team

The project culminated in a well-attended and hugely appreciated

open access dramaturgy Masterclass where Peggy worked with

Grace Surman and Carlos Pons in front of a very appreciative

audience. Most Sketch projects are receiving further project

support in 2015.

My work gained another level of richness on a physical,

intellectual and artistic level. Peggy made me look at my

work in much more detail and question my practice and

process. I gathered a greater understanding of form,

structure, detail and the importance and use of subtext.

Sketch artist

The performance was really good fun. You can only do this

type of thing if you feel the trust from the audience

[which] you can push quite far. I felt I was able to share

that, in this kind of approach to developing dance, you can

combine serious rigour with fun, provocation with safety

[and] jointly enjoy the questioning of shared territory and

experience how much fun this can be.

Peggy Olislaegers

Thinking Dance

Thinking Dance grew out of the City of Dance partnership’s

shared desire to support choreographic innovation. Lead partners

Leeds Beckett University and Yorkshire Dance collaborated with

NSCD and Phoenix Dance Theatre to deliver new choreographic

research opportunities for emerging choreographers and

academics. This was achieved through a two-week programme

leading up to the symposium Questioning the Contemporaryin 21st Century British Dance Practices in which artist-

researchers Rosanna Irwine, Mark Flisher and Beth Cassani

developed practice-based research. The symposium was a huge

success and will be developed for the autumn of 2015.

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Keira Martin at Thinking Dance © Yorkshire Dance

Questioning the Contemporary © Yorkshire Dance

Melanie Forbes-Broomes, Buy This! © Sara Teresa

12 Degrees North, Lucid © Sara Teresa

Gary Clarke, Between Me and You © Sara Teresa

Nadia Iftkhar, The Sense of an Ending © Sara Teresa

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Developing talent: presenting work

Friday Firsts

Eight Friday Firsts evenings provided a platform for independent

dance artists working on the small scale whilst introducing

audiences to contemporary dance. We were particularly proud to

invite Associate Artist Gary Clarke to curate Bend It, an evening

celebrating queer work which was hugely successful and brought

in a new audience.

I particularly enjoyed the performances that explored,

questioned and challenged taken-for-granted ideas on

gender and relationships. The vinyls (real vinyls!!!) played in

the foyer, the cross-dressing, the amazing and approachable

performers and artists.

Roser Rafols-Hilari, audience member, Bend It

It was a great experience to be in the role of curator at

this stage in my career and thank you for trusting me with

that. It would be something I would do again!

Gary Clarke

The programme included: Bish Bash Bosh, open scratch night;

Live Bites, the best of new independent work across the North;

This is Where It’s At, a new scratch night; and two new works

produced through respond_. As a previous Juncture artist, we

were pleased to present Brighton-based Janine Fletcher with

her new work in progress, Trace Elements.

It was a real pleasure to be involved in Burst – a great

performing and networking opportunity for the graduate

company and the atmosphere was so supportive and

welcoming it made it all very enjoyable.

Giorgio de Carolis, 12 Degrees North

Northern Platforms

As part of this annual artist-exchange with Dance Base, Dance

City and Merseyside Dance Initiative we supported Gracefool

Collective to perform at Manchester’s Turn platform and Sophie

Unwin to perform Chronicles of Joy in Manchester, Liverpool and

Newcastle. In return we were able to invite Melanie Forbes-

Broomes (Scotland) and Nadia Iftkhar (North East) to Leeds for

Friday Firsts #27: Live Bites. Post-show discussion and facilitated

dinners & breakfasts provided artists with a critical chance to

enter into dialogue with audiences and promoters.

The feedback session was very useful. I’m really starting to

understand the work and its direction. Being part of

Northern Platforms was great; it’s valuable to work across

new venues, spaces and agencies, raising my profile as an

artist whilst seeing work being created across the region.

It’s enabled me to build my networks which is positive for

future collaborations.

Sophie Unwin

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Sophie Unwin, The Chronicles of Joy © Sara Teresa

Vincent Dance Theatre, Look at Me Now, Mummy © Matthew Simpson

Vincent Dance Theatre, Archive & Engagement Space © Yorkshire Dance

The Dance WE Made, Trinity Leeds © Brian Slater

Navaridas & Deutinger,Your Majesties © Navaridas & Deutinger

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Aerowaves and Your Majesties

With a shared ongoing commitment to create an international hub

for contemporary practice we worked with Northern School of

Contemporary Dance to welcome the exceptional Austrian

Navaridas & Deutinger with Your Majesties, an Aerowaves

priority piece in 2013 (www.aerowaves.org).

The post-show talk was attended by five local Councillors who

exchanged views with the artists on political responsibility and

public speaking.

We need to thank you and NSCD for bringing Your

Majesties to Leeds. What a terrific piece of work.

And excellent to have the discussion afterwards.

More events like that please!

Roger HaringtonCouncillor for Gipton & Harehills

The Dance WE Made

The presentation in Leeds of this unique performance project by

Tim Casson was the result of an ongoing relationship with Trinity

Leeds shopping centre.

For the first time in two years Tim was able to develop the project

with 3 new (local) artists who together created 48 short new

dances with members of the public, resulting in a beautiful short

film on YouTube. This project will be developed in June 2015 to

include community groups.

Vincent Dance Theatre:

21 Years / 21 Works

We were delighted to welcome Charlotte Vincent back to the

region with a tour of an Archive and Engagement installation

in Studio 2, an open talk and the performance of Look at Me

Now, Mummy.

Over 120 people, some new community groups, students and

regular dance aficionados got stuck in and enjoyed a peek into

Charlotte’s creative and intellectual process.

Six emerging young artists will be working with Charlotte as

mentor to create their response to this 21 Years work at Yorkshire

Dance in July 2015.

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Hagit Yakira’s Air Hunger © Sara Teresa

Hagit Yakira’s Air Hunger © Sara Teresa

Hagit Yakira’s Air Hunger © Sara Teresa

Hagit Yakira’s Air Hunger © Sara Teresa

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In September 2013, Yorkshire Dance, in partnership with Breakfast

Creatives and University of Leeds, was chosen by Nesta, Arts

Council England and Arts & Humanities Research Council as one

of over 60 arts and cultural projects to receive funding from the

£7 million Digital R&D Fund for the Arts.

The partnership used the award of £125,000 to build respond_, a

responsive online platform to encourage audiences and the wider

public to become more actively engaged in the creation and

interpretation of contemporary dance. A digital adaptation of Liz

Lerman’s renowned Critical Response Process (CRP), the

technology enabled participants to interact directly with artists;

share their feedback and interpretations of artistic ideas and

works-in-progress; and exchange ideas with others on the site.

CRP is a feedback system based on the principle that the best

possible outcome is for the maker to want to go back to work. In

use for over 20 years, it has deepened dialogue between makers

and audiences, enhanced learning between teachers and students

and proved valuable for all kinds of creative endeavours and

collaborative relationships within and beyond the arts.

Some of the award money was used to commission two new

dance works to be developed through the digital adaptation of

CRP, and Yorkshire Dance put out an open call to dance artists at

the end of 2013, inviting them to submit a digital ‘pitch’ for their

planned new works. The six shortlisted films were posted online,

and the public invited to vote for two they would like to see

commissioned. Almost 800 people from around the world voted,

and selected Robbie Synge’s Douglas and Hagit Yakira’s Air

Hunger.

Following an initial creative period, Robbie and Hagit each made a

short film, giving a flavour of their works-in-progress, both posted

online for a week in September 2014. Hagit’s film was shared

privately with a ‘Closed Group’ of 30 participants working with

researchers from University of Leeds; a mixture of Frequent

Attenders of contemporary dance (4+ performances per year),

Infrequent Attenders (1-4 performances per year) and people who

identified themselves as Non-Attenders.

Robbie’s film was made public, and anyone, anywhere in the world,

was invited to watch it and join in the Critical Response Process

as a member of the ‘Open Group’.

Participants in both the ‘Open’ and ‘Closed’ groups interacted with

Robbie and Hagit through the four steps of CRP. At each step,

respond_ enabled direct communication back and forth between

artists participants, with members of the respond_ team acting as

a facilitator in the same way that CRP in a ‘real-life’ environment

would be facilitated by an intermediary.

Robbie Synge’s Douglas © Sara Teresa

Robbie Synge’s Douglas © Sara Teresa

Robbie Synge’s Douglas © Sara Teresa

Robbie Synge’s Douglas © Sara Teresa

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When the week of CRP came to an end, Robbie and Hagit went

back into the studio to develop Douglas and Air Hunger

further, equipped with all the questions, feedback and opinions

from their respective participants and, in November, supplied new

films demonstrating how their works had developed further. The

films were posted online and a second week-long period of CRP

was launched, this time featuring two live webchats to which

online participants were invited; one between Liz Lerman herself

and Robbie, and one between Liz and Hagit.

In December, both artists returned to Yorkshire Dance to

complete Douglas and Air Hunger in time for their world

premiere performances.

The research team has been busy analysing data gathered through

observation and content analysis of the audience’s engagement

with the platform and through qualitative feedback provided

during a focus group, a series of surveys conducted throughout the

programme, and depth interviews conducted with selected

participants from the three user groups and with the two artists.

Findings indicate that the process has enhanced participants’

engagement with contemporary dance, broken down barriers to

attendance for non-attenders and changed the way that

participants will provide feedback in future, both in the context of

the arts and beyond. One participant described the platform as a

welcome antidote to the immediacy of feedback encouraged by

social media and to today’s ‘pundit culture’.

For participants, the platform seems to have enabled the fostering

of productive and empathetic relationships between audiences and

artists and supported the understanding of contemporary dance-

making processes within non-dance audience groups.

The respond_ team will publish its full research findings on the

Digital R&D Fund for the Arts’ website later in 2015:

http://artsdigitalrnd.org.uk/

The two new commissioned dance works have successfully

established lives beyond the project, with Douglas taking

international bookings and Air Hunger scheduled to the tour

the UK later in 2015.

We continue to develop the respond_ platform, in partnership

with Liz Lerman, and have already planned to develop a new work

by dance artist Lucy Suggate using respond_ in July 2015.

I’m thrilled that Yorkshire Dance has taken the leap to test

CRP within a digital platform. It has been so interesting to

me to consider what feedback reached me and what didn’t,

and why, questions which spurred me to develop CRP and

which continue to drive its refinements and variations.

I hope that users of respond_ will experience new

pleasures of the Process through this platform.

Liz Lerman

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Tara Baker performs at Friday Firsts © David Lindsay

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In the spotlight

Tara Baker, independent artist, Sheffield

Tara has been striving to establish a Dance Network for Sheffield for

the past 12 months and Yorkshire Dance identified Tara as a catalyst

individual to support and develop. Tara was chosen to be one of the

Regional 12, new initiative offering individually tailored support and

advice.

Subsequently, Tara took part in Dance Transports regional CPD,

working with Stopgap, Dance United and 2Faced. Yorkshire Dance

then supported her to achieve her first Grants for the Arts bid

Cityscapes, which will build on The Dance Network Sheffield and

deliver a site-specific project linking with local festivals including

Sheffield Design Week and Tramlines Music Festival.

Being in the Regional 12 has had a positive impact on my

development as a professional artist. My aim at the start of the

year was to attend more professional performances that

reflect my areas of interest, including physical theatre, site-

specific work, and theatre-based productions. It has been great

to have my own little pot of money to fulfill these ambitions.

Recognition of the Regional 12 programme has been particularly

useful at networking events; as a result I had the opportunity to join

professional artist Gerry Turvey in the creation and performance at

Leeds City Gallery in March, working with other professional dancers

and Regional 12 artists, and with Leeds College of Music students,

towards a collaborative public performance.

My involvement has also provided me one-to-one mentoring and

support from Yorkshire Dance in writing and successfully receiving my

first Arts Council bid. I’ve really valued the support and feel I’ve

developed a key set of management skills needed to operate the

activities of the Dance Network.

Joe Cummins (14), Rotherham Boys Project

Joe has been part of Rotherham Boys Project for two years,

before which he had little experience of dance. Through it, he has

developed in confidence, skill and enthusiasm and was recently

nominated as lead choreographer for the regional Dance Whispersproject. Visiting Sadler’s Wells and connecting to young people in the

National Youth Dance Company has opened Joe’s eyes to new

opportunities and experiences. He is now considering auditioning for

the Yorkshire CAT scheme.

Rebuzz has given me so many opportunities, I’ve made new

friends, learnt new skills and performed at so many different

platforms. When I leave school I want to complete a diploma

in Dance at Rotherham College and hopefully go on to study

dance at University as I want to become a dance teacher. I’ve

really enjoyed working with different choreographers in

ReBuzz and I’m looking forward to our next project as I’m able to

make my choreography on the group. I really enjoy coming to Rebuzz

every week. If I didn’t come I think I’d just be playing on my Xbox or

winding my Mum up! Being involved has made me realise how much I

enjoy dancing.”

“

“I’ve really valued the supportand feel I’ve developed a key set

of management skills.”

“

Joe Cummins performing at Fresh 2015

West Yorkshire Playhouse, April 2015 © Brian Slater

“If I didn’t come [to ReBuzz],

I think I’d just be playing on myXbox or winding my Mum up!”

Financial Overview 2014-2015

The information above is derived from the Detailed

Statement of Financial Activities contained in the audited

annual accounts for the year ended 31st March 2015.

Full audited accounts and Trustees’ report can be

obtained from Yorkshire Dance.

15

Income£

Core incomeCore: Arts Council England 325,794

Core: Leeds City Council 60,000

Other public fundingArts Council England 65,276

Leeds City Council 10,028

Digital R&D Fund for the Arts 95,500

Earned incomeArtistic and educational activities 91,329

Tenants and hires 194,643

Trading and other income 11,209

Trusts and Foundations 52,234

Donations 6,923

Corporate Donations 36,128

Total income 949,064

Expenditure£

Artist development

& professional programme 122,741

Youth and community 87,361

Regional dance development 33,603

Marketing 25,276

Building and admin overheads 206,274

Salaries and staff costs 318,321

Total expenditure 793,576

Digital Reach

Yorkshire Dance’s website attracted over 77,000

visits by 50,200 unique visitors during the year, an

increase from 2013-2014 of 16,000 visits and 10,200

unique visitors.

The new Bodies on the Beach site (launched in the

last week of March 2014) attracted 187 visits by 162

unique visitors in the week to the year-end.

www.respondto.org attracted 3,857 visits by 2,336

unique visitors, engaging an international digital

audience in an unusually extended and involved online

process of critical inquiry and exchange.

Yorkshire Dance films on YouTube and Vimeo

received nearly 3500 views, more than double the

figure in the previous financial year, and reflecting our

aim to make more of our work available online.

Yorkshire Dance continued to develop its social

media activity; by the year-end, we had attracted

6,100 followers on Twitter (up by 1,600), 1,850

Facebook ‘Likes’ (up by 450) and 179 followers

on Instagram (account launched August 2014).

Yorkshire Dance Centre Trust Ltd

Registered 2319572 England Registered Charity No. 701624 VAT No. 418 0193 70

Artist Advisory GroupAndrea Buckley

Beth Cassani

Rachel Krische

Balbir Singh

Sarah Spanton

Associate ArtistGary Clarke

Artist practitioners (regular)Katie Aynsley

Anthony Bayou

Jemma Broomhead

Charlie Buchanan

Cassandra Butler

Danielle Byars

Sharon Cameron

Alison Grace Clissold

Rachel Dean

Victoria Drew

Rachel Fullegar

Laura Liddon

Janetta Maxwell

Louise McDowell

Alex Mettam

Laura Murphy

Bryony Mylroie-Smith

Zoe Parker

Matthew-Jay Pratt

Sheridan Sherratt

Craig Turner

Bobak Walker

Laura Withers

Artists receiving

project supportAkeim Toussaint Buck

Hannah Buckley

Jamaal Burkmar

Beth Cassani

Gary Clarke

Gavin Coward

Dance United Yorkshire

Janine Fletcher

Gracefool Collective

Carlos Pons Guerra

Igor & Moreno

Rosanna Irvine

Annika Kompart

Deborah Light

Rita Marcalo

Keira Martin

Antony Middleton

Non Applicables

Rachael O’Neill

Connor Quill

Devika Rao

Phil Sanger

Lucy Suggate

Grace Surman

Robbie Synge

Sophie Unwin

Vincent Dance Theatre

Hagit Yakira

Artists in receipt of bursariesTara Baker

Gemma Barker

Anthony Bayou

Sharon Cameron

Lois Grinstead

Carlos Pons Guerra

Nisha Lall

Sam Lawrence

Laura Liddon

Riccardo Meneghini

Zoe Parker

Stephanie Potter

Matthew Jay Pratt

Ayisha Simpson

Rosemary Spencer

Benjamin Skinner

TenantsBalbir Singh Dance Company

DJ School UK

Elephant Marketing

Kendells Bistro

Red Ladder Theatre Company

Split Design UK

Talking Lens

Therapy Heaven

Type Agency

Yew Tree Therapies

With thanks to all our fundersand partners for 2014 – 2015Arts Council England

Ann Maguire Trust

Bailey Thomas Charitable Fund

Bircham Dyson Bell

Breakfast Creatives

Co-Operative Community Foundation

Creative Employment Programme

Esmee Fairbairn Foundation

The Fenton Arts Trust

Foundation for Community Dance

Green Hall Foundation

Grey Court Trust

Hull and E Riding Charitable Trust

IGEN Trust

Irwin Mitchell

Jimbo’s Fund

Kingdom of the Netherlands

Land Securities

Leeds City Council and Leeds Inspired

Leeds Adult Social Care

Leeds Public Health

Leeds Beckett University

Leeds Building Society

Leeds City College

Leeds Community Foundation

Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation

The National Lottery

Nesta

N Smith Charitable Settlement

Northern Ballet

Northern School of Contemporary

Dance

Phoenix Dance Theatre

Rayne Foundation

Royal Norwegian Embassy

RTR Foundation

Sovereign Health

Space 2

Sylvia and Colin Shepherd Trust

Thistle Trust

University of Leeds

Wade Charity

West Yorkshire Playhouse

West Yorkshire Sport

Youth Dance England

All our individual donors – many thanks!

Volunteers Beth Armstrong

Victoria Clapshaw

Tori Drew

Kerry Frood

Katy Hewison

Laura Holbrook

Nikki Hope

Pippa Inkster

Laura Kaye

Hannah Martin

Luke Mcdonough-Stratford

Stephanie McGrath

Sophie Mitchel

Ashley Neal

Sophie Newall

Rachael O’Neill

Rosie Riley

Eimear Smyth

Emily Snow

Charlotte Statham

Andrew Walker

Lillian Walsh

Rebecca Ward

Lauren Watshaw

Emma Wilde

Board of Directors

Margaret Coleman (Chair)Alison AndrewsHelen BowdurJune Goodson-MooreRic GreenRachel KrischeGraham MallinsonRuth MoranCllr Adam OgilvieAndrew Walker

Yorkshire Dance staff

Wieke Eringa

CEO & Artistic Director

Andrea Smart

Administrative Director

Hannah Robertshaw

Youth & Community Dance Director

Kirsty Redhead

Creative Producer

Sam Hobrough / Jackie Malcolm

Fundraising & Development Manager

Antony Dunn

Marketing & CommunicationsManager

Katrina Ward

Studio Operations Manager

Sarah Lyon

Youth & Community Dance Manager

Hollie Harkness-Gowers / Kate Thomas

Programmes Manager / Co-ordinator

Natalie Duffield-Moore

Junior Producer, Amplified

Fuzzy Jones / Seetal Gahir

Administrative Assistant

Judy Rose

Finance Administrator

Lauren Clarke

Assistant Studio Operations Manager

Danielle Byars / Lisa Clayton

Youth & Community Dance Intern

Gemma Whitham

Youth & Community ProjectsAssistant

Katie Roberts / Sophie Inkster

Marketing & Development Intern

Callum Powell

Studio Operations Apprentice

Anil Patel

Building Maintenance

Laura Griffiths

respond_ Project Manager

Clementina Pun

respond_ Project Placement

Sarah Johnston

Annelise Andersen

DARE Fundraising Fellow

Melanie Purdie

BBC Performing Arts Fellow

Akeim Buck, Rachel Clarke, Jayne Fullerton,

Alex Ivanov, Maria Jardardottir, Angie Knott,

Rachael O’Neill, Nina Ojuroye, Matthew

Peters, Daniel Phung, Beth Powlesland,

Connor Quill, Chloe Richardson,

Rebekah Roman

Front of House

Sarah Buckmaster, Elb Hall, Leanne Hobbins,

Adam Steed, Huw Williams

Theatre Technicians

Mansys

IT Support

Yorkshire Dance, 3 St Peter’s Buildings, St Peter’s Square, Leeds LS9 8AH

0113 243 9867, admin@yorkshiredance.com