Talking Moves Greenwich Dance

In this special episode, we talk to two artistic directors about the current funding crisis ravaging our sector.
Back in May, when the Greenwich Dance team was having funding applications repeatedly rejected, we were relieved to see renowned theatre director Nicholas Hytner's Guardian article "The arts in Britain are teetering on the brink. Here's my plan to save them". Here at last someone was talking about the dire situation the arts are in and, just as importantly, offering up with ideas about how to do something about it.
And it turns out someone else had also been thinking constructively about arts funding models. Way back in 2020, Tarek Iskander, Artistic Director of Battersea Arts Centre, proposed a National Arts Service, using his experience of working in the NHS as a starting point.
As we begin to see a general election on the horizon and the possibility of a new government starts to feel possible, we invited them both to talk us through their intriguing provocations. We ask at this time, when we are emerging from a pandemic, suffering the effects of a cost of living crisis and dealing with the repercussions of Brexit, how do we inject more funding into the cracks appearing in the arts? And as we navigate our own precarious funding situation, we ask if not now – when?
Talking Moves is a Greenwich Dance production
Presented by Melanie Precious
Production by Carmel Smith, Lucy White and Melanie Precious
 
Recording date: Wednesday 19 July 2023

In this episode, we talk to Valerie Ebuwa and Kwesi Johnson about making positive change.
Valerie Ebuwa sets about to ‘make shit happen’. She has written articles about ‘how to grow wings’ and ‘knowing your aesthetic’ and has urged readers of her blog to ‘lead with your strongest foot to ensure a solid journey to the skies’. Kwesi Johnson believes creativity and innovation are the highest uses of intelligence. “It begins as a thought and becomes reality, that is the power of imagination and desire,” he says.
So this was always going to be an enlightening conversation! We start off, as we often do, by finding out how their dancing journeys began and we probe Valerie more about why she thought her late start (18 years old) was “perfect timing”.
Both artists urge anyone engaging with them – either through their published writing and journalism (Valerie) or mentoring and consulting (Kwesi) – to ask deep questions of themselves. In doing so they both respectively believe you can ‘unleash your creative genius’ and so we dig deeper: discovering more about the ways they do this for themselves and others and the gifts learning about yourself in this way can bring. Both Kwesi and Valerie are entrepreneurial thinkers and doers and busily forging new ways of working creatively for themselves across multiple genres and art forms. We talk about their innovative projects and initiatives past and present, their perceptions of the funding model and its limitations and (best of all) their suggestions about how artists can break themselves free.
Both are unafraid of calling out behaviours. Valerie was recently published in The Stage, challenging the role of the critic and the generalisations often made when writing about dancers of colour. And Kwesi, way back in 2003, was pioneering hip hop dance theatre and putting people straight about their (often misguided) perceptions of it. In fact, Kwesi has long been a trailblazer and we find out a little more about his exploration of digital technology for dance classes which he investigated, not during the pandemic as the rest of us did, but back in 2012!
Finally, we talk about problem-solving and the essential but often under-valued role artists have in building a better functioning (economic as well as creative) world.
Talking Moves is a Greenwich Dance production
Presented by Melanie Precious
Production by Carmel Smith, Kajsa Sundström, Lucy White and Melanie Precious
 
Recording date: Thursday 12 May 2022
 
Host recorded at Creative Kin studios

In this episode, we talk to Charlotte Vincent and Robert Clark about parenting in the arts.  
Becoming a parent changes the lives of all who do it, but artists often need to make huge decisions about how they will balance the responsibility of caring alongside a profession that requires touring, weekend and evening work and situations where ‘WFH’ just can’t come into play. So how best to navigate these changes?  
We start off by finding out what Charlotte and Rob’s dancing lives had looked like pre-children and then probe a little deeper into the considerations that came to the fore, such as touring abroad as they took on caring responsibilities. Charlotte talks us through some of the policies her company has adopted to better support parents which have come out of the need to support her own family as well as those of her workforce. We talk about the various ’stages’ we go through as parents depending on whether children are pre-nursery or in school and how this might help or hinder our working schedules. Indeed the topic of scheduling is pertinent and we discuss how companies can better do this to support the needs of families. 
The effects of the pandemic come into so many of our conversations on this podcast and this one is no exception. We chuckle about video-bombing during those homeschooling periods but also reflect upon how parents have become more visible during the last few years, our nurturing responsibilities no longer kept so separate from our working lives.  We also compare some of the case studies in Vincent Dance Theatre’s report of 2009, A Dancers Perspective, to those of today and wondered whether we have made as much change as we would like…
The subject of power arises – between genders but also between organisations and freelances and how we can use our ’powers’, when and if we have them, as a force for much-needed change. We talk about speaking up about our responsibilities within employment negotiations, of organisations taking the time to find out about their employees’ infrastructures and support networks in order to understand what flexibility is there (or not there) and discuss the work that inspirational bodies in our sector such as Dance Mama and Parents & Carers In Performing Arts are doing. 
And finally, we reflect on the creativity being a parent can bring and the changes it has made to the choreographic and artistic approaches of both Charlotte and Rob.  
Talking Moves is a Greenwich Dance production
Presented by Melanie Precious
Production by Carmel Smith, Kajsa Sundström, Lucy White and Melanie Precious
 
Recording date: Friday 22 April 2022

In this episode, we talk to Rosie Heafford and Neus Gil Cortés about making accessible work.  
Today, there probably isn’t a company or organisation that would say they didn’t want to make accessible work, and yet there are still people excluded from it: be they performers, collaborators or audiences. We talk to two artists about their approaches to making work accessible and get some tips about how we as a sector might do this better. 
We begin by asking our guests to talk a bit more about the work that they do before jumping right in to discuss the almost ‘buzzword’ accessibility. What does the word accessible really mean within our art form?  
We acknowledge that it is really difficult, if not impossible to create work that’s accessible for everybody and hear about two very different approaches and pieces of work that Rosie and Neus have made as artistic directors and choreographers.  
We move on to discuss the audience experience – how do you remove barriers and make the work exciting for all? We talk about different approaches of making with audience members being part of the process from the start, and how creating different versions of the same work gives audiences choices in what, and how they would like to experience it. 
Naturally, the conversation reflects on the pandemic and how practices for creating had to change in the studio. We discuss how this allowed for a more collaborative process and even opened new doors to creating work for the digital stage. 
We speak about the importance of describing what the experience is going to be like for audiences, listening to what people need and the importance of taking the onus to make needs clear away from disabled people. 
And finally, we talk about what it means to be a disabled leader, what it means to the work and how it affects fellow collaborators and audiences. 
Talking Moves is a Greenwich Dance production
Presented by Melanie Precious
Production by Carmel Smith, Kajsa Sundström, Lucy White and Melanie Precious
 
Recording date: Friday 22 April 2022

In this episode we talk to Marla King and Adam Benjamin about environmental responsibility.
Many of us have long recognised our role in protecting the planet but perhaps the last two years of the pandemic – when we lived in our parks and gardens, saw our skies fill with birdsong and our roads quieten – has unlocked a willingness for more of us to take action. But what does action look like for our sector?
We start off by discussing what had changed for us in the past few years, how we came to notice our damaging behaviours (such as extensive travel) and how the climate crisis has intensified in urgency. We discuss social justice within this and how everyone is not equally responsible. We reflect upon the pressures on the younger generation of dancer who seem to be socially and environmentally aware (in ways we weren’t years ago) but who cannot be held solely responsible for evoking change. We also reflect on the fact that the training Marla and other dancers of her generation have had, even recently, has seemed to sidestep any references to environmental responsibility as they prepared for dancing careers.
We find out about Adam’s ecological project The Dancer’s Forest and how Marla entrepreneurially trained to be a carbon literacy trainer alongside starting a podcast A Little Bit of Lagom. In fact, business and environmental responsibility overlap a few times as we contemplate what a world might look like if we conducted our dancing business in hyperlocal settings rather than trying to ‘tour the world’ and how casting changes if the criteria of ‘local’ is put before other aspects.
And finally, we reflect on the changes we could make as individuals and as a sector, how wellbeing is interlinked with environmental awareness and how technologies can offer some solutions (but also contribute to more problems we have yet to fully unpick…)
A conversation which raises more questions than giving answers perhaps, and a starting point as we all reflect on how we can all work greener.
Talking Moves is a Greenwich Dance production
Presented by Melanie Precious
Production by Carmel Smith, Kajsa Sundström, Lucy White and Melanie Precious
 
Recording date: Wednesday 20 April 2022

In this episode, we talk to Harriet Waghorn and Kamala Devam about their experience working across different genres of dance. As dancers we often train in streams of dance genres – often there are expected routes mapped out for us and aesthetics we are expected to achieve. It’s therefore refreshing to find artists whose work transcends those divides, fuses aspects of styles together to make new aesthetics, new vocabulary. What does that mean in terms of training for themselves, as well as making work, working with dancers who may not have the same experiences?
We begin by asking our guests how they came to find dance – both Kamala and Harriet mention their mothers and how they facilitated their first steps on their journeys. We discuss their training and how they came to build their experience across the genres of contemporary, ballroom, Bharatanatyam, acrobatics and contact improvisation.
We ask our guests why are they drawn to the styles in which they work, and how stepping away from the usual framing of genres and fusing other styles relates to their audiences. we find similarities that may not be obvious such as the constant flow and trust that is needed in both contact improvisation as well as ballroom – and how important the connection with your partner is.
We move on to discuss their own teaching practices and what they are looking for in dancers when they choreograph work. The importance of training is a huge part of any dancer and artists life and we discuss how they train across such different genres of dance.
Finally, we are intrigued to hear what’s next for our two artists on their journey working across genres.
Talking Moves is a Greenwich Dance production
Presented by Melanie Precious
Production by Carmel Smith, Kajsa Sundstöm, Lucy White and Melanie Precious
 
Recording date: Monday 28 March 2022