Y Pwyllgor Diwylliant, y Gymraeg a Chwaraeon

Adolygiad Polisi: Cyfraniad y Celfyddydau a Chwaraeon at Adfywio Cymunedol

Gillian Dale, Development Director, Community Dance Wales

Representing over 100 professional dance practitioners working in Welsh communities. Thank you for this opportunity to contribute to debate and development. We would like to add our voice to the strength of argument reaching you from community arts organisations and practitioners working throughout Wales. Quite simply, regeneration of communities is not about resources, or bricks and mortar, it is about people. Too often we are seeing financial investment in the fabric and facilities and not enough in the people who can bring those buildings to life and make things happen which actually affect change for the better in people’s lives. Dancing is a natural instinctive activity in all of us - ACW statistics show that dance is THE most popular participatory art form in Wales with around 200,000 people getting involved in ACW funded activity each year. Community dance practice is based entirely on the ethos of equality of opportunity for all - by enabling everyone to discover their own 'dance’, younger and older people, girls and boys, highly skilled or less able, community dance reaches out to any and every community. We surely don’t need to keep rehearsing the arguments about the benefits the arts bring to people who participate in them; the stories speak for themselves. Those of us who work directly in community arts all have our success stories - the boy who finally found something he could make his mum proud of, finally found something he was good at etc. We have to remember that the real numbers are not to do with statistics and budgets, it is about the adding up of all those individual human experiences and what they in turn contribute to re-building their country. Local authority regeneration programmes are increasingly recognising the impact and value of arts activity as a major contributor to their objectives within regeneration projects. Demand for community dance activities has grown significantly as a result. This has led to major training issues which CDW is attempting to address. For example, the 'Leaders in Dance - youth’ course, accredited through OCN, offers an introduction to the basic skills needed to lead dance in youth settings such as youth clubs, community centres and out of school clubs. The demand for this course has been overwhelming and because it is providing key skills to local people who want to share their passion for dance it is a good example of arts training playing a valid part in regeneration. The local, potential arts workforce is able to add to their own life skills and give something back to their community, thus building the intrinsic capacity of that community to sustain itself. This is another key word for CDW and community arts - sustainability. The LiD course is now ready to roll out around the country in both Welsh and in English but is dependent on finding the funding to deliver it effectively. Much of the successful community dance outreach activity is dependent on shrinking lottery funding, initiating short-term projects which raise expectations they cannot ultimately sustain and creating the constant dilemma of trying to respond to people’s needs but knowing that it will be time limited. This invaluable work must have long-term commitment; the long lasting impact can only be built up from small steps but they lead to life-long learning and a life-time sense of achievement. Community dance in Wales has international respect and a sound infrastructure on which to build. The first ever dance degree in Wales has just been established at UWIC with a focus on community & education. The national dance company of Wales and CDW member, Diversions, is about to take up residence in the flagship building in Cardiff Bay. The University of Glamorgan has its first Professor for Community Arts. A major conference addressing the whole spectrum of issues around dance in education is to be held at UWIC in January. The dance community recognises that the 'time is ripe’ for dance to fulfil its potential in Wales. We trust that the Welsh Assembly Government will grasp this opportunity to invest in the future of Wales as a land of song - and dance.

Notes

Community Dance Wales is the national umbrella body, a membership organisation, supporting and developing best practice in community dance throughout Wales. CDW connects communities with professional dance practice by providing creative opportunities for everyone to participate in the dance experience.