FST/TWR Dance Forum Notes: Recovery & Re-Imagining- 23rd June
Notes documenting the discussions and presentations which took place during the Dance Forum on 23rd June 2020 via Zoom
On Wednesday 23rd June between 2-4pm over 100 people involved in dance throughout Scotland gathered together via Zoom for the FST / TWR Dance Forum: Recovery & Re-imagining. This embraced performers, choreographers, community & teaching artists, producers, managers, programmers, funders and lecturers. It was a space to share experiences of dancing – or not dancing – and surviving through the pandemic. And begin a process of re-imaging how our sector could be when we emerge from this.
The forum was organised by the Federation of Scottish Theatre (FST) and The Work Room (TWR). It was co-hosted by Anita Clark (The Work Room) and Christine Devaney (Curious Seed). With presentations and provocations by: Claire Cunningham & Luke Pell; Mele Brooms, Ashanti Harris, & Rhea Lewis of Project X; Charlotte Mountford of Lyth Arts Centre; Simone Kenyon & Neil Callaghan; Morag Deyes & Jim Hollington of Dance Base and a final reflection by Paul Burns of Creative Scotland.
The format included some time all together listening to presentations, moving in to smaller groups for discussion and some exercises which allowed time to reflect individually.
Thanks to all who attended, presented and contributed to this event.
These notes have been collated to document some of the ideas, thoughts and discussions that took place during the forum. It contains notes from the presentations, a summary of the updates from FST and collated notes from the discussions that took place among attendees in breakout spaces.
The conversations which took place across 18 Breakout rooms, were scribed by individuals and delivered back to the Forum via the chat function in Zoom. These notes have been collated and summarised for the purposes of this report while trying to retain as much detail as possible. The conversations responded to two different question:
1) What aspects of how dance & performing arts had been operating pre-pandemic should we leave behind?
2) What do we want to take with us from the lockdown experience? Looking to the future, what could or should dance be beyond Covid19?
You can download a PDF of the Collated Notes from the FST/ TWR Dance Forum: Recovery and Re-Imagining HERE
Stay up to date with announcements about future FST Dance Forums and news regarding the dance sector via the Federation of Scottish Theatre website.