DANCE TRANSPORTS

Dance Transports: Careers on the Move

Read about Yorkshire Dance’s innovative programme for independent artists which takes a focus on dance of the African Diaspora this autumn

By Hannah Robertshaw

Programmes Director, Yorkshire Dance

Yorkshire Dance is passionate about supporting independent artists. Freelance artists are vital to the sector yet the difficulty of maintaining a career as a freelancer can often mean it is difficult to find the time to pause, share, develop and learn. This is the impetus for Yorkshire Dance’s Dance Transports, an annual series of paid professional development days led by and for artists.

Dance Transports pays artists to take part in a day of artist-to-artist conversation, networking and skills exchange, bringing together artists from different walks of life.

Themes explored have included a collaboration between writers and dancers, with leadership from acclaimed poet Kayo Chingonyi and dance artist Ella Mesma. Earlier this year, Dance Transports focused on co-production with communities with contributions from Common Wealth and Restoke.

A new Dance Transports, in development for October 2022, will bring DAD artists together in a one-day exchange hosted at Yorkshire Dance in Leeds.

It is interesting to reflect on the importance of artist exchange and look at why Yorkshire Dance is striving to create spaces for artists to lead their own professional development.

The traditional models of professional development for artists don’t feel relevant anymore – the idea of ‘expert’ and ‘novice’ have broken down with freelance artists possessing such a high level of skill and leadership that moving to more equitable models of professional development, focused more on peer exchange and dialogue feel far more profound and effective.

Dance Transports involves simple concepts such as paying everyone who is in the space and providing everyone with opportunity to initiate and lead. The ideas come from the artist community which gives a greater sense of ownership and autonomy. This approach was inspired by the Artist Exchange Programme, led by independent artist Danielle Jones (Teale).

From 2023, Yorkshire Dance will take this approach a step further embedding Dance Transports into all artist development programmes to allow for deeper investigation and artist-led research.

Take Part

Dance Transports in collaboration with One Dance UK will take place on 20 October 2022 at Yorkshire Dance in Leeds.

Applications to join the programme close 25 July 2022. Click the link below for details:

https://bit.ly/DanceTransportsDAD2022

Kayo Chingonyi and Ella Mesma

Photo: Steve Dearden