Why would dance companies want to pursue options for their development based on lessons from innovation economics?

There are several convincing reasons. The most significant is depends on their ambition for growth and motivation to pursue excellence. These reasons will be discussed in the near future.

However, dance is an integral part of the cultural economy and probably has more potential to engage local and regional communities than any other artform. Investment in dance and music is the first step in developing identity and the celebration of a shared heritage. Dance is organised both formally and informally, suggesting that there are two distinct markets.

• The formal market is the ‘funded market’ where sponsors, donors and government agencies provide support for dance companies but they have to operate on a competitive basis in ‘contestable markets’.  
• The informal market is much bigger and often neglected by dance companies. An audience research study that I carried out for Southern Arts in 1997[1] showed that the informal arts sector was not only much bigger but also more successful owing to input in kind by community organisations and high level of volunteering by dancers and other artists. An good example is the annual Diwali celebrations by many Hindu organisations. Is it possible that South Asian dance companies may be depriving themselves of extensive linkages of community benefit by not getting involved in community events?
• Market competition should encourage dance organisations to develop formal and strategic plans for development and growth. Each of these terms has specific meanings in the context of a free market for culture. In most countries dance agencies have access to a large market which supports employment and growth. Do South Asian dance companies see themselves as key providers of economic benefit? The larger companies are employers and centre for volunteer development.
• One of the impacts of an economic recession and reduction of purchasing power is that dance companies may need to slow down as far ambitions for growth are concerned. But not necessarily so. Would South Asian dance companies be interested enough to look into mergers and takeovers? This is almost impossible as almost all dance entrepreneurs are very possessive of their companies and are likely to see control and ownership as a reward for their hard work in the early stages of their careers. However, the shrinkage of resources may last longer than most cultural entrepreneurs would like to contemplate. Would they consider working with community organisations as an ideal collaboration? Would they also consider forging alliances with other South Asian dance companies? More importantly, would dance entrepreneurs consider collaborating outside their comfort zone? From the standpoint of economics, mergers and collaborations would create ‘economies of scale’ on the one hand and extract greater value from research and development.

Mirador is working on a proposal for collaborations between mainstream arts providers and South Asian dance companies. Details will be available by the end of October.

• Tourism provided both direct and indirect economic benefits as well social and cultural linkages. Have South Asian dance companies considered forging alliances with the tourism departments of their cities and local authorities? Almost certainly not bur there could be some surprise examples. Conversely, have city tourism officers considered working with South Asian dance companies and to promote their cities as cross-cultural tourism venues? If they have not, they could be underutilising the immense potential of promoting local cultural connections. Does a city like Leicester consider promoting South Asian culture as a form of value addition to their tourism offer? Has the city of Oldham developed plans for integrating Muslim cultural provision into their tourism packages? Mirador will attempt to find out!
• One of Mirador’s most successful arts events entailed working with South Bucks District Council and the City of London in presenting a Traditional Dance Extravaganza derived from my Festival of Ephemeral Arts at Burnham Beeches, an excellent environmental site which is located just outside Slough. Would it not be great fun to organise a cross cultural harvest dance festival surrounded by the beeches? Mirador has started negotiations with these collaborators and will be announcing details in October.
• Given some of the ideas in the above article, how can London’s major success story, the Notting Hill Carnival benefit from innovation? I have some ideas for future posts.

We are pleased to report a huge interest in the weblog following its launch earlier today.

The weblog statistics have shown a healthy interest from organisations and individuals who received our various mailings during the week.

It is good to have new readers on board. As the good old advice goes, if you liked what you have seen, please forward the mailing to your contacts and colleagues. If you did not like what we are all about, please get in touch with me as soon as possible! Any new programme has to test the views of its readership and its potential beneficiaries and take constructive steps!

We are here to support the sector. Please email by using the links provided under ‘Contact Us’ above.

I would like to draw your attention to a new post in the Dance Economics blog. Please click this link to access it: http://danceeconomics.wordpress.com/dancing-in-the-time-of-austerity/

I will modify it soon to target the contents of that article specifically at the South Asian dance markets. A modified version will also be added to the list of ‘Sections’ shown on the left of this page.

This is a new blog. Its content has been inspired by an interest in the viability and sustainability of dance companies as social enterprises. ‘No, not money again!’ And indeed some well funded dance companies may be working on other pressures.

If there is one thing that the current recessionary situation (technically it is over) has shown is that money cannot be taken for granted. Is it inevitable that some dance companies may lose their funding? I have no ‘inside knowledge’ and would not like to cause any alarm. But realistically, treasurers and accountants will be looking into funding more seriously than ever before. What are your views? Please see the contact details at the bottom.

Invitation to join as a Reviewer

Have you seen any dance performances recently? Would you like to send in your own personal view of the performance and ask us to publish it? Yes we are giving you that option now but be careful about your facts! Your views about artistic integrity are strictly your own views and I will publish it after discussing it with you if you wish. Please see the contact details at the bottom.

Invitation: Send me your dance company pictures and posters!

I am looking for inspirational work which should project your company as a leader or as an innovator in your chosen field. 

If you wish to send in pictures of performances, please also state basic information such as dates, time and duration. Please see the contact details at the bottom.

Reviews!

If you have seen a recent performance and feel strongly about it, contact me to discuss an arrangement to publish your review.

Critical Debate

Yes, if you have proposals for content and also the stamina to engage people in a topic of your choice!

Access to Funding is critically important and indeed many people will want to debate funding issues and concerns.  Let me have your views.

In addition, critical debate may also include audience development, engaging hard to reach groups, marketing dance, opinion building … the choice is wide open. Contact me please to discuss what is the issue or concern that may be giving you sleepless nights.

Contacts

Please send me an email:

Kalwant Ajimal FRSA

Publisher, The Economics of Dance Companies

Email: kalwant.ajimal@btinternet.com

I will answer each communication personally when you will have put in time and effort to write on any issue of your choice. However, we offer you protection if you are working for someone else by saying that the views reflect your own position and not of any employer or funder!

Perhaps more significant for South Asian dance companies than ever before

This blog started as a personal campaign. However, when I discussed my ideas with a number of people, I was delighted to find that they wanted to see more than just a ‘personal view’ or a ‘whinging blog’ which would challenge funding options  or join the ‘keep fit class’ of attacking the funders and the new coalition government. In the current economic climate, there is no place for a critical campaign which challenges everyone except the delivery organisations.

I have run Asian Arts Access, a creative cultural organisation for enough time (actually 20 odd years) to know that concerted action is needed to survive in the current period of austerity. Access to funding is no longer a right; it must be seen as a privilege which creates tradeoffs. Every funding decision that results in an award to an arts organisation also creates alternatives that have to be foregone; what the economist calls opportunity cost.

However, restraint is not the answer to funding shortfalls. What every arts organisation needs to do is to invest in innovation by using the tools and analysis of ‘innovation economics’. Innovation must be the route to excellence and not just survival.

The main organisation that I run now is called Mirador Creative Economics. It is an offshoot of Asian Arts Access. Please see www.asianartsaccess.org

It is a response to changing priorities in my own work but the main challenge is to mainstream the knowledge, learning and practice to reach new audiences in the next five years. I have worked on dance evaluations and done teaching in the area of management and business planning of dance companies at postgraduate level. I also run my own festival known as Ephemeral Arts but as is the case in every work we do as creative people, Ephemeral Arts is now being presented as Traditional Arts, a new forthcoming network. Please see http://traditionalartsexchange.ning.com

During my term as Chair of Culture South East, a position to which I was appointed by Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in February 2003 for four years led to a renewal of my term for another four years in 2007. However the cultural consortium was closed down in March 2009. Of course my colleagues and I would be entitled to say that we made a substantial contribution to regional and national policy. But this is not the forum for making claims.

This site marks the launch of new work to popularise the role and value of Innovation Economics.  I have selected dance as the main artform for no other reason than the fact I happen to know a little bit about dance organisations. The application f Innovation Economics is wide ranging and efforts will be made to present the critical debate to attract as many creative artists, directors, funders and students as possible.

Objectives

1. To share the knowledge of economic analysis and its applications
2. To develop thought leaders for business planning and economic evaluation of culture
3. To enable dance organisations and support agencies to become more sustainable
4. To inform policies, developmental agendas and management action plans
5. To enhance the knowledge and practice of creative and innovation economics
6. To support early stage critical debate and to pave the way for future development
7. To develop and implement a conference and seminar programme
8. To demonstrate that South Asian dance companies are not any different when it comes to developing effective networks
9. To launch a networking site to promote Innovation Economics with special reference to Dance and
10. To extend the area of focus to include other areas.

Please send me your comments and suggestions and if there is sufficient interest, I propose to set up a representative network  Board of Advisers. After taking soundings, I have decided that Mirador is probably best placed to offer this service! Why?

We are not a dance company and so there should be no conflict of interest. Besides, to me all South Asian companies, large or small are important. Our independent approach should be of value to the South Asian dance sector.

Kalwant Ajimal FRSA

Tel: Mobile: 07973 168331  Email: kalwant.ajimal@btinternet.com

South Asian Dance has enjoyed immense success in the UK during the last twenty years. It remains a sector of choice for many dance enthusiasts, professional dancers, performing companies, policymakers, trustees and funders.

South Asian dance is sometimes the main link to the cultural heritage of many South Asian communities, each of whom brings creative interpretation, innovation and audiences from different backgrounds.

To ask whether the sector is well funded would be like waving‘naan’ bread in front of a hungry person on the one hand and talking about food to a person who has just had a five course meal. Both will have different reactions depending on their needs. This analogy with food helps to distinguish the key issue of funding as a relative issue. The priorities of large well funded companies will be different from new, small scale entrants to the South Asian dance market. A company may also be ‘over funded’ if it has reached the end of its creative life and is probably doing more of the same to survive; it is possible that some companies are funding driven because the combination of service and market outputs are dictated by funders.  

There is another key issue here. None of the South Asian dance companies would have been eligible for funding if they had not received a phenomenal amount of investment and funding in kind from their founders. Many dance entrepreneurs have invested personal funds to launch their organisations and created a sustainable entity before they could apply for funding. Cultural organisations in general are singularly dependent on the support from their founders, trustees and volunteers. No one has costed the total input of such subsidies by founders of South Asian dance companies but if the problems of accounting definitions and assumptions could be put aside, it is clear that the South Asian dance ‘sector’ has attracted inputs worth several millions of pounds. Given these assumptions, South Asian dance entrepreneurs are investors. A quick survey would help to ascertain how they all subsidise their companies throughout their working lives. It would be equally possible to determine the scale of tangible investment in the form of hard currency.

It must be noted that South Asian dance companies are not unique in this respect; all dance entrepreneurs are investors and guarantors of their enterprises but the South Asian sector is small and often personality-led. The status of the dance entrepreneurs as practitioners used to be very important in the early days when people were given to evaluate their academic and traditional roots in South Asian dance. Quite understandably the early practitioners were proud to state their affiliations in the Sub-Continent – their teachers or ‘gurus’, their genres or ‘gharanas’ and the historical credibility of their dance traditions. This will continue to matter to the purists – both senior students and the more informed dance audiences. However, most South Asian dance companies which have flourished in the United Kingdom over the last ten years will have done so owing to the status and creative input of their founders, regardless of their affiliations with traditional sources of inspiration.

The most enterprising and successful South Asian dance entrepreneurs in Britain are going to be those who have adapted their traditional roots and sources of inspiration to suit the needs of emerging audiences. This is not to sideline the impact of the dance houses in the sub-Continent but only that for the modern South Asian dance enthusiast, what they see is what they get. Consequently there is a major challenge here – how to maintain traditional integrity without losing markets, students and funders in the modern marketplace of the West. There are many success stories that I am aware of. But I would like to hear from the vast ‘population’ of the dance companies themselves. As I have said above, I have no vested interests and I could not dance to save my life!

This reminds me of many Bollywood films where the heroines dance with anger and resilience to save their lives and their lovers. But they are captives and hostages, normally held against their will by evil rulers or gang masters who develop an acute interest in dance before they may disclose their interest in the dancer. Talking about the Indian film industry, is it a source of help or hindrance to the modern British South Asian dance markets? Over to you now!

ALSO SEE:  Key Note Paper  on the left or by clicking the link under SECTIONS