Dance in Surrey: Culture for Everyone

Unknown to many, there is a rich ecology of dance in Surrey. From community dance classes, professional site-specific dance works in Surrey’s heritage sites, specialisms in dance science, dance classes for those with Parkinson’s, large-scale participation events, inclusive dance, syllabus-based learning schools, adult dance studios, international-level expertise on parenting in dance, support for teachers delivering dance in schools, movement direction in theatre, film, TV, home to two prestigious training centres (GSA and Italia Conti) as well as five National Portfolio Organisations (NPO) organisations with a focus on dance (New Adventures, Stop Gap, Amina Khayyam Dance Company, Freewheelers and Second Hand Dance), Surrey has an enormous amount of dance activity, and connecting them together, Surrey Dance Network (SDN) is a wondrous demonstration of our united belief that culture is for everyone in our county and beyond.

In 2022, Surrey Dance Network was co-founded by GLive, Made by Katie Green, Dance Woking and Dance Mama as a focussed endeavour to bring consistency to connecting dance professionals across the county in a post-pandemic world. This was built on the legacy of previous iterations and for those pioneers we give gratitude and acknowledgement (namely The Dance Movement, Rosie Heafford and Sarita Piotrowski). The arts and particularly dance (which for time immemorial has proportionally received significantly less funding than other art forms) has taken a huge hit, with one of our original founding organisations, Dance Woking, sadly announcing its closure this May. Another major casualty for dance and an example of the terrible funding climate we are in.

Despite the difficult terrain dance finds itself in, as a group, the passion dance professionals have has prevailed over the last two and half-years. We are acclimatised to persevering in our rehearsal and physical technical training and the application of this resilience is something we tap into daily in this extraordinary moment of unprecedented pressure. Problem-solving as a group in the studio is in our blood and we have applied this approach to help dance in Surrey to survive so we can create the opportunity for it to thrive again as we all recover.

Whilst there is a wide-range of expertise and skill in the county, for many years dance in Surrey has been somewhat fractured, operating in separate lanes on a dance-highway. We are currently very modestly funded by the Co-op community fund which enables us to provide a vital convergence of these ‘lanes’ by running a free-to-join community through a Facebook Group (a conglomerate of previous versions of the network) and curating a monthly e-mail to keep all avenues of dance connected. This connection enables professionals to share opportunities in jobs, learning, funding, upcoming performances, celebrations and ideas.

These simple solutions are often (understandably) taken as a baseline standard for most other sectors. However, a truth that runs across all networks is they take time, effort, engagement and funding. We have been able to consistently deliver this service on very little (including pro bono support), by focussing on the things that matter. These include regular, relevant updates that come up on people’s feeds as well as in their inboxes, and crucially, meet-ups before performances.

The pre-show meet-ups started gradually in October 2022 as this was not long after we were all released from social distancing restrictions. However, a healthy dance ecology usually operates in these in-person moments where discussing dance, ideas, joy and our love of the art form breeds opportunity.  They are the lifeblood of this somatic practice and being together viscerally is hugely important as it is to all humanity.  Over time we have been able to create more of these opportunities when dance has been programmed in the county, and although this has happened very slowly as a result of post-pandemic recovery, we have enjoyed more chances to get together as theatre has recovered. Brilliantly, this year has seen an increasing amount of dance being programmed and we look forward to our next meet-up before Motion House’s Hidden comes to visit on Tuesday 20th May (why not come and say hi?).

A highlight was spending the day together at West Horsley Place in October 2023, linked to the installation of Rosemary Lee’s dance film Orchard Portraits in the main house at West Horsley. At this event,  recipients of Arts Partnership Surrey funding (of which we were one) were able to share their project learnings. Projects included a range of activities working with youth justice, school children, parents and those with young families as well as digital and heritage projects (we all had great fun having a dance around Nicky Norton’s maypole!).

Since 2022 we have been supported by Arts Partnership Surrey (APS) and Surrey Arts who also have a commitment to culture for everyone and they are playing a vital role in commissioning more dance in initiatives such as APS’ new cohort of supported projects including  Second Hand Dance’s The Sticky Dance and H&T Creative’s climate change-themed No Time to Waste. Surrey Arts/ Culture Box supported our development of a teacher’s sub-group which enabled us to deliver CPD to teachers facilitated byMade By Katie Green and Stop Gap as a demonstration of the high-quality expertise schools have on their doorstep and enabling us to create closer ties with the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre.

We are very aware that there is disparity in representation of more diverse dance genres in the county as a whole and also in who is accessing culture.  There is an assumption that we are an affluent county and yet we are also home to some of the most challenging socio-economically deprived areas in the country which seem invisible to many. We, like our fellow arts organisations and funders, know that there is definitely an inequality in access to cultural opportunity and we continue to seek to bridge these chasms. Working collaboratively enables us to come up with new ways to do so. 

At Dance Mama we are currently being commissioned by Surrey Sports Park, Surrey University (supported by Sport England) to deliver weekly specialist dance classes free to new mums and their babies which was featured on BBC1’s The One Show for Angela Rippon CBE’s ‘Let’s Dance’ campaign early this year. Made by Katie Green have been delivering their wonderful works The Story Detectives and SEED to children and their families in libraries and schools across the county as well as their virtual reality project, Gathering Place 360 which transports multigenerational participants from community centres to Surrey heritage sites through specialised dance films viewed onVR headsets. Meanwhile, GLive is once again set to stage a musical (Annie this year) in just two weeks with talented young people from all backgrounds in the local area so they have the experience of performing on the main stage.

We are proud to be part of Surrey Cultural Partnership and for the partnership to have recognised dance as an important strand of the rich fabric of culture the county has to offer everyone. We look forward to more exciting dance events and ideas in the coming months that will help us with our mission to enrich the county’s cultural offer, supporting our county's wondrous dance professionals, contributing to the national landscape, and to the UK’s position as a global leader for dance.

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