Moving ideas into action
Our ethos
In its new home base, and in collaboration with Siobhan Davies Dance, ID is developing its programme to foster greater international exchange, raise the profile of independent artists’ practice, and embraces opportunities that enable artists to interact with a wider artistic and cultural field and contribute to the growth and evolution of the art form.
ID seeks to:
- Support dance artists in their ongoing learning, practice and exchange of ideas
- Stimulate the continued evolution and reach of the artform
- Sustain professionals in their flexible careers by providing a stable and responsive framework of activity for artists at different points in their development.
In developing its programme ID draws on the following beliefs and values:
- The development of dance as an artform will be enhanced by an environment / framework that enables artists to keep excavating and extending their practice in interaction with their fellow professionals, throughout their working lives
- Dance as a mindful engagement with movement and dance practitioners as questioning enquirers who seek to deepen their knowledge as well as extend their skills
- Dance is a contemporary artform that sits in active relation to, and dialogue with the changing world around it
- The importance of seeking ever new ways to increase the understanding and acknowledgement of dance artists and the contribution of their practices in a wider sphere
- The contemporary dance community is, by nature, mobile, international and multi-cultural
- An interdependent and fluid community, which embraces the contribution and interaction of young, mature and internationally recognised artists
- Provision of an inclusive environment of mutual respect, mindful of the economic status of artists within the sector as both participants and teachers
- An approach to dance that is serious but not overly-earnest. Dance practices evolve through rigorous attention and playful curiosity
- An openness to the fruitful influence on dance of other body work approaches and diverse artistic techniques and forms
- The productive inter-relationship between the singular development of each artist, and a learning environment that prioritises the facilitation of learning and the exchange of artistic skills and ideas
- Dance as an oral / kinaesthetic tradition that evolves through the daily interactions of studio practice
- Support for new ideas and innovative approaches that enable teachers, as artists to keep challenging their own practice
- Partnerships as a stimulating and effective way to optimise resources and maximise the potential for artistic interaction
- Supporting mature professionals in their career development and in feeding their expertise back into the artistic community
- The potential of dance to interact with other artists and professionals for mutual benefit, and in the belief that increased understanding of dance will enable it to make valuable contributions to current debates within society
- The contribution dance knowledge and processes can make to health and well-being through increased awareness of the body in motion and enhanced sense of self