Dundee Dance Partnership Meeting 25th April 14
In attendance: Stewart Murdoch, Holly Bryon-Staples, Rob Dunn, Allan McIntyre, Dawn Hartley, Alex Hare, Lee Lapin, Kenny Christie, Lottie Barker, Kayleigh Wilson, Fergus Storrier
Apologies: Sabrina Logan
Carried forward from last meeting…
-Dundee College will continue to be banking administrators for DDP.
-£19, 521 was available with £9800 to be paid to The Rep for Get Scotland Dancing and Cashback for Creativity.
-GSD merchandise has been sent out and banners will be available soon.
-Dance Along Movie; 26th July. Alex Forrest will have the conversation about the tech spec for the film/screen. It is billed as ‘bring a picnic’ but starts at 7pm which will need some thought…please get back to Dawn with ideas and info. There will be an under-spend on the ‘movie’ budget as screen will be provided (£1000 for the screen and £400 for the license) which could be released as budget for participants.
-26th July is also Commonwealth Dance Day so please contact Kenny with anything that could be involved, with information re costs.
-The launch of GSD was really interesting and CS was supportive towards dance and communicated that we were part of a national project. Need to use momentum of GSD to get other dance groups in Dundee involved in DDP, either as part of DDP or as another group.
Commonwealth
-Holly will send out Commonwealth Games Programme with minutes. Please let Stewart know if any changes need to be made. There is some debate re the borders of the map. The Rep hasn’t been listed in the programme so Dawn will check with them re the situation. Contacts: Billy Gartley for programme content and Merrill Smith for logistics.
Youth Arts Hub
-Funding application was unsuccessful; CS labeled it a strong application but was tasked with spreading the money thinly. Going forward DDP need to take parts of proposed activities and repackage them to enable applications to new CS funding structure. Useful for individual members of DDP to do some lobbying.
-Need to keep connected to the youths involved so they inform future conversations and gain a real insight into such processes. They seemed really excited about the ideas but a sense of disbelief re them becoming a reality.
-The V&A is for Scotland-wide benefit and not just Dundee so it’s really important that it isn’t seen as having ‘fixed’ Dundee to the detriment of other local arts organisations.
-There is plenty of other funding avenues to go down and money on offer to exploit.
Review of the Action Plan
-The website would look better if there was an updated action plan from individual members.
-Stewart and Kenny had a meeting with CS (Emma) re lack of DDP in-house support as all other hubs have. The feeling that SDT is Dundee’s ‘dance agency’ and therefore funding is redirected to areas that have no existing structure.
-DDP has used it’s money differently from other hubs, and produced rather than employ and officer.
-CS feel Dundee is getting more per capita than most other Las because of Rep, DCA, V&A (funded by CS rather than direct government fund) etc which my lead to disadvantage to the existing organisations.
Website
-For it to be useful it needs to updated constantly.
-MTC media is local and have helped Fergus with his website in the past. He is happy to approach them for help.
-The problem is maintaining activity and feeding live information to the website to be kept busy and a portal for all members’ websites.
INFO EXCHANGE
Fergus: New building opens on the 1st August, near Cleppington Primary School. 20th June there will be a dance performance battle (5 schools have 8 weeks to create a 10 minute piece) at Fat Sam’s, someone from Diversity will come and judge, as part of an international series. Looking for 3rd judge from DDP?? Alex Hare is volunteered. In the application DDP was stated as offering workshops on the day of the performance which needs to be looked into.
Alex: Next show 18th May at Gardyne. Summer programme launching on the website middle of May.LCD are set do Dream Night at Camperdown Wildlife Centre…looking for something for the kids to be involved in, there is no budget for it. Friday 6th June. Will follow up with email and Pro Forma.
Dawn: Call out for participation in Park final stage of Commonwealth performance and have money for 71 dancers so looking for more young people to engage.
Lottie: In St Andrews, performance 2nd and 3rd May showcasing 11 different dance styles.
Lee: Edge coming on 15th May and Verve on 17th May (£5) and following week students end of year show (free). Dundee schools musical theatre performing Aladdin 23rd and 25th May. Looking at setting up Dance Highers. Antone from diversity is coming to work with the BAs next year (to develop his contemporary choreography). Setting up a course in Malaysia.
Allan: All Aboard will be postponed due to licensing issues, will now be 26th Sept. Got awarded funding from CS for Cultural Economy…brand/business development. Traditional Arts funding awarded for WheechinAboot; Sunday 30th November. Funding for Adventures of Isabel to continue which was performed in 3 schools last week. Tommy being mentored by Farooq from Akram Kahn.
Stewart: Dundee Ice Arena has been has been bought into Leisure and Culture Dundee and can be a venue to hold 7000/2000 plus ice.Caird Hall getting a significant fund to develop halls beneath for conference facilities. Dundee Science Centre just been awarded £850000 for further space and looking for collaborations.
Kenny: Starting to explore dance qualifications in schools. Yolanda & Sarah writing up an ASPIRE report. Kiss Me Kate, Joseph and Fame at Gardyne, 300 young people involved in whole process. Was in Germany recently with sister city, looking at twinning links with theatre, delivering work next year, invited SDT to take part in festival.
Next meeting: 29th August 2pm, The Space.