Dance South West

Home › About us › The Organisation

The Organisation

  • Dance South West is the regional strategic agency for dance. We bring together a network of partners to enable people in the South West to make, watch and take part in dance.

    Dance South West supports the individual partner agencies, joins up the agencies for projects across the region and delivers its own dance programme.

01. Dance for Health

Dance South West is working with the partner agencies to create opportunity and demonstrate how dance can connect with the health agenda. We aim to make a real impact on the targets of Primary Care Trusts, hospitals, mental health organisations, rehabilitation units and GP surgeries.

We believe that the best way to maximise this potential is to adopt a cross-regional strategy for Dance and Health. This will not seek to replace the excellent work that is happening on an individual and local basis but will begin to develop a more sustainable and visible partnerships with the health sector.

02. Pavilion Dance

Dance South West is working in partnership with Bournemouth Borough Council and consultants, Bonnar-Keenlyside, on the creation of a new centre for dance at the renovated Pavilion in Bournemouth town centre. There will be new dance studios for both professional and public use and a new studio theatre seating 250. There would also be access to the fabulous ballroom – the largest in the south of England. These facilities will offer unparalleled new opportunities to artists and audiences.

03. Youth Dance

Youth Dance is thriving and is on the brink of an exciting new phase. Following the publication of the Tony Hall report and the subsequent announcement of an investment of £5.5 million over the next three years, Dance South West will be hosting the Youth Dance Strategy Manager who will play a vital role in sustaining the regional network on behalf of Youth Dance England.

04. Dance Direct

From watersides to hilltops, city centres to country houses, Big Dance will offer opportunities for dancers and non-dancers alike to perform, participate or simply to watch. Big Dance is a biennial celebration of people dancing. Exploring the diversity, accessibility and fun of dance, it creates extraordinary events in unusual places and encourages as many people as possible to become involved across the region.

Unlocked is a partnership between the National Trust, Dance South West and a range of cultural agencies across the South West

05. Cultural Olympiad

The Olympic and Paralympic Games are about more than sport. Host cities must also stage the Cultural Olympiad - a series of events to showcase the city's arts and culture to the rest of the world. The Cultural Olympiad will be launched on the weekend 26 – 28 September 2008. It will be a four-year celebration on a scale never before seen in Olympic and Paralympic history, designed to enable the widest range of people across the UK to take part.

06. Dance Professional

Artists are at the heart of everything Dance South West aspires to do. A career as a dance artist starts in childhood and moves through several stages of development - in school and out, in vocational training, higher education and through post-graduate support. The term ‘artist’ for us includes anyone who works professionally in dance with the aim of encouraging more people to watch, make or take part in dance activity of the highest possible quality.