Dance Education, Ireland, vocational training,
There is still no formal pathway in Ireland that enables dancers to train to a high-level of technique and artistry demanded by today’s international standards. Past research has evidenced that the net result of this gap in Ireland’s formal dance education system is that many students who wish to train professionally leave every year to take up places at schools and colleges outside the country. This shortcoming has had a particularly negative effect upon the development of ballet and contemporary dance practices in Ireland and has hindered their growth considerably.
This issue has been acknowledged and discussed in a number of significant Arts Council reports on professional dance education in Ireland spanning the last thirty- years, including: Peter Brinson, The Dancer and the Dance (1985); Leatherdale and Todd, Shall We Dance? (1998); Yannick Marzin, A Professional Dance Curriculum for Ireland (2003); and Victoria O’Brien, Step Up: a Programme for Pre- Professional Contemporary Dance in Ireland (2010); and most recently, Ballet Policy Review (2013).
Due to the nature of its remit, the Arts Council cannot play a direct role in the development of formal third level education. The Arts Council’s focus on this issue arises from the systemic role that dance education plays in the formation and development of both professional and community based dance practice. Past reports have provided a firm ground for advocacy, as they demonstrate that Arts Council policy development will continue to be hindered by the absence of this essential component.
This report is contextualised within the recent development of a ten-year strategy published in 2016 under the framework Making Great Art Work. By commissioning a new study on dance education the Arts Council is keeping the issue of formal dance training to the fore. Additionally, and through this report, the Arts Council is actively seeking to find solutions to improve access to advanced professional training and to ensure that the highest international standards of dance education are made available in Ireland for the benefit of a fully integrated ecology of dance.