Leeds Dance Partnership Director

Leeds Arts Neighbourhood

Author Kenneth Allen
Source Wikipedia
Creative Commons Licence

In Leeds Dance Partnership 29 Nov 2016, I noted that Arts Council England had announced that it had granted £750,000 to Northern Ballet out of its "Ambition for Excellence" fund "to support the creation of the Leeds Dance Partnership." The Arts Council's press release on the award stated that Northern Ballet will be recruiting a Partnership Director to help take the programme forward.

They have not lost any time. On 12 Dec 2016 the company advertised for a "Partnership Director who will provide strategic leadership and undertake the day-to-day management and delivery of the Leeds Dance Partnership." The post is offered on an initial fixed-term contract for 9 months but is expected to last for at least 3 years. The director will be employed by Northern Ballet and report to the Partnership Board (see "Partnership Director" on the company's website).  The successful candidate will be paid £45,000 per annum pro rata the length of the contract.

According to the job description the main purposes of the post are to:

• "Lead and deliver core programme activities, ensuring the Leeds Dance Partnership makes maximum strategic impact; 

• Support the Partnership Board, facilitating and coordinating shared leadership by the networks and working groups; 

• Ensure Leeds Dance Partnership is connected, networked and communicated with/to all partners, beneficiaries and funders; 

• Secure further investment into the partnership for the delivery of a 5 year strategy; 

• Ensure funding agreements are serviced and reporting requirements are met.

The post – and the work undertaken by the post-holder – will be overseen by Northern Ballet’s Executive Director on a day-to-day basis."

The experience, skills and knowledge of the successful candidate are set out expansively if not too precisely in the "Person Specification" (sic).

Applications have to be lodged by 20 Jan 2017 and interviews will take place on 2 Feb 2017.  An application form can be downloaded here. Although I am not a big fan of this sort of project I wish everybody who applies the very best of luck.

I have a number of problems with Arts Council funding not least of which is the inequity of asking Bentham's pushpin player to lash out oodles of tax revenue to support what is, after all, a minority interest.  As I said in

Ballet as a Brand? How to bring More Money into Dance for Companies and Dancers 13 March 2014 companies, theatres and indeed individual dancers could raise far more through exploiting their intellectual assets from licensing, merchandizing and sponsorship. Companies in other countries seem to flourish artistically as well as financially without an Arts Council. There are signs that it could work in this country. Birmingham Royal Ballet, for instance, raised £102,679 through crowdfunding in just a few days for a new production of La Bayadere in the Big Give Christmas Challenge. English National Ballet and Balletboyz raised £22,847 and £22,461 for their respective Parkinsons classes.