Ballet's Accelerator: Crowdfunding the Junior Company's Fifth Anniversary Ballet

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Next year will be the fifth anniversary of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company. I was fortunate enough to see one of its first public performances at the Stadsshouwburg in Amsterdam on the 24 Nov 2013 (see
The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013).

The Junior Company has launched the careers of outstanding young dancers in the Dutch National Ballet and elsewhere. Of the dancers I saw in November 2013, Michaela DePrince is already a soloist, Jessica Xuan and Sho Yamada are coryphées and several others are in the corps. Although the Central School of Ballet has Ballet Central, the Northern Ballet School has Manchester City Ballet and Ballet West has a company that tours Scotland at the beginning of each year, we don't have an equivalent in the UK. In fact, off the top of my head, I can't think of another company anywhere in the world that has anything quite like the Junior Company. All the analogies that spring to mind lie outside dance.  The closest that springs to mind is the famous Y Combinator accelerator of Silicon Valley.

The analogy with Silicon Valley accelerators can be taken a stage further in that the object of such programmes is to enable the young companies to attract investment. The Junior Company has used crowdfunding in the past to train young dancers (see Crowdfunding for the Ballet 25 May 2016). Now the company is using crowdfunding to raise money for a brand new ballet.

On the Dutch giving site Voordekunst (which I guess means "For the Arts") the company is appealing for €30,000 for a new ballet by Juanjo Arques to celebrate its fifth anniversary (see Maak een ballet met de Junior Company (so like English that I am not going to insult my readers' intelligence by translating it)). The choice of choreographer is a good one because Arques has already created Blink and Fresas (Strawberries) for the young dancers.

This is a rare and possibly unique opportunity for members of the public to participate in the creative process (see "The First Ballet by the Junior Company and You"). Contributors can attend the first meeting with the artistic team at the beginning of September where they will be "brainstorming about the ballet, the music, the lighting, the costumes and the dancers." The company's website describes it as "a unique moment, as this is where the very first ideas for the ballet are conceived" and adds appealingly "you can be part of it." Contributors will also be among the first to see the costumes and to witness the rehearsals.

So far €3,045 has been raised for the project from 29 donors which is not a bad start and there are still another 33 days to go. I invite all my readers to dig deep for Juanjo Arques, Ernst Meisner and his talented young dancers. 

Melissa Chapski

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On 14 Feb 2016 I attended the Junior Company's performance of Ballet Bubbles at the Meervaart Theatre in Amsterdam (see Ballet Bubbles 16 Feb 2916). One of the artists who particularly impressed me was the young American dancer Melissa Chapski. She appeared in La Vivandiere (see Photos of La Vivandière – Pas de six 19 Feb 2016) and Trois Gnossiennes (see Trois Gnossiennes 9 March 2916).

Chapski and the Italian dancer, Giovanni Princic, were the beneficiaries of a crowdfunding campaign in May (see Crowdfunding for the Ballet 25 May 2016). In that article I wrote:

"I argued in Ballet as a Brand? How to bring More Money into Dance for Companies and Dancers 13 March 2014 that more money could be raised for the arts by licensing, merchandising and sponsorship. The Dutch National Ballet have been particularly innovative in that regard. One of its most imaginative initiatives has been its collaboration in the design and marketing of Bounden, an award winning dancing game for two players (see Bounden - Something that appeals to my Interests in Technology and Dance 17 Dec 2013, Bounden Part II - How it works 1 Feb 2014 and Bounden Launched 28 May 2014). The company's latest fund raising method has been crowd funding."

That is exactly the sort of initiative that I should like companies in this country imitate.  I concluded the article with the observation that "the rewards of giving will be not only the dancers' gratitude but also 'great personal rewards' which I surmise to be great performances some of which could be in London."

Chapski has recently appeared in the above video advertising the Dutch radio station NPO's Christmas programme. The caption "Geniet van kerst op NPO Radio 4" means "Enjoy Christmas on NPO Radio 4." She dances beautifully and this is one of the early rewards of the crowdfunding campaign.

Leeds Dance Partnership Director

Leeds Arts Neighbourhood

Author Kenneth Allen
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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.