PROJECT DESCRIPTION

THE YOUNG DANCE COMPANY

The Young Dance Company is a green house for young, recently examined dancers and aims to provide a strong artistic and professional platform in the meeting with the employers of professional dancers.

The Young Dance Company is unique and has no counterpart in Scandinavia. There is no system for trainees in the dance environment. The Young Dance Company is organized as a project and is being administrated as an NGO lead by the choreographer and dancer Marie Brolin-Tani. The project was started in August 2008 and will be closed in June 2010. During this period two groups of 9-10 dancers will take part in an eight months program.

The Young Dance Company springs from a genuine need. Newly educated dancers have difficulties being spotted in the tough competition searching for jobs. With no experience you will not be employed no matter how great is your talent. The Young Dance Company wants to provide the young dancers with routine, experience and contacts to be able to proceed into work.

- The whole idea comes from my own experience as an employer where I have been taking out hordes of applications for audition due to the applying dancers lack of experience.

Marie Brolin-Tani

 

Thanks to The Young Dance Company, talented young dancers from Sweden and Denmark will increase their chances of employment within their own countries. Currently Danish and Swedish dance companies often employs international dancers with more experience. The same time it will be an advantage to the dance environment to receive more qualified applicants for the existing jobs.

 

FOR WHOM?

The Young Dance Company is for young, recently examined dancers from Sweden and Denmark. The participants should be 18 years or more and have completed a professional dance education.

Applicants are allowed from all of Sweden and Denmark, but will be obligated to live in the Öresund Region during the project. The selection of participants will be made through audition. The recruited dancers will be contracted for eight months and will during this period be paid according to union agreements.

 

WHERE?

The Young Dance Company is based in the Öresund Region. The work is located on both sides of Öresund and the time is basically shared between Dansens Hus in Copenhagen and Dunkers Kulturhus in Helsingborg. The performances will be toured in both Sweden and Denmark. The Young Dance Company builds bridges over Öresund and promotes a broader and more varied labor market for professional dancers within this region.

 

HOW ?

The Young Dance Company accepts nine-ten dancers from Sweden and Denmark on a yearly bases. The project picks up where the formal dance education ends by offering young dancers practical working experience. During the eight months long program the participants will be training and working together to develop both as individuals and as a group.

The daily training and teaching of chorographical work will be lead by the artistic director and the rehearsal director. The young dancers will be offered to dance in pieces by well established choreographers. The emphasis will be on giving the dancers a strong ensemble experience. The dancers will achieve routine, experience and self confidence by giving many performances. This will give the dancers a chance to really put their education to use and to become a part of the professional dance environment. An important element is focusing on preparing the dancers for future auditions.

 

THE FIRST SEASON WITH THE YOUNG DANCE COMPANY, 08/09

In May 2008 we held auditions for the first season of The Young Dance Company, in both Helsingborg and Copenhagen.150 dancers applied and seventy were invited. In the end, nine dancers were accepted, tree Danish dancers and six Swedish dancers.

The actual work with training and rehearsals started on August 18. The first production was a Lunch Program consisting of solos by the dancers under the supervision of Marie Brolin-Tani. The Lunch Dance was performed in the foyer of Helsingborg City Theatre (2 performances).

The second production Touch included choreographies by Marie Brolin-Tani, Mats Ek and Didy Veldman. The premiere was held at Helsingborg City Theatre on October 22. The performance has also toured to Odense, Kristianstad, Malmö, Århus, Copenhagen and Stockholm (totally 17 performances) and has received positive response in he media.

In connection with the Light Festival, Love and Light, in Helsingborg The Young Dance Company will make a sight specific out door performance on February 14.

In February the Danish national gallery, Statens Museum for Kunst, in Copenhagen celebrates the 100 years jubilee of the surrealist artist Wilhelm Freddie, who also wrote a ballet, ”The Triumph of Love”, in 1940. Marie Brolin-Tani will be restaging this ballet with The Young Dance Company. The piece is 14 minutes long and will be performed eleven times in the museum starting from February 26.

Over the entire season, The Young Dance Company has been doing workshops and open rehearsals in collaboration with Drömmarnas Hus, Malmö, Heleneholmskolan, Malmö, Olympiaskolan i Helsingborg, Oure Højskole, Fyn, Helsingør Teaterforening, Skolen for Moderne Dans in Copenhagen and collaborated around a lecture on together with Malmö Högskola.

During the spring of 2009, The Young Dance Company will present a series of platforms/showcases in Gothenburg, Umeå and Copenhagen. The purpose is to increase the knowledge of The Young Dance Company and attract interest from politicians, cultural officials and most important from young dancers that could be interested in the next audition.

During the spring the dancers will be introduced to different coaches, for instance the ballet teacher Martin James, a former dancer at The Royal Danish Ballet. The dancers will also attend several auditions.

 

THE SECOND SEASON WITH THE YOUNG DANCE COMPANY, 09/10

Audition will be held in April and the season starts in August with rehearsals of a new production that will be premiered at the City Theatre of Lund in the end of September. The production will then be touring in Denmark and Sweden. The aim is to achieve approximately 20 performances on tour. Parallel the ensemble will be working just as the previous season with different public activities and workshops. After the new year The Young Dance Company will take part in a large production in collaboration with the Odense Symphony Orchestra where Marie Brolin-Tani will do the choreography for Carmina Burana. In general, the planning of the season is similar to the previous year.

 

EVALUATION

The first season of The Young Dance Company will be evaluated b the end of March 2009 when the first group of participants will finish. By this time it will also be concluded which of the dancers have succeeded in finding employment though the different auditions where they have presented themselves.

 

ECONOMY AND PERSONNEL

The Young Dance Company operates with a slim organization focusing on artistic coaching of the young dancers. The organization consists of three persons: the artistic director, the rehearsal director and the administrative and technical coordinator. Other functions, such as marketing, economy and technical aid, is being brought in on a free lance bases. The Young Dance Company has no permanent studios or offices and uses instead the dance studios at Dansens Hus in Copenhagen, Danscentrum Syd in Malmö and Dunkers Kulturhus in Helsingborg. The cost for administration is being minimized to spend as large part of the economy as possible on the actual work with the dancers. The dancers salaries are based on the agreement for the Swedish Union for Theatre and a separate agreement with the Danish Union for Actors.

The costs for the productions are kept relatively low thanks to modest fees. This is possible as the development of the dance environment also lies in the interest of the choreographers.

When performing, the aim is that the ticket revenue as far as possible will cover the costs for rents, marketing and technique.

The Young Dance Company take relatively low fees when selling performances on tour. The pricing is based on the fact that it is not possible to guarantee the quality of each performance with a company consisting of such young and inexperienced dancers. In cases when staying over night is needed costs are kept low by staying in hostels and letting the dancers share rooms.

One season for The Young Dance Company, according to the model described above, costs approximately SEK 3.500 000. The funding comes through the involved regions, municipalities, the Swedish and Danish states, private funding, collaborations with private enterprises and other networks.

During its’ first season, The Young Dance Company has received funding through Sparbanksstiftelsen Skåne, Kultur Skåne, Malmö Stad, Stiftelsen Framtidens Kultur, Helsingborgs Stad (Dunkers Kulturhus and Helsingborgs Stadsteater), Dansk Skuespilleförbund, Århus Kommune, Fondet for Dansk-Svensk samarbejde, Danmarks Nationalbanks Fond, Roskilde Festivals Fond, Odense kommune, Københavns kommune and Dansens Hus in Copenhagen.

For the second season we have, this far, received funding from Stiftelsen Framtidens Kultur (SEK 1000 000), from the Danish Kunststyrelsen (DKR 1.000 000) and through a sponsor agreement with the Swedish electricity company Eon (SEK 200 000). Kultur Skåne contributes with an amount of SEK 180 000 for a collaboration with Hamburg.

 

VISION FOR THE YOUNG DANCE COMPANY

The Young Dance Company has started out as a project to see what effects it will have. We wanted to try an non-conventional and flexible way of administration to see whether collaboration and crossover works in practice and not only in theory.

When looking for funding it has been a difficulty to explain a project covering all three areas of art, labor politics and pedagogic renewal. Economically and administratively it is challenging to operate in two different countries with different legislation. The administration has mainly been carried out through the Swedish NGO The Young Dance Company. The funding that has been approved from Danish organizations has been administrated through Dansens Hus in Copenhagen which has been paying salaries to the Danish participants.

We can now look back on a successfully, nearly completed, first season. We are even more than before convinced that The Young Dance Company fills a need. The company can make a big difference for the individual dancers that are engaged but also for the dance environment as a whole.

We are now looking for the possibility of finding permanent funding of The Young Dance Company and are currently working on different models.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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