A permanent record

State of Emergency Productions, the national dance production and management organisation for the Black dance sector, celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, so it is timely that the company has received initial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the development of the British Black Dance Archives project. Working in partnership with the National Resource Centre for Dance at the University of Surrey, this HLF first-round pass enables us to develop a full grant application that will respond to the lack of a coordinated and coherent archive for British Black Dance.

The project came about as a result of a report that we commissioned in 2010, entitled ‘Altered States’. The report sought to explore the needs of Black choreographers and the Black dance sector. Drawing on 70 responses from within the Black dance community, it recommended six key areas for development: talent development; leadership; recognition; education and training; infrastructure development and archiving. The need for a British Black Dance Archive was highlighted at every stage of the research. During the initial review of existing literature, we found that very few reports on British Black Dance were available and accessible, other than through private networks.
The research highlighted the fragmented history of the Black Dance sector. One of the findings showed that during the early part of this Century, 90% of the Black Dance companies were disinvested as Arts Council England Regularly Funded Organisations and many subsequently closed – Adzido, Badejo Arts and Salongo for example. These companies have made an important contribution to the dance sector and to our cultural life, and yet there is little trace of their work or impact. As a result, the history of the Black Dance sector is at risk of being unrecorded, unseen and lost to future generations.
During our consultation process, this sense of loss and lack of recognition was echoed by artists who said of these companies, “they are not here; there is a whole body of people that may miss out on the work, and its history” and another artist summed up this sentiment saying that “our history is sitting and looking at us.”

If our second phase application to the HLF is successful, the archive will reflect the past 50 years of British Black Dance and preserve, document and make accessible up to 10 collections and collective memories from celebrated individuals and organisations operating in British Black Dance. The collections will be supported by a lively and engaging learning and participation programme, where we will use dance activity to ‘animate the archive’ with the aim of engaing with the broadest possible audiences.

To this end, our 2-year project proposes an innovative programme of heritage choreographer masterclasses, heritage open community workshops, performance showcases, a touring exhibition, lecture demonstrations, an Academic Symposium, national schools outreach and a volunteer programme. Alongside this, the project will aim to be supported by an information website and a positive action traineeship to contribute to the long-term development of diverse leadership in archiving. Our aspiration is that the archive collections will have a long-term impact by being available for future generations; will preserve and celebrate British Black Dance heritage and its contribution to the dance sector; will contribute to academia and research information; will engage with a wide and diverse audience; and respond to an identified sector need.

The project is central to State of Emergency’s core values, as ‘The independent voice for Black Dance’ and working with National Resource Centre for Dance, we hope that we are successful in achieving a long-held sector ambition – to have the history of British Black dance recognised, valued and accessed by the national and international arts sector and the wider community – something that is ultimately good for everyone.