Photos from Tanzmesse 2010
So, that was BDE 2012! For those that don’t know what BDE stands for, it’s British Dance Edition and it is held every two years in a different city in the UK. It is in simple terms an industry showcase for British Dance. The first BDE took place in 1998.
With this year being 2012 and all that, the event took place in London last weekend and saw delegates from all over the UK and overseas come to London to see and talk dance for 4 days.
This was my 5th BDE and it is always a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and colleagues from across the globe all in the name of dance. It takes a small army of volunteers to run BDE and to shepherd the 300 or so delegates from venue to venue, coach to coach, reception to reception. The project management team for BDE 2012 did an amazing job and deserve a medal or at least a couple of days off! The team in London were superb and certainly from what I experienced it ran like clock work. Even the snow did not seem to cause too many major problems.
It was also great to see so much dance on offer in the capital and it worked really well with all delegates being able to see all of the main shows without having to choose between them or shows overlapping. Even the dreaded delegate bus transfers were spot on!
We (Dep Arts) were fortunate enough to be allocated a place at the trade fair on the Saturday, which was dutifully manned by Phil and Shelley including the required trade fair lollies to give out. However, it’s in relation to the trade fair where my main critisms of BDE 2012 come in. As some of you will know, we take part in a fair amount of international trade fairs at Dep Arts and I personally have been attending them all over the world for the last ten years. Trade fairs like Tanzmesse in Dusseldorf are amazing opportunies to network, share ideas, meet new and old friends, see new work and to sell work which, although may sound a little crass, is a huge part of what we all need to do to make a living.
The trade fairs at places like Tanzmesse http://www.tanzmesse-nrw.com/pages/messe2012-en.htm , Cinars http://www.cinars.org/cinars2012/ and APAP http://www.apapnyc.org/Pages/default.aspx are mega events taking over large hotels or conference centres and last for 4-5 days and run in conjunction with a main performance programme. This opportunity to connect with potential partners, venues and artists is critical particularly if you are working in a global context.
The Trade Fair at BDE 2012 was anything but mega. It took place in a small rehearsal studio at The Place, 2 hours on day one and 4 hours on day two, with room for no more than 10-15 companies on each day to have a stand. In all honesty, it felt slightly embarrassing to be British at the trade fair knowing what the various international delegates in attendance are used to and for us to be back to the days of a small table and a laptop to try and do justice to the amazing work of the companies and artists we work with.
For me, it’s one of the fundamental issues for BDE going forward. What is BDE? Who is it for? If it has anything at all to do with selling (distributing work) then a good trade fair is vital. Previous trade fairs, in places like Liverpool (which took place in the magnificent St Georges Hall) and Cambridge, have been amazingly successful and worthwhile events that add to everything else that is going on during BDE weekend rather than take away from it.
It was obviously a key decision made by the consortium for BDE 2012 to have such a small trade fair and I am sure they will have their reasons, but in the current climate, I cannot help but feel it was the wrong decision and something I hope that will be very different in two years time when BDE 2014 moves up to Scotland.
So finishing on a positive note, my favourite show of the weekend was ‘Boing’ by Travelling Light Theatre Company http://www.travellinglighttheatre.org.uk/boing ; a warm, funny, happy show that had the kids in the audience in fits of giggles. Well worth checking out!
David