EncoreEast / RMDC choreographic project – Models of Organisation

by Jeanette Siddall and Helen Laws

The pandemic brought some unexpected positives, among which Focus, the collaboration between Russell Maliphant Dance Company (RMDC) and EncoreEast supported by DanceEast, has proved especially effective.  The original plan was for company dancers Alethia Antonio and Edd Arnold to make a new work inspired by Russell Maliphant’s Silent Lines with EncoreEast. Lockdown halted the original project plan, and its redesign took advantage of online working to extend and deepen opportunities to learn together, to reach a wide range of individuals through open classes before eventually moving into real life working to make Focus, performed at DanceEast and live-streamed on 3rd November 2021.

RMDC and EncoreEast share a curiosity in the way we work and move as dancers, makers and companies. When we embarked upon this choreographic project, we were keen to use it as an opportunity to explore our practice more deeply and set out two overarching research aims to guide how we reflected on the project both for our own learning and reporting purposes and to contribute to the wider dance research fields. With a consistent overarching goal of becoming better dancers we wanted to:

• explore EncoreEast’s developing organisational model and how this is contributing to the operational, artistic and social growth of the Company and

• question the preconceived ideas of ageing bodies dancing and examining the aesthetic performance outcomes following participation in this somatically informed, healthy, creative dance activity (see here and here for more details) 

EncoreEast and organisational change

EncoreEast began as a dance class for people over the age of 50 before it grew into a performing company. DanceEast had provided space, programming and management but by July 2020 was having to encourage the company to be ‘more proactive in deciding its future’. It was not obvious how a performing company of older dancers could be proactive with social distancing and with studios and theatres closed. We might have been offered our independence, but we had not gained it. We had not asked for it, were not sure we wanted it and had no shared understanding of what it might look like. Feelings ranged from excitement to loss and confusion.

Adopting formal organisational structures might have seemed the obvious response to multi-dimensional uncertainty, but that route was also intimidating. It implied permanent change with no going back to the comfort of DanceEast’s protection that we had enjoyed.  We contemplated a future that no-one could predict and faced questions that could not be answered before we focused on what we did know.  We knew we wanted to stay together as a group, and to continue to dance together, even if it had to be on Zoom and in filmed projects rather than in studios and on stage. We also wanted to offer work for artists and to engage in different kinds of dance experiences. Sharing information and responsibility for organising and paying for classes, we tried to focus on taking small steps and making things happen. 

DanceEast remains supportive, providing helpful information and links with projects and artists, including brokering the Russell Maliphant Dance Company (RMDC) project. With support from RMDC and DanceEast we successfully applied for funding to Arts Council England. The application process required us to articulate our organisational structure, and ‘distributed leadership’ seemed to speak to some of our principles and values. However, the term also sounds rather grandiose, and the simpler ‘self-organising’ eventually felt like a more comfortable fit. It suggests being task-led, everyone having a voice in plans and decisions, and anyone being able to propose ideas and organise activities. It also conveys a sense of focus, energy, and flow reflective of dance practice. 

Reflecting ourselves to ourselves has nurtured our individual and collective confidence. Film projects, rehearsing and filming outdoors have all played a part in making us visible to us, but the website has been vital in giving us a presence in the wider world, a record of various achievements and a platform for ideas, reflection and exchange.  We are now working on a simple unincorporated association constitution and setting up a company bank account, but it is dance that drives and inspires us. Organisational structures are a means to that end. We make decisions through talking on Zoom, email, WhatsApp, and at times we seem to be swamped by too much information and have too much to do. We seemed to have learnt what DanceEast meant by being ‘proactive’.

As we continue to dance together and become more ambitious, we may need to develop more organisational structures and processes, but they remain a means not the end. Organisational development is a journey, as our activity needs change so will the structures that enable, support, and promote that activity. Allowing that process to take the time it takes will help ensure EncoreEast is gaining, and owning, its independence.

The impact and legacy of Focus

The project became longer and developed more different elements than originally envisaged. A series of recorded Zoom classes enabled us to maintain our practice over the summer, a planned open class became two zoom classes each attracting more older dancers from more different places than could have been accommodated in a single studio, and two-day intensives live in a studio were sheer joy. The project has been challenging, but Alethia Antonio and Edd Arnold are inspiring dancers, choreographers, and teachers in whom we have total confidence. Their belief in us has been a special gift that we will always treasure. We are braver, more resilient and assured, and believe in ourselves so much more than a few months ago. 

EncoreEast is not alone in facing organisational change resulting from the global pandemic. The issues and emotions we have encountered and continue to wrestle are shared with all professional and voluntary companies dealing with change. Thanks to DanceEast, RMDC and Focus, we now embody many of the ambitions of Arts Council England’s Let’s Create strategy: we demonstrate the potential for everyone to develop and express creativity in older age and through place-based collaborations we are contributing to the development of the local cultural offer. We are developing a relationship with Suffolk Archives’ The Hold and the University of Suffolk. With DanceEast we are working on the next edition of HOST, the event of dance workshops, discussions, and performances by older community dancers. Focus has taught us that we can achieve more than we thought we could, and that participating in great art is inspiring, empowering, and life-changing.