What We Learned

The investigation highlighted a number of areas that can present challenges for women choreographers.

Although the experiences and career paths of the women consulted varied, these findings reflect the themes that emerged most recurrently in the conversations held.

• The development of creative voice and sense of authorship
  Tonic’s investigation found that most girls enter the dance world through ballet school or some kind of formal dance training. The journey towards becoming a professional dancer, from which one would typically become a choreographer, is a very competitive one. Conscientiousness in training, coupled with self-consciousness in the teenage years, appears to result in some girls becoming less assertive. Their creative voice can become hidden or submerged. As there are fewer boys than girls in training, boys tend to receive proactive attention in order to encourage them through to a professional level. Without such proactive attention, girls’ creative abilities can go unnoticed or unattended – see Northern Ballet’s page for more on this.This set of circumstances is likely to feed into the way some women present themselves as choreographers and the way they author work. Women may not push themselves forward as readily as men, and some may tend towards making work that is collaborative and participatory, without necessarily foregrounding themselves as artists and authors. This can lead to the artist and the work missing out on the attention it might deserve.
• The role of arts organisations in taste-making
  Some of the women consulted felt that funders, producers and venues could widen their lens further, to seek out and look in expanded ways at a wider spectrum of artistic practices, as well as be considerate to artists at all stages of career. In particular, the investigation highlighted that some types of artistic practice favoured by women dance makers seem to be less attractive to arts organisations. These include choreographic work that involves working away from a theatre stage or which questions format (e.g. may be made outdoors or in other contexts), as well as practices involving collaborative authorship and more process-led work. Those works appear to be programmed less frequently than work that bears strong singular authorship and is more readily made for the stage and traditional modes of presentation.
• The necessity and challenge of managing multiple roles as artist, producer and administrator, especially if working outside established structures
  The investigation found that emerging and mid-career women choreographers frequently find themselves working with little funding, from project to project and outside of established structures. It can be challenging to engage a producer and/ or administrator in this situation; instead, women tend to take on the work themselves. The perception is that men are less likely to find themselves in this position, and/ or are less willing to take on administrative tasks. While it appears men are more likely to find their way into an established structure, many women find themselves operating in the middle ground for a prolonged period of time, eligible for only small-scale, time-limited project grants without access to more sustained, larger-scale, mid-career development opportunities.
• The experience of being offered fewer and lesser opportunities than men
  In a tight funding environment, some women commented on having been advised to keep work and ambition small as a way to continue practicing, and felt that such advice would be less likely given to a man. Some women spoke about delivering more activity for the same statutory funding as their male peers and there was a common feeling that, overall, producers are offering women smaller stages, shorter runs, smaller budgets, less marketing and press, and therefore less audience and profile.
• The challenge of managing family, personal and financial circumstances
  Starting a family often coincides with the point at which a career is ready to mature. The desire and need to progress has to be balanced with managing challenges such as the costs of childcare, long rehearsal days, travel and time away from home. Other factors such as caring for elderly parents or the impact of ageing or ill health also need to be managed, and financing a life through a career in choreography can be challenging at every level of practice.