New Classes
Susie Crow
Defined by Class: the social status of ballet dancers in Britain today
In Britain, social class is seen to have particular influence; but as a ballet professional, I find it hard to define what social ‘class’ I might be considered part of. Does this matter? Or might focused consideration of ballet’s perceived class characteristics as an occupation help to identify and address deeply rooted challenges for the art form? Classic definitions of social class and status reveal the ambiguous and contradictory position of professional dancers, the changing social roles and representation of ballet’s dancers over time; from courtiers to professionals, from ‘petits rats’ to respectable middle-class girls, from popular entertainers to avant-garde artists, from institutional employees to precarious self-employed independents, from fashionable elite performers to outdated and derided stereotypes. How do such embedded perceptions persist in Britain, to what extent do they affect the practice of ballet in the studio, on stage and as portrayed on social media? Britain’s dance ecology now embraces multiple forms alongside ballet; despite dance’s vestigial presence in general education, academic qualifications in dance have developed at all levels, from graded vocational examinations provided by teaching organisations outside the state curriculum to higher education to doctoral level. Has this raised the social, economic and cultural status of dance as a profession? Updating sociological models in response to cultural and social phenomena in the 21st century might help better reflect the changing situation in which dancers strive to maintain careers and make a life in ballet.
Elena Novakovits
Dear institutions, dear collaborators: am I (t)here?
Recently, I started identifying myself as a cultural worker in the performing arts field, as it can embrace the multiplicity of positions in which I have been operating throughout my professional trajectory. All of them are situated on the periphery – in and beyond – of the creative process, their labour remaining mostly invisible. Even if one could write a job description for each one of them, always hidden tasks, non-computable working hours, unpredictable needs, and unspoken paradoxes remain. This presentation, in the form of a letter, seeks to uncover how the invisible agency and labour of all ‘peripheral partners’ can generate wider layers of precarity within troubled socio-political contexts and non-transparent institutional models. Keeping a playful format that blends personal experiences, observations, thoughts, testimonies, images and tunes, I will share reflections from my personal journey on this labour that could be reconsidered. How might we deliberate on how the institutions and the central figures of each artistic project shape and enhance the precarious status of these peripheral voices? How, if we enact feminist practices and principles in our field of work, could we revalidate the position and endeavour of every contributor?
Joyraj Bhattacharjee, Srabanti Bhattacherjee, Sandra Chatterjee, Arko Mukhaerjee
Zoom-in from Priyonnath Manna Bustee Community Kitchen, Howrah, India
Howrah, India, the heart of an iron industry in West Bengal, is home to 4.5 million people, a huge number of whom come from a working-class background. The district has witnessed severe poverty, racial discrimination, marginalisation and factory lockouts in the last four decades. Priyonnath Manna Bustee Community Kitchen, a labour canteen in Bajeshibpur, Howrah, was started in early 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown to feed people living in the nearby slums who are from working class families of the area. It was funded, for example, through online performances. Since then, volunteers and trustees have been running the initiative, finally buying the bit of land necessary and beginning to construct a new building with a fully equipped kitchen, from which the canteen is running, combined with an independent art space. In this hybrid online and video presentation, we will present this independent labour canteen and art space live from Priyonnath Manna Bustee Community Kitchen in Howrah, West Bengal, India.
danced with the Royal and Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet companies. She made ballets for SWRB, National Youth Dance and Ballet Companies, was a co-founder of chamber ballet company Dance Advance, and twice was a finalist in the Madrid Choreographic Competition. Collaboration with Jennifer Jackson on Ballet Independents’ Group projects included choreographic courses at Royal Festival Hall, BIG Discussion Forum, and BIG Ballets choreographic research. In 2002, she directed the Revealing MacMillan conference at the Royal Academy of Dance; she coached MacMillan ballets Sea of Troubles and Playground for Yorke Dance Project. Alongside Ballet in Small Spaces creative and improvisation projects in Oxford, Susie teaches adult learners, students, professionals and teachers. She holds an MA from the University of Surrey, a Certificate of Teaching and Learning in Higher and Professional Education from the Institute of Education and a PhD from the University of Roehampton. She runs the blog Oxford Dance Writers.
is a cultural worker in the fields of dance, choreography and performance: dramaturg, researcher, writer, and curator. She collaborates with independent artists in the context of their artistic trajectory and works in cultural event production. She curates performative, discursive, and educational encounters and platforms. She co-runs the independent curatorial platform undercurrent, whose current research project working(in) statements focuses on work, labour and the relevant politics within the performing arts field. She has been selected as a fellow in the fourth cycle of Critical Practice (Made in Yu), where the collective systering was formed.
is an internationally acclaimed actor and director for theatre and film for over 20 years. He has appeared in various productions in India and France and has travelled the world for several years with the Shakespeare Theatre Company UK.
is a renowned theatre maker and dancer from Kolkata, India. In addition to dance and theatre projects, Srabanti regularly appears in films and on television.
choreographer and researcher in the fields of Cultural, Performance and Dance studies, is interested in the direct interaction with the audience. She is a co-director of CHAKKARs – Moving Interventions.
versatile singer and musician in the independent Indian folk music scene, sings folk songs from Europe, the African continent, Latin America and the South Asian subcontinent, as well as Sufi, blues, soul and various ‘tribal’ music forms from India and Bengal.
In English with German translation