Summary

Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance responds to this inquiry to substantiate the important contribution the arts can make to social mobility, health, education, community engagement and diversity.

We focus particularly on the first question providing evidence from our experience of developing and delivering programmes that have proven, through evaluation and research a positive social impact across diverse demographics.

Examples are provided to demonstrate how

• Social mobility can be supported by the arts through the adoption of a networked approach in providing ‘joined up’ initiatives and interventions that improve access to arts participation and education.
• The arts can be used to develop physical wellbeing, improving confidence and self-esteem, combating social isolation for different populations such as older people, children and young people and those with degenerative cognitive and physical conditions.
• The arts develop creative, imaginative, physical, emotional and intellectual capacities in CYP and also promote skills that are prized by employers - creative thinking, confidence, team working and problem-solving.

• Access and targeted progression opportunities in music and dance are an essential part of developing and diversifying the talent pipeline.

1.              Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance

1.1              Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is the UK’s only conservatoire of music and contemporary dance. Our highly specialist, focused and intensive programmes utilise the extensive experience and industry knowledge of our staff, and our exceptional facilities, to prepare students for sustainable careers in dance and music. We offer undergraduate and post-graduate programmes across music, dance and musical theatre.

1.2              Our extensive Learning and Participation programme, comprising public engagement, outreach and pre- Higher Education learning, brings our expertise and skills to the wider community. Based in South East London, much of our activity focuses on engagement with some of London’s most socially excluded communities, using music and dance to promote place making, health and well-being, skills development and cultural and economic regeneration. We provide opportunities in our local communities for children, young people (CYP) and adults from 2- 90 years to explore, develop their talents and perform, working in schools, youth, health and disability sectors and offer training for artists, teachers and community workers.

1.3              In 2016 – 2017 our Learning and Participation programmes in music and dance reached as follows:

• 42,232  people danced, created, performed, watched or participated in our music and dance programmes
• 9,829 of participants were children and young people
• 373 of participants were disabled children or young people
• 414 of participants were older people aged 60+
• 300 young people took part in Trinity Laban’s DfE supported Dance Centre for Advanced Training and Junior Trinity’s programmes
• 35,714 people were audience members for Learning and Participation performances and events
• 1,026 teachers, community workers and arts professionals received training or continuing professional development
• 300 primary, secondary schools and FE colleges were involved in our activities
• The majority of participants were from our local boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, Tower Hamlets, Lambeth and Southwark.

Terms of Reference

2.               Which programmes best demonstrate the positive social impact that participating in sport and culture can have on the five central themes of this inquiry? 

2.1              Trinity Laban’s public engagement activities as described above, are wide ranging.  Our contribution and impact as regards the themes identified in the inquiry are summarised below noting that, to date, we have not undertaken work that is aimed at crime reduction and therefore are not submitting evidence relating to that theme.

2.2               Social mobility

2.2.1               Trinity Laban believe all CYP should be able to engage with music and dance, developing their identities as young artists. Access to the arts, and opportunities to progress, enable social mobility for many young people from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds, either in developing cultural capital and transferable skills that are of benefit whatever area of employment they enter or as a specific career route within the creative and cultural industries.

2.2.2               In respect of career progression in music and dance, our experience shows that only through sustained, targeted and strategic programmes, can the barriers that limit social mobility be overcome and CYP with protected characteristics can be encouraged and supported to achieve their full potential.

2.2.3               Trinity Laban regrets that current arts provision in schools is under threat, as time for arts subjects in the curriculum in both primary and secondary schools is declining and the numbers of young people taking arts GCSE’s and A Levels has been severely reduced. This can only negatively affect the capacity of schools to use the arts to support social mobility for young people. Increasingly, only young people with more affluent parents have sufficient opportunities to engage with and benefit from arts subjects such as dance and music, out of school.

2.2.4              Thus for Trinity Laban there is a growing imperative to develop and deliver effective programmes for CYP that offer first access and progression opportunities, to ensure that we have a diverse range of students in our HE level programmes and for a future rich cultural sector that benefits from artists from diverse backgrounds.

2.2.5              To this end Trinity Laban has developed a uniquely ‘joined up’ offer, from first access to talent development, through extensive partnerships with schools, arts and education organisations, and local, regional and national networks, recognising the importance of enabling CYP to develop the essential high level and specialist creative and artistic skills, needed for progression to higher levels of learning, and into employment.

2.2.6              The following are examples of our access programmes;

1. Youth Dance Programmes; open access weekly dance classes in different dance styles, boys only classes, Dancability for CYP with a disability and performance opportunities for in the Laban Theatre, a Young Dance Ambassadors programme offering Silver Arts Award.
2. Youth Music Programmes; open access weekly music classes for Under-11s combining musicianship, singing and strings tuition, Beyond the Dots music summer school with bursaries for low-income families. Blackheath Halls Opera for All programme promotes classical singing for CYP in partnership with Royal Greenwich Music Hub, the annual Children’s Opera and Royal Greenwich & Blackheath Halls (RGBH) Youth Choir.
3. Animate Orchestra offers CYP opportunities to improvise, compose and perform their own music. Delivered in partnership with South Riverside Music Partnership, it supports CYP to continue instrumental learning across KS2/KS3 through fun, sociable holiday courses. Open to players of any instrument or ability, access and support measures facilitate engagement of CYP from diverse backgrounds.

2.2.7              From our access and schools programmes, we offer CYP opportunities to progress and gain the essential skills to lead into further and higher education in dance and music:

1. Centres for Advanced Training (CAT) in Dance; This flagship programme, part of the DfE Music and Dance Scheme, offers intensive training to CYP identified with exceptional potential. Our Dance CAT recruits from across London and SE. The scheme offers means-tested bursaries for lower income households and supports exceptional social mobility. 68% of our students are on means-tested bursaries (25% BAME) and 95% of Year13 progress to HE/vocational dance training.
2. Junior Trinity; offers intensive instrumental and vocal training, also part of the DfE Music and Dance Scheme. 43% are on means tested bursaries and 36% BAME. 99% Yr13 progress to HE/vocational music training.
3. Animate Orchestra Performing Ensembles for CYP aged 9–18 ready for greater challenge, Ensembles have performed at Southbank Centre, MFY Schools Prom, UNESCO World Youth Summit and the BBC Ten Pieces Prom.

2.2.8              The Trinity Laban talent development programmes benefit from extensive outreach programmes to recruit from underrepresented groups. The Dance CAT delivers outreach across London and SE, including boys’ dance projects reaching 1,000 CYP. Junior Trinity offers progression routes through schools programme, Animate Orchestra and partner organisations working with diverse, local CYP.

2.2.9              A key to success is the way we work strategically with local, regional and national partners to extend our reach, identify, signpost and support CYP from underrepresented groups into our programmes to meet gaps in local provision and share knowledge, practice and resources. Key partners include Lewisham Council, Lewisham Education Arts Network (LEAN) and the South Riverside Music Partnership (SRMP) a partnership between Trinity Laban, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Royal Greenwich music hubs.

2.3              Health

2.3.1              Trinity Laban is well aware of the value the arts for individuals and society as a whole. Arts Council England The Value of Arts and Culture to People and Society: An evidence review (2014), articulates the case for the role of the arts and the cultural sector. Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing (2017) summarises of evidence gathered through an inquiry led by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing into the positive impact of the arts.

2.3.2              Among our many public engagement projects and activities, Trinity Laban has a distinct strand of work concerned with health and wellbeing; core to this is a strong commitment to dance, music and the arts being an entitlement whatever your ability, disability or circumstances.

2.3.3              Much of our health work is focused on dance, as both a creative art form and a physical activitybenefits all age groups, and has a unique role to play. Physical activity is critical to a child’s development. Dance can improve cognitive development and physical fitness, enhance social skills and provide a fun and active way for parents, carers and children to interact. Opportunities to perform dance can be particularly effective in improving confidence and self-esteem. Research demonstrates that for girls, dance can be a more appealing form of physical activity than sport (Connolly, Quin & Redding, 2011).

2.3.4              The benefits of being physically active through dance can contribute significantly to the physical activity levels required to benefit health. For older adults, regular dance activity can help maintain cognitive function, reduce cardiovascular risk and reduce the risk of falls. Dance is also being used to support people with Alzheimer’s or Dementia and their carers (Hokkanen, Rantala & Remes, 2008).

2.3.5              Participation in music and in particular singing has also been shown to bring about positive impact in terms of breathing, posture, pain relief and reduction in tension, as well as psychological benefits and social impact (stronger social bonds, and reduced loneliness) (Stacy, Brittain, Kerr, 2002)

2.3.6              Trinity Laban Health and Wellbeing programmes include;

1. Inspired not Tired; this music and dance programme targets older people aged 60+ giving participants opportunity to take part in creative activity, interact socially, develop new skills and develop as artistic leaders. Research has shown social impact (enhanced social confidence and combatting isolation) impact on health & well-being (improved/sustained psychological well-being, and physical health including decreased visits to GP’s) and increased confidence in and expression of creativity.
2. Dancing for Health; dance classes for adults with acquired brain injury (ABI) or stroke; started with support from Headway, the national charity for people with acquired brain injury, a weekly dance supported by specialist neuro-physiotherapists. Focus on creativity, artistic experience, ability rather than disability. Participants come independently or from residential setting. Research has shown positive physical outcomes (improved posture, alignment, balance, confidence, functional movement, psychological benefits (enhanced mood, confidence and well-being and participants reported growing feelings of empathy and mutual support) and social impact as participants make friends.
3. PULSE /combating obesity with dance and cooking; PULSE a summer holiday initiative, was conceived as a way of combatting obesity using dance to inspire CYP alongside their families, to be physically active and manage their own health and wellbeing. Healthy eating workshops were integrated alongside the dance activities, and included a visit to a training kitchen so CYP learnt to plan, prepare and eat a meal together. Evaluation demonstrated that participants increased their physical activity levels to the recommended amount and their fruit and vegetable consumption.
4. Dancing Ahead; for CYP at risk of low resilience /poor mental health; started as part of a Lewisham initiative Headstart, (Big Lottery funding) explored interventions to support CYP aged 10-16 with low resilience. Weekly creative dance classes were shown to be helpful for CYPs who have been referred by schools due to being ‘at risk or poor mental health or low resilience’.
5. Reminiscence Arts; Trinity Laban worked in partnership with Age Exchange’s RADIQL programme of reminiscence arts to explore the lived experiences of people with dementia. A multi-sensory dance piece emerged which explores the opportunities that performative dissemination of research can offer arts organisations in communicating the holistic value of the participatory arts, and indicating the ability to transform the public’s understanding of dance on health and wellbeing.   
6. Working in Hospitals and care settings; we have worked in Royal London Hospital delivering dance in the children’s wards working in collaboration with physiotherapists and with the Older Adults Project at Mile End Hospital for people living with dementia. Key learning has been the need for institutional support to engage effectively with NHS staff. At the London Hospital we have benefitted from working with the charity Vital Arts.

2.4              Education

2.4.1              We consider learning in and through the arts should be an entitlement for all CYP as part of a broad and balanced education. Their intrinsic value lies in the possibilities they offer for the development of creative, imaginative, physical, emotional and intellectual capacities and also in developing skills that are prized by employers - creative thinking, confidence, team working and problem-solving (Sowden, Clements, Redlich, & Lewis, 2015).

2.4.2              Each art form has a distinctive value through its essential nature. Access to all the arts subjects is essential at each key stage, ideally taught by subject specialists who can inspire CYP and provide them with the vital skills needed for progression.

2.4.3              As schools prioritise non-arts subjects, Trinity Laban is seeing a decline in arts teaching in local schools coupled with a lack of expertise to teach music and dance well and with confidence.  We are developing projects and programmes to mitigate the negative effects of this decline, to support schools to deliver music and dance as part of a richer and more engaging arts curriculum.  These include;

1. Access to live music and dance: schools workshops, concerts/performances and tours, led by our staff and visiting artists, involving HE students as performers and assistants, support curriculum delivery and give thousands of CYP access to high quality arts experiences.
2. Associate Schools: long-term partnerships with schools in areas of significant disadvantage and with high percentages of BAME pupils. Eg. In music we are in Year Two of a project with Evelyn Grace Academy, Lambeth (73% pupil premium, 93% BAME) which is investigating how arts organisations/schools can improve access to out-of-school musical learning in challenging circumstances.
3. Professional development programme for teachers includes supporting dance teaching skills in primary and secondary schools; annual schools composition project associated with Blackheath Halls Community Opera and Music Excellence London. The Teaching Musician postgraduate certificate, diploma and Masters of Arts programmes in music education practice has been supporting music leaders and teachers with diverse teaching and practice portfolios for over five years.

4. Signposting and talent identification: outreach workshops and schools projects support recruitment to onsite progression opportunities (see above 2.2.8)

2.5              Community engagement and diversity

2.5.1              Trinity Laban’s Learning and Participation work is strongly rooted within our local communities. Our work has a distinctly creative focus, with emphasis placed on participant voice, identity and agency which is democratised, empowering and celebrating diversity, the benefits of which can been seen through a number of our current and previous programmes.

1. Intergenerational projects; we see the lasting impact of bringing together groups who would not normally work or encounter each other, for example teenagers, older people and our students fostering shared understanding, appreciation of difference perspectives and validation of different experiences. Recent projects have included work with secondary school pupils and older people to create a response to an opera piece. Evaluation showed that both groups benefitted from working with others outside of their peer groups. Another project brought together older people with young people with a learning disability for a musical exchange. The project helped raise understanding between the two groups, challenged misconceptions and tackled isolation.
2. Blackheath Halls Community Opera; an annual production which brings together participants of all ages from across the community including adults and schools children, with professional artists and students from Trinity Laban to create a staged opera production.

3.              How can access to cultural and sporting professions be improved to enable greater diversity?

3.1              Achieving greater diversity requires a considered and multi layered approach informed by an understanding of the barriers that hold back people from different backgrounds accessing cultural opportunities.

3.2              Trinity Laban is committed to improving access to pre-HE as well as HE programmes, building on our achievements. The most recent data from HESA shows that we exceed benchmark performance among our conservatoire peer group for the proportion of UK students from BAME backgrounds within our HE population (10.7%) and we lead on the enrolment of students with a declared disability (15.8%). We consistently and substantially outperform the conservatoire average for recruitment of students from state schools (84.3%) and low participation neighbourhoods (6.2%).

3.3              However, we are also aware of the need for more support for those in the early stages of careers for progression into employment within the creative industries. Trinity Laban operates a successful internship scheme across a range of areas including marketing, and learning and participation, teaching.

3.4              We have also identified the need to develop arts practitioners/leaders from diverse backgrounds who in turn will become inspirational role models for CYP. This requires carefully considered support that is tailored to the individual and allows for reflection and development, utilizing established practitioners through mentoring or buddying. The success of our Headley Fellowship, which provided professional development support for seven music leaders specialising in creative music practice in community settings, combined financial support through a bursary, alongside mentoring and remunerated placement work, supporting transition into employment. The

role of Trinity Laban as a well-connected and long established provider of high quality arts opportunities was vital to connect emerging music leaders from diverse backgrounds into the wider sector.

4.              How can the Government build a pipeline of talent? 

4.1              The talent pipeline can only be effective if all stages of the ecology are functioning well and taking due account of diversity and inclusion. Thus all sectors and all phases are important in supporting and facilitating the development of future artists/leaders across art forms from first access in schools and out of schools sector, through a range of talent development initiatives, HE and vocational training through to support of artists as they develop their early professional work.

4.2              Particular consideration needs to be given to key transition points in a young person’s life and how interventions can be made around these ‘pinch points’ to ensure those with talent and aspiration are enabled to pursue further study (Aujla, Nordin-Bates, Redding & Jobbins, (2014).

4.3              Government’s role has to be in appreciating the interconnected nature of the ecology and through consultation developing the strategic policies and targeted interventions that enables the educational, training and artistic sectors to support people with the potential to make a meaningful contribution to our art forms and to society.

5.              Why has the Government not co-ordinated its efforts more effectively? 

5.1              Government departments may be prone to a “silo mentality”, and thereby failing to communicate effectively across areas of common concern. For example, dance, has the potential to contribute to mitigating public health concerns, yet traverses different teams e.g. arts, culture, sport as well as public health, with no one department sees it as their responsibility to lead on joint policies.

5.2              Many initiatives, although well meaning, are often short term interventions which are not sustainably funded and therefore unable to sufficiently reap the full benefits, with learning insufficiently disseminated to enable evidence based programmes that could if supported consistently, make a significant change.

6.              Where are the examples of departmental best practice and how could it be shared?

6.1              Trinity Laban benefits from being part of the DfE Music and Dance Scheme, funding bursary places on the music and dance Centres for Advanced Training. The scheme has been consistently supported over a number of years, and as such has had significant impact on the music and dance sectors, promoting both diversity and social mobility.

7.              Has the sport sector been better for social mobility than the arts? If so, why? 

7.1              Both the sport sector and the arts have and can be significant drivers for social mobility. Any attempt at comparison risks undermining the complexity of the issue and the recognition that young people have different interests, talents and backgrounds and accordingly will be attracted to different pathways in life.

7.2              A more fruitful approach would be to identify successful approaches within sport and the arts and to encourage and enable better dissemination and sharing of practice. Identifying common factors and approaches would support social mobility, and recognise better, issues and potential solutions that are distinctive to a specific art form or sport.

8.              How can museums, galleries and other cultural venues boost access and social impact? 

8.1              Real and deep social impact comes with long term interventions and we would suggest that longer term funding settlements enable greater strategic planning and time to test and hone programmes. In recent years, reduction of funding has had a detrimental effect on the ability of the arts and cultural sectors to make increased access and build social impact.

8.2              Effective programmes from cultural organisations   are embedded and informed by their local context. However, local partnership working takes time and capacity. We would suggest that investment in partnerships across different types of organisations that are able to work collaboratively on social issues could be very effective: the particular expertise that different parties  bring could be funding to support the capacity and true benefits that partnership working takes to be successful.

References

Aujla, I.A., Nordin-Bates, S.M., Redding. E. & Jobbins, V. (2014). Developing Talent among Young Dancers: Findings from the UK Centres for Advanced Training. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, 5(1): 15-30.

Connolly, MK., Quin, E. & Redding, E (2011). Dance 4 your life: Exploring the health and well-being implications of a contemporary dance intervention for female adolescents. Research in Dance Education, (12)1.

Hokkanen, L., Rantala, L. & Remes, A.M. (2008). Dance and Movement therapeutic methods in management of dementia: A randomized controlled study, Journal of American Geriatrics Society, 56(4), 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2008.01611.x

Sowden, Clements, Redlich, & Lewis. (2015). Improvisation facilitates divergent thinking and creativity: Realizing a benefit of primary school arts education. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 9(2): 128-142.

Stacy, R., Brittain, K. & Kerr, S. (2002) Singing for health: an exploration of the issues, Health Education, 102(4): 156-162, https://doi.org/10.1108/09654280210434228

February 2018