Ambidexterity within the Professional Ballet World: Scottish Ballet’s Dancers’ Education Group (DEG).
- Submitting institution
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Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 11067911
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
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- Book title
- Dance Fields : Staking a Claim for Dance Studies in the Twenty-First Century
- Publisher
- Dance Books
- ISBN
- 9781852731816
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- April
- Year of publication
- 2020
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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2
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The literature on professional ballet often centres on themes of pain, injury and retirement. Dancer autonomy and agency, and the shifting cultures within professional ballet, have not received significant attention. This research examines Scottish Ballet’s Dancers’ Education Group (DEG) through the organisational concept of 'contextual ambidexterity'. The key question that underpins this work is: how was an initiative for company dancers, which respected both education and performance priorities, envisaged, supported and enabled within a national ballet company?
This project was a development of an earlier evaluation of the DEG in 2015/16 and my main source of data was semi-structured interviews. I interviewed dancers, members of staff at Scottish Ballet and members of the DEG steering group. I also drew upon relevant literature on professional ballet and management theory to understand the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of the success of the DEG and to share that learning for professional and academic audiences alike.
I found that the concept of contextual ambidexterity offered useful insights into how the competing artistic and educational demands were aligned and reconciled. My study identified specific factors that led to the successful creation and sustaining of the DEG initiative, such as a shared vision between the leaders of performance and engagement; an experienced and substantial engagement department; an academic partnership for provision and conferment of accredited learning; and means of communication that were open and fluid. The research led me to develop a model that might be useful for other ballet companies seeking to promote a more holistic dancer-centred culture (a timely topic) and contributes an under-represented area of study (creative industries) to existing management literature on ambidexterity.
I first presented the research at the Dance Fields conference (Roehampton, 2017), and expanded upon the research further at an RCS Exchange Talk in May 2017.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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