Dance Counts Report 2022 brings together key findings from two major all-island research projects seeking to understand the working conditions and experiences of dance practitioners on the island of Ireland: the Dance Counts survey and the Dance Conversations study.
The Dance Counts survey sought to capture data regarding the living and working conditions of those working in, with and for dance. Led by Dance Ireland, the survey was developed in collaboration with Dr Peter Campbell (University of Liverpool) with the support of Dr Victoria Durrer (University College Dublin, UCD).
Led by Dr Aoife McGrath (Queen’s University Belfast) and Dr Victoria Durrer (UCD) in collaboration with Dance Ireland and Theatre and Dance NI, Dance Conversations was a mixed methods dance, film and discussion-based research project undertaken with six dance artists from both sides of the border. Dance Conversations addressed a need, articulated by professional dance artists at the Co-Motion Dance Conference in October 2019 and in the March 2021 industry-led Dance Think Tanks Report, for collaborative development of North/South creative exchanges and better understanding of the shared living and working conditions of dance artists across the island of Ireland.
By bringing these two studies together, this report places an embodied experience of work in dance into dialogue with more traditional methods of sociological enquiry.
Read the Dance Counts Report here.