Hansard

A few years ago Scottish Ballet was going through a difficult period. The Scottish Arts Council had decided that the company should change from being a large classical ballet company to a more compact classical company.It is fortunate that over the past two years, the company has turned itself around. It was particularly successful last year, both artistically and financially. Renton Thomson can back that up with box office figures if the committee needs to ask him any questions on that. The audience attendance was above the national average for ballet and the enthusiastic receptions that were given gave the dancers a great deal of confidence. The company was pulling itself together; it was proud of what it was doing.When the announcement of the change was made, it came as a great shock to the entire company. Why were we changing? We were changing because of financial problems, but what arts organisation does not have financial problems? We asked the chairman what the problems were and he said that he had failed to get us the extra funding for which we had hoped.The solution at that point should have been that Chris Barron, the chief executive, would come and work with me to balance the budget, but I am afraid that that never happened. The final shock came when we discovered that our board and the Scottish Arts Council had approved the change of direction without conducting any budget or feasibility studies. Normally we must submit detailed budgets for anything that we want to do. In fact, we have not been able to get approval for our next spring season because the board has been blocking our plans because of the budgets. It came as a great surprise to me that the Scottish Arts Council and our board would approve a change of direction without seeing a single budget.There has been very little consideration given to the decision. The Scottish Arts Council and our board did not consider the dancers, who are upset and say that they feel that they have been abused. The dance community was not consulted or considered. A great deal of damage will be done if we change Scottish Ballet from a classical to a contemporary company because that will put many classical ballet schools in Scotland at risk. The Scottish Arts Council and our board did not consider the general public. That is very important because we consider ourselves to be a ballet company for the public.It is useful to look briefly at the differences between Scottish Ballet at present and the new plan. At present, Scottish Ballet performs traditional classical ballets. We have done "Giselle" and "La Sylphide", which attract a large public. We also do other full-length ballets—a mixture of contemporary and classical. Those also attract a large public and have the great advantage of attracting people who do not normally go to ballet—people who are afraid of seeing men in tights and people who are afraid of seeing contemporary programmes that are incomprehensible to them. We must remember that that is 99 per cent of the Scottish public. The arts in general in Scotland play to 1 per cent of the population. It is very important to bridge the gap and get a new public and we have got that new public.We also do ballets for young people. That is in order to develop the audience for the future and it has been very successful. On top of that, we do contemporary ballets because we feel that it is essential to do the whole range. Contemporary ballets get a very small audience so we cannot perform them very often. However, there is a public for them and it is useful for the dancers to dance them.The budget is tight and there are reasons for that. Since 1995, Scottish Ballet has had an uplift of only 30 per cent in its budget. The national average is 45 per cent. Scottish Opera, for instance, has received a 64 per cent increase. The increase in funding for the Scottish Arts Council has been over 200 per cent.Let us attach real figures to that, because we all know about percentages. Scottish Opera gets between £7.8 million and £8 million, although it is difficult to know exactly how much it gets. The Scottish Arts Council gets £4.6 million in operating costs. We get £2.8 million. The Scottish Arts Council gets more money than all the companies of the dance community put together—which get £3.5 million.We had hoped to be brought up to the national average and to be able to plan at least three years in advance. That would have enabled us to get sponsorship and to alleviate the problem with the budget. Over the past year, I have been asked to do many budgets, all in excess of the £200,000 per year increase from the Scottish Arts Council. I did those and was then told that I had come in over budget. I felt cornered. That is all minuted, if the committee requires me to present it.As our programmes are popular, we get a large box office income, which allows us to maintain the company at its present strength of 36 full-time dancers, 45 to 50 part-time musicians and 35 support staff. This year we will do more than 73 performances, including three new productions, and will attract an audience of about 62,000. There will be 9,700 participants in our education activities. That is Scottish Ballet.The new model, which I have not understood completely, suggests that we will perform mainly in contemporary dance. I support that greatly—I am a great believer in contemporary dance and it is part of my background. One of the reasons that I was brought to Scottish Ballet was that I have skills in both contemporary dance and classical ballet. However, we know that contemporary dance gets a much smaller public.In the new model, there will also be classical ballet, but it is clear that that will be imported from outwith Scotland. What does that mean? It means that no classical ballet will be performed by Scottish Ballet. Consequently, the present dancers in Scottish Ballet and the infrastructure of classical ballet schools will be put at risk. The classical dancers in the present company will have to change style and beliefs. That is vital. It is not a matter of changing just a little bit but of changing, say, from Protestant to Catholic or from Liberal to Labour. That is difficult for dancers, although they can do it.In addition to that, the income from classical ballet will go to companies outside Scotland. That means that Scottish Ballet's largest income will go outside Scotland. How will the new model compensate for that large loss of box office income? Will it do it through a smaller orchestra or fewer dancers? The answer is not clear, but I am sure that Mr Barron will be able to answer the question. I am sure that when a budget on that gets done, the picture will be much clearer.Finally, the debate is not about only money but about strongly held beliefs and artistic points of view. Scottish Ballet believes that dance should be popular and accessible. The Christopher Barron model suggests only elitism.For me, it is important to find the right company for Scotland. I hope that the present debate will come up with a conclusion.