The Dance UK Industry Award is dedicated to and named after, Jane Attenborough, founding Director of Dance UK. It honours an individual working in dance who has made an outstanding contribution to the art form. The award aims to highlight the important, but often unacknowledged, contributions made by individuals that make a real difference to how dance is created, supported and seen. It is presented each year at The Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards, a ceremony that celebrates dance and dancers in Britain. For further information about the awards ceremony and a list of this years nominations visit www.nationaldanceawards.com.
Shortlisting and selection process
Nominations are open in the autumn and the winner is announced in January at the Critics Circle Awards which change their date from year to year. Nominations are now open for the 2010 award. See below for more details.
Nominees should be individuals who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to move dance forward and enable the art form to thrive. The person could be a dance manager, designer, teacher, critic – in fact anyone – who, through their knowledge, skill and generosity, has made a significant contribution to dance beyond the scope of their usual role. People who have been nominated in previous years but have not won can be re-nominated.
Previous winners of the Jane Attenborough Dance UK Industry Award include Dick Matchett MBE (2003) Arts Consultant, Theresa Beattie (2004) Arts Consultant, Brendan Keaney (2005) Director of Greenwich Dance Agency, Val Bourne CBE (2006) Founding Director of Dance Umbrella, Celeste Dandeker OBE, the founding Artistic Director of CandoCo (2007) and Janet Smith, Artistic Director of Scottish Dance Theatre (2008) and Marie McCluskey, Director of Swindon Dance (2009).
Janet Smith was given the award in 2008. She says:
'I cannot imagine a greater honour than the recognition and appreciation from peers and colleagues in the field that this prestigious award represents and I am both delighted and humbled to be chosen as this year's recipient.'
- Dance UK’s Director and Deputy Director decide upon a selection panel each year, made up of members of Dance UK’s Board.
- All nominations received by Dance UK are sent to the selection panel. It is the selection panel’s role to read the nominations and assess the merits of each based on the content of and reasons given for the nominations.
- The selection panel must then send their top four nominees to Dance UK in order of preference i.e number one being the nominee he or she thinks should win the award.
- Dance UK will collate these lists and score each nominee based on where they have been placed in the order of preference for winning the award, i.e.
1st place = Four points
2nd Place = Three points
3rd place = Two points
4th place = One point
Ideally, this will arrive at a winner for the award. Should there be a tie Dance UK will organise a meeting between the selection panel for them to discuss the tie and decide upon a winner.
How to nominate someone for the award
Send your nominations to us c/o Sian McAulay, Deputy Director, Dance Uk, The Old Finsbury Town Hall, Rosebery Avenue, London. EC1R 4QT or via email to sian@danceuk.org.
Deadline
Nominations will be open for 2010 in the Winter of 2011. Please include your name and contact details, the name of the person nominated, along with a statement of no more that 200 words explaining why this person should win the award. Please also state where the person is based and how she or he can be contacted. Previous nominees can be nominated again.