Let's dance!

Today sees a rather remarkable event taking place: a dance summit, which even allowing for the nation's present obsession with all things to do with dance, sounds a little grandiose. But the summit taking place in London today is the brainchild of entrepreneur Rod Aldridge, founder of services company Capita. Aldridge left Capita in 2006, set up his eponymous foundation and has proved an indefatigable social entrepreneur and who is bringing his considerable skills to bear on what he describes as the "dance industry". The aim is, at its most basic, to get more people fit. Dancing is great exercise - some even consider it sport and would like to see it feature in the Olympics - which explains why Aldridge's activities are being backed not by the cultural department but by the Department of Health. Last autumn, a Dance Champions group was formed, including such dance luminaries as choreographer Arlene Phillips, and television presenter Angela Rippon. The aim of the group is to encourage people to try dance for 30 minutes, three times a week. Aldridge, who himself danced competitively in his teens, chairs the group and believes change is needed in the dance sector if it is to reach these goals. "This is about all forms of dance," he says. "The Dance Champions group is an independent group who want to express their feelings about dance and what we are trying to do is discuss how to stimulate more people to be introduced to dance, to look at what the barriers are to that happening and to clear some of those barriers out of the way. " Through his foundation, Aldridge is keen to encourage more dance to take place in non-traditional settings. The foundation has already launched Essentially Dance , an educational resources that has taught ballroom and Latin dance to primary and secondary pupils in England as part of their PE lessons. Aldridge is candid in his desire to make the whole dance sector think about making dance more accessible, not simply to get people fit, but because of the many other benefits of dance. "The industry is very bureaucratic, but it has a moment in time here where it could make a massive difference because of the interest that's being generated in dance, by programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing," he says. Evidence from the Essentially Dance initiative found that dance helped pupils with social skills, self-esteem and classroom behaviour. This is no surprise to Aldridge, who, despite not doing well academically, found his confidence hugely boosted in his teenage years as a result of competitive dance. "Dance was something that opened me up," he says. It also provided important social skills. Being able to build a rapport as a result of dance with people from completely different worlds was something he describes as "fascinating" and one aspect of today's dance summit will be the potential of dance to bring together people from different communities. The industry is very bureaucratic, but it has a moment in time here where it could make a massive difference because of the interest that's being generated in dance This is something Aldridge hopes the dance summit will stimulate public bodies to think about. He says the ingredients are all available within local authorities and NHS organisations and hopes that by organising, for instance, regional events, his Dance Champions group will bring such bodies together, to bid to run dance activities and think creatively about how local communities could benefit from dance. To this end, he is, along with many other people, hopeful that the Total Place pilot schemes, which have looked at duplication of resources in local areas, may free up money or resources to be invested in dance. It's important that those involved in both dance and public service think about how to meet growing demand for dance facilities, says Aldridge. "Schools and fitness clubs could be places where dance could take place and communities have got those facilities. The infrastructure exists. This is about obesity and fitness, which is costing our communities huge amounts of money. We are trying to stimulate a change in the way people think about themselves, about activity, movement and dance. This bigger social agenda interests me and I really hope that whoever is in government would look at this idea in an innovative open way," he says. But this isn't just about asking the government to provide resources. Aldridge acknowledges that sometimes those in dance can be a little elitist. "What it ought to look at more and more is the social impact of dance and really encourage that side of things. There is a lot of policy work and good work going on, and this is a chance to coordinate the approach to that."