I do not yet know how to express what I felt with regard to what I witnessed on Sunday. I was invited to the AGM of the Dance Council Malta to its farewell reception after 19 years of perseverance. I arrived in a fairly jolly mood, it being a beautiful sunny morning, but I left with a haunting heartache and a sense of void.

I will start by introducing myself - a keen dancer since the age of 6, an amateur choreographer and a recent BA Hons graduate of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. In other words, I am but a child finding its feet in this big bad world. Before leaving to study in the UK, I attended religiously all events organised by the Dance Council, being the eager beaver that I was (and still am!). Needless to say, the Council organised numerous educational workshops and fund-raising events for charities and has done more than its part in promoting dance to generations. Such events always left me with a hunger for more and an increased appetite for learning. But it is not my place to review the Dance Council's many achievements. I am simply writing to voice my concern, insignificant as it may be, at the apathy and, dare I say it, lack of respect shown towards the Council - the reason for its dissolution.

An event like the final AGM of the only representative body of dance on the island should have been a priority on the agenda of all those entitled to be there, but instead of a hall crowded with determined future candidates for the Council, TVM recorded some 20 people listening to the touching speeches of the members of the Dance Council who have reached the end of their tether trying to grow and develop with minimum support. I must admit I admired the sense of unity among the people present, a unity and level of support that gives a striving artist like myself hope and comfort. It comforts me to know that there are in fact people on the island who care about the industry and who strive to see it develop: a breath of fresh air from those who live by the philosophies of 'dance is just a hobby' and 'oh I could jump around like that too'. The naked truth remains that the dance profession is greatly undervalued in Malta and more so the people who dedicate themselves to it altruistically.

Here comes the part where I am hugely biased as I praise and thank a woman who I feel is not appreciated enough for her commitment, the President of the Dance Council for the past six years, and my teacher and hero for the past 15 years, Alison White - a woman who sacrificed a great deal of her personal life and countless hours of sleep for the sake of dance and to spread a message of love and unity through it. Alison White's passion shines through everything she does and seeing such an accomplished and experienced woman struggle to find the backing she needs makes me both extremely sad and quite exasperated. I am exasperated and frustrated by the lack of support from all those who matter: government and layman alike.

As Tanya Bayona, founder of the Dance Council Malta, pointed out, we must all have a vision, we must all have a dream. No, throwing money at this problem will not be enough to solve it (the difficulty of obtaining funds for dance is a rant for another day!). This actually involves getting people to accept the concept of a dance community and taking some time out of our own lives to reach a common goal that would put dance on the high pedestal it deserves to be on. 

 

Kim Ellul

Tarxien