Dancing Together

Possibly due to the approaching Festival and Fringe, the theatres are relatively quiet: there are a few bravura show-stopping musicals, a new version of a classic courtesy of the Scottish Ballet and a stream of Shakespeare in Glasgow’s West End. Into this gap flow the end of term shows for Scotland’s many amateur and children’s schools, where the next generation of performers experience the larger stage for the first time.

The Central Belt provision for community engaged art - what used to be called amateur performance until the funding bodies got involved - is a quiet success. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh have powerful schools that offer a wide variety of dance forms to both professional and casual students: Dance House and Dance Base present everything from Butoh to ballroom. The ambition of other groups is evident in their willingness to perform in the same venues as international companies.

Aside from the National Theatre - which has generously collaborated with local companies - Scotland punches well above its weight in the performing arts. Whatever the flaws of the current Scottish Ballet production - and they are few and specific - it is heartening to see them take on a fixture of the repertoire and update it. NLP - a very new company - makes its first turn at the Citizens and the established crews - Babel, Cryptic, Vanishing Point are still working hard.

Community involvement, in this context, is more than a tick-box on a grant application: it becomes the source for future expansion. More importantly, the strict divide between high art and populism is eroded. And in this, new, exciting forms of art can evolve.