The government has promised to put creativity back at the heart of school life, and people across the arts sector who have been campaigning for curriculum change for years will soon learn just how serious it is. For those of us working in dance, publication of the interim review report in the coming weeks will be a particularly big deal – or at least, it has the potential to be.
Every day we are lucky enough to see how dance changes lives – how it makes us fitter, healthier and more confident, how it takes us into new worlds, brings us together, and keeps us active, physically and mentally. The Social Value of Movement and Dance report found that participating in dance uplifted mental wellbeing for 1.2 million participants, and resulted in 2.7m fewer GP and psychotherapy visits – creating £430m in savings on physical and mental health. Crucially, movement and dance have been found to reach and retain girls, women, and disabled people equally or better than any other forms of activity.
Throughout my life, first as a child dancer and then as an adult competing around the world, I have seen how dance inspires creativity and transforms people’s lives, but there is a cost. I always tell people how my mum worked her fingers to the bone so that I could have the classes and gorgeous costumes that I needed to take part. It was hard work then but, in so many ways, it’s even harder for kids today – not just because of the financial cost, but because there are fewer opportunities. As the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, said last year: “Talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not.”
For all the obvious benefits that it brings, and for all the sparkle and glitter of Strictly Come Dancing, dance in Britain today is in the doldrums and a generation of young people are being denied the life-enhancing experiences that it brings. Dance may be thriving in the private sector, with consistently high numbers of young people participating, but it has all but disappeared in statutory and higher education sectors. Only 16% of schools currently enter pupils for GCSE dance and entries have declined by 59% since 2008, to just 6,723 entries in 2024. Similarly, A-level dance entries have reduced by 58% to just 960 entries in 2024. Dance is a statutory part of the PE curriculum in key stage 1 and 2 (5-11 years) but it is frequently not taught, and where dance is offered it is usually taught by a non-specialist.
It is commonly understood that a focus on “core subjects” and a “knowledge-based curriculum” has led to the erosion of creative and practical subjects, particularly dance.
The government can put this right by delivering a curriculum that allows dance to do what it does so brilliantly – inspire unique opportunities for creativity by getting children experimenting with movement and using their imaginations to create and interpret stories in new ways. For me, this means promoting it to a core subject able to command the curriculum attention from schools that it – and pupils – genuinely deserve.
But realising the power of dance is not just about developing a curriculum. Government policy and funding must go further to recognise these wider opportunities for impacting on the lives of people and the nation beyond the world of education – from improvements in mental health, to boosting the confidence of young people, preventing cardiovascular disease, helping with weight loss and reducing social isolation. Dance has been described as a superpower and that’s exactly what it is for me and so many other people.
The dance sector must play its part too. That is why I am acting in my capacity as president of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) by urging the sector – and everyone who understands the power and potential of dance – to come together and act for its future growth and development.
The ISTD is one of the biggest dance exam boards in the UK, but we don’t have all the answers. So we are making a commitment to collaborate with dance agencies, companies, venues and schools, policymakers and funders, to learn from what works, and innovate to build a dance sector in which everyone, no matter who they are, has access to dance. We are ambitious because we want to get the whole of Britain up on its feet and dancing.
There’s a lot that we, as a sector, can do to build on these ambitions by mapping everything that’s already happening in dance, and get better at telling the world about the benefits of what we do. Across the country, we see studios becoming dance hubs, and teachers working together, building relationships and making connections with schools and community groups. We can build on these great foundations by exercising our own creativity, coming up with exciting new ideas.
Those of us who care about dance should demand a commitment from the government to develop a broad and balanced school curriculum that acknowledges and values its creative and physical benefits. We want to see every child provided with the opportunity to experience a high-quality dance performance before they reach the end of key stage 3 to inspire both the dancers and audiences of the future. Schools should be supported to connect with local dance education experts and institutions. And every school should have a specific dance policy in place, monitor their dance teaching, and provide opportunities for children to achieve dance qualifications with facilities that are clean, safe and fit for purpose.
Together we look forward to the results of the curriculum review and to working with the government to help realise the full extent of what we know dance can truly deliver: a fitter, healthier, happier and more confident Britain.