2020 has seen all industries fall down and have less financial gain due to COVID-19. Here we explain why.
In 2019, the arts industry as a whole contributes £10.8 billion to the economy in the UK alone and 363,700 jobs. Jazz dancers often have their financial gain and contribution to the industry through theatre. 2020 brought this to a close once COVID hit.
Why are the arts so important to the community?
Many people forget the importance arts to everyday life. The arts council state that,' Arts and culture help tackle social injustice'. This brings communities together as one and get you to escape everyday life. Something that was brought up recently was my local theatre, The Hazlitt Theatre in Maidstone. The problem here is the Maidstone Borough Council are considering withdrawing its funding to the theatre. If this goes through, it will have to close. Save the Hazlitt here.
How is the government underfunding dance?
The government continue to underfund professional dancers as well as overlook the industry as a whole during this pandemic. Not only that, they have said some debatable things. You will have most likely seen the government ad. This was part of the government's short campaign of 'reskill, rethink, reboot'.
The real image is of Desire'e, a young ballet dancer from Atlanta. In this ad, she is called Fatima and is told to retrain into cyber. The photographer of this image and herself were not informed of this picture being used and were 'devastated' by it. This affects the whole dance community because the government almost don't take it seriously as a profession when people train years to get to that stage. However, there is positives as the government are funding £1.6b to the arts.
What do you think? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the forum section of the page.
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