Come Dancing

Latest Business talks to Mairead Turner, chief executive of South East Dance, the leading organisation in the UK for screen dance and creator of internationally award-winning dance films.

Can you dance?

Hmmm, very badly, but this makes me an excellent armchair critic of dance.

So, you make films then?

Yes South East Dance makes Internationally award winning screen dance films, you can even watch clips of them and trailers on our website www.southeastdance.org.uk sometimes its hard to explain exactly what they are, so the easiest thing to do is watch them, but we specialize in short films made by dance film-makers.

But what do you actually do?

I personally spend most of my time listening and talking to people. I do get to travel the world going to festivals, seeking new talent and partners and spreading the word and work of South East Dance. Excellence in community work and screen dance is at the heart of my and all the team’s work.

Local break-dance hero JP Omari is causing quite a stir in the dance world on Strictly Dance Fever, what's his involvement with South East Dance?

Sadly JP had to leave South East Dance to go into the house but before that he worked for us firstly as our East Brighton Administrator and then as our Positive Futures Dance Development Worker. JP taught a lot of classes for people who lived in the East Brighton area as part of our remit as a dance development agency and charity and through the partnership work that we do with Brighton and Hove Council.  We are all missing JP and his energy in the office, he did groove in his swivel chair whilst typing, but we love seeing him on the television and look forward to him coming back!  So don’t vote for JP and then he’ll be back quicker.

What makes you so special?

I guess the range of people and projects we work with which makes our jobs incredibly interesting, one day one of us might be in a Pupil Referal Unit in Portsmouth talking to young people about their new dance session and what they think about it, somebody else might be showing our films and talking about how we commission dance film artists in Buenos Aires and arranging UK/Argentinian artists exchanges and somebody else might be meeting with investors talking about our future projects.

Is South East Dance involved in Brighton Festival?

Of course! South East Dance and Brighton Festival are presenting DanceShorts 2006, our annual celebration of dance film and video. There will be a special programme of international dance film and video which presents the very best of new work from around the globe. I'm very proud that we are presenting the world premieres of two South East Dance short films which we co-selected with Brighton Festival, ‘The Fall of Adam’ directed by Gail Sneddon and ‘Hard Told’, directed by Jane Mason. This will be followed by behind the scenes footage and a chance to talk to the cast and crew which will be fascinating. We have also tempted Lloyd Newson down to screen and discuss his multi award-winning film 'The Cost of Living' with Jan Younghusband from Channel 4.

What are you most proud of?

Hmmm... I've just heard that a young director called Sergio Cruz will be shooting a 3 minute wonder with the B3 East Brighton Boys Group which will be broadcast in November on Channel 4 at 6.55pm. Coincidently this is one of the groups that JP taught.We are producing these films (this is one of four) for Channel 4 in partnership with Youth Dance England so we're really thrilled as last time we did this our short films received around 2 million viewers!

I’m most proud of the artists we are fortunate enough to work with and the people in the organisation, we have a fabulous team of passionate individuals and an amazing board of trustees.  We are currently looking for inspirational individuals who work in business to be on our board so if you are out there and interested in getting involved do get in touch with me!

What’s the future got in store?

Well we’re really interested in exploiting our position as a market leader in screen dance and looking at what this means in terms of the distribution opportunities that emergent technology is making possible.  We are moving from a delivery based organisation to a product based organisation and we are operating much more internationally now.  Having said that its always all about artists at the core and that central should never change, we want to enable artists to make their best work possible whether that be in screen dance or community practice its just the ways that we approach that which will change.

DanceShorts 2006 takes place on Sunday 21st May at Corn Exchange, Brighton Dome. Box Office 01273 709709. Full Event Pass £15, Students £12. Individual events cost £4/£5 for The Cost of Living and DanceShorts, and £7/£5 for International Dance Shorts  www.southeastdance.org.uk for more details and trailers. To book online visit www.brightonfestival.org