Ballet seeks to align with business

Regional tours have become a regular fixture on the calendars of Western Australia’s biggest arts companies, but ensuring the programs’ longevity remains a financial challenge for many.

As former chief executive of Country Arts WA, Jessica Machin brought extensive regional partnerships experience to her role as executive director of the West Australian Ballet, which she took up in 2016.

Ms Machin told Business News WA Ballet was given a remit by the state government to provide programs across the state, a task also central to the organisation’s purpose of enriching lives through dance on and off stage.

While WA Ballet has toured previously, Ms Machin has worked towards a more consistent program, featuring a touring season every two years alongside a sustained engagement program.

“Dance is extremely popular in the regions,” Ms Machin said.

“Port Hedland, for a population of 10,000, has four dance schools with over 450 children, and they have a specialist performing arts high school.

“For a community that’s known for it’s mining, it’s a dancing hub.”

The Roy Hill Community Foundation, Santos and Mitsui Iron Ore have all become sponsors of WA Ballet’s regional programs during the past 18 months, supporting programs in Kalgoorlie, Port Hedland, Karratha and Mandurah.

Ms Machin said these corporate sponsors had been attracted by WA Ballet’s focus on building a community presence.

Additionally, the ballet’s method of establishing programs from the ground up based on the needs of each community had been a drawcard, giving greater longevity to the program delivery.

As part of this, Ms Machin had pushed for the employment of local people as part of the tour, flagging the future potential to employ local coordinators to further strengthen an ongoing relationship in each community.

“I think another thing that’s an attractor to some businesses is they see other corporate partners that are aligned with them,” Ms Machin said.

“That opportunity for business-to-business discussions is really important.”

The ballet’s 2019 regional tour will involve a gala-style performance requiring 21 dancers in addition to technical support.

The tour has a cost of around $200,000, Ms Machin said, but community engagement and related programs brought the entire project to around $500,000.

Despite WA Ballet’s corporate sponsorship developments, Ms Machin said the state government remained the number one funding source for regional touring in the state.

However, she has concerns for the future of the state government’s Regional and Remote Touring Fund, part of its $24 million Creative Regions program announced last year.

“None of the companies can tour without the support of state government, through the Creative Regions program,” Ms Machin said.

“At the moment, there’s a big question mark around whether that’s going to continue to be funded.

“So for companies like ours, the WA Symphony Orchestra, Black Swan State Theatre Company and WA Opera, if that fund does not exist, there’s absolutely no way we can tour our work out to the regions.

“It’s a really critical program and I can’t emphasise enough the importance of that remaining at play.”

The state government has not made comment on the future of the fund, with Culture and Arts Minister David Templeman stating that any budget measures would be announced in due course.