FABRIC CEO Paul Russ: How dance can, and should, move people

For almost three decades, Paul Russ has championed dance through his roles as an artist, director, developer, and leader. Now, as CEO of Midlands-based strategic dance agency Fabric, Paul expands on ‘dance moves people’, an ambitious mission statement and 10-year strategy that will guide the organisation in shaping the next chapter for dance across the region and beyond.

One of the reasons I’m in this area of work, and I’ve stayed for so long, is because it’s where I found my community. Yet the spaces and opportunities for others to do so are becoming more and more difficult to access. The artform has been removed from our school curriculum, and the regional and national challenges within our sector, and the arts more broadly, only grow stronger.

Throughout my career within the dance sector, I have wanted to play my role in supporting the Midlands, where I’m based, to develop and maintain a reputation as a vibrant hub for the arts, through Fabric, bringing local, regional, national and international work to our stages; taking every opportunity to showcase the exceptional talent within our region and beyond.

In 2022, the formation of Fabric through the merger of Nottingham’s Dance4 and Birmingham’s DanceXchange marked the start of a new chapter, enabling a stronger, dual-city approach to continue our mission regionally. Our 10-year strategy builds further on this foundation, while acknowledging the opportunity that Fabric – as a new organisation – has to respond to the changing needs of today.

We first presented ‘dance moves people’ this autumn at the launch of our festival of extraordinary dance, nottdance. It felt like a fitting environment to share a vision that’s about the role we can play in creating a more connected, sustainable future for dance, supporting artists, nurturing innovation, and improving access for all.

By aligning regional growth with national collaboration, Fabric aims to strengthen the dance ecosystem, championing diversity, resilience and opportunity across the industry. The strategy we’ve created both confirms this vision, while also inviting an open call for collaboration to help us shape the future of dance together.

Why Fabric, and why now?

 Fabric brings together more than 60 years of combined experience to present a united front for dance in the Midlands giving us the building blocks to position the region as a true creative hub; a united front on a level with national counterparts.

Operating as an organisation across two cities, we share resources, expertise, and opportunities for artists and audiences alike. This allows us to anchor activity locally in both Nottingham and Birmingham, while amplifying our reach beyond this.

Already, we’re seeing the benefits of new programmes, broader access and exciting work being showcased in both cities including an extensive line up of diverse weekly classes that connect communities together and form new ties, professional workshops, community engagement and residencies for artists looking for space and time to research, create, experiment and play.

Dance as a catalyst for change

Dance is about so much more than choreography and performance, and it’s not just entertainment. It’s a force that creates fulfilling careers, connects people and gives purpose. It makes for curiosity about our selves, our communities, our cultures and each other, it asks questions, not always giving all the answers, allowing us to consider our own thoughts and position on what we see. Connection through these means is a fundamental element to humanity. In a disruptive and turbulent society, connection becomes more important by the day.

Growing up in a low-income family, my first encounters with the arts came through publicly funded local programmes and school provision. Those early opportunities opened doors to cultural spaces my parents couldn’t have afforded, introducing me to perspectives and possibilities far beyond my immediate world. Without that investment, my community—and my own future—would have been narrower. It was those experiences that taught me how transformative the arts can be, shaping not only a lifelong passion but a belief in the power of access, diversity and learning.

As someone who’s worked in dance for decades, I’ve experienced first-hand the positive and far-reaching influence that it can have on society. I’ve seen it across artists staying with us in residency, enabling them to form a career that matches their passion, young people gaining opportunities that previously wouldn’t be possible from the The Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) Programme, and simply watching people attend their first class and be introduced to dance, affecting them in many ways beyond the physical act. Even if someone hasn’t directly benefited from dance, research shows that dance contributes approximately £3.5 billion in social value annually in the UK - accounting for about £1 in every £20 of the total social value generated by sport and physical activity, we are a sector offering health, wellbeing, career pathways and financial value.

The potential of our sector is huge, yet the stumbling blocks in front of its future continue to pile up. While there is immense talent, ambition and creativity in dance, companies and artists face challenges including limited funding, a challenged touring network, and the lingering impact of the pandemic on audiences. There is a pressing need for strategic support to ensure dance thrives not only in our region, but nationally and internationally too.

To grow the dance economy, and in turn positively influence the health, wellbeing, development and connection of communities, cultures and people, investment is required at more than just a financial level. At Fabric, we’ve acknowledged the power, influence and privilege that our scale and geography provides, the 10 yr strategy makes clear the strategic role we will play in creating the conditions for dance to flourish.

Curiosity, disruption and joy

Our 10-year strategy is built around four key pillars of ‘research’, ‘engagement’, ‘sector development’ and ‘performance & showcasing’, all underpinned by our core values of curiosity, disruption and joy. These values drive us to ask new questions, challenge existing structures and celebrate the creativity and individuality at the heart of dance, all of which, we believe, is essential for change.

This is not just a plan for Fabric, but a roadmap that we hope will inspire and guide the wider dance community for years to come. But what does this mean in action?

Through research we can cultivate curiosity to trial and test interventions that will positively impact the sector in the future: the development of the form, pushing artistic boundaries, challenging colonialism, equity, diversity and inclusion within our sector, collaborating with artists, practitioners and researchers, sharing our learning, so that we might better understand how dance can influence health, culture and community; benefits reaching far beyond the studio.

To tackle the widespread frustration felt towards outdated models for touring and working in the arts, we hope to play our role in driving sector development by challenging the traditional model and supporting the conversation around new pathways, based on our experience, research and insight. We’ll actively seek to contribute to regional, national and international agendas, and we encourage others to use their experience to do so too.

Prioritising community engagement will be an essential factor in achieving our first two pillars while also becoming a goal in itself - widening participation and removing barriers, supporting presentation and showcasing, we hope to ensure that everyone has the chance to experience, make and be moved by the power of dance.

Shaping the future together

Since outlining our ambition and commitment to change, we have taken immediate steps towards our goals. However, we know the level of change we desire won’t happen immediately and will rely on a full community commitment that extends beyond our immediate reach. Over the next ten years, we will stand firm in our values, we will hold ourselves accountable as a pillar of dance in the Midlands to help make the region, and the industry, a powerhouse of creativity, support and development, and we look forward to collaborating with others in the sector, and outside of it, to add strength to this mission and make sure the impact is widespread.

View dance moves people, Fabric’s 10-year strategy online at www.fabric.dance/dance-moves-people-a-10-year-strategy