What Next for The Royal Academy of Dance? An Opinion Piece, by John Byrne – Part 2

The Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) is a UK-based international organisation which offers training, qualifications and examinations for teachers and students of classical ballet and related forms of dance. Like all organisations of its kind, it has to keep a close eye on the bottom line.

In 1990, the Academy faced impending bankruptcy and decided to appoint a “fixer,” in the form of a CEO, to turn the organisation around. Once the financial position was stabilised, the position of CEO became a permanent one and following the very recent resignation of its last CEO, after a relatively short tenure, a search has begun for his replacement.

In this essay, John Byrne, who was there in 1990, looks at how the Academy has changed since the appointment of its first CEO, over thirty years ago, and asks whether it is now time to consider an alternative model of management.

READ PART ONE

PART TWO

In more recent years, the Academy has made attempts to service as many interest groups and demographics as possible. It has recently launched a number of new initiatives, or “products” including a Silver Swans franchise, which offers an experience of classical ballet to seniors. This has been heavily marketed and appears to be a money spinner. There has also been an enthusiastic embrace of populism evidenced in a proposed new syllabus for the younger dancer in the hip hop style, which was announced, curiously enough, by the former CEO! That now seems to have faded into the background, where it should remain, while further thought is given to the question: Is this a genre that the Academy should get involved with at all? One hopes that there will be a resounding no to that question, particularly in the face of other pressing priorities. The Academy cannot do everything if it wishes to do things well, besides, there are other dance organisations with the existing expertise to do a great job with a syllabus of that kind. A contemporary dance syllabus, which the Academy should have devised years ago has now been imported into the Academy. This genre of dance is a very important one in today’s dance world and accordingly, this is a welcome decision.

There have been moves to encourage more examination entries by removing strict rules about maximum age limits for those who wish to enter a whole range of examinations. This has resulted in ladies of very senior age entering examinations that sometimes contain content designed for children as young as seven. The relatively new Discovering Repertoire Syllabus offers a welcome opportunity for students to study parts of the classical and romantic repertoire, but instead of limiting it to students who can meet its demands, it has been made available to anyone who wants to attempt it. Based on this degree of access, it is now possible to dance one of Giselle’s solos as well as solos from several other ballets, even if you have inadequate technique, can’t get on to pointe and are older than Giselle’s mother! Anyone who has any respect for the art form and the great artists for whom this solo was intended would find it very hard to look at a watered down version of it, poorly danced. And in a further spirit of inclusiveness which seems to pervade every aspect of life nowadays, boys may study and enter examinations in the girls’ syllabus and vice versa. One wonders what is next on the horizon for the Royal Academy of Dance.

I find it difficult to believe that any Artistic Director would have embraced some of these more recent developments at the Academy with any enthusiasm. Nor do I believe that they would have implemented all of them if given the choice. The Academy is fast becoming a one stop shop for all your dance needs. Diversification seems to be the order of the day. Something to appeal to everyone. Classical ballet is still at the core of what it does, but its days of being a specialist in classical ballet only have passed. The classical ballet syllabi of the Academy now contain elements of other dance styles. They are no longer as pure as they once were. There is an obvious attempt to broaden its appeal and expand its business. Indeed, the Royal Charter of the Academy was changed deliberately to make it possible for more genres of dance to be included. The word “ballet” disappeared in the charter to be replaced by “dance.” Who was it that drove this agenda? What do all of these other initiatives add up to and where do they lead? What is the long-term goal? What identity does it give to the RAD? Does the RAD eventually want to develop into another Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) which offers syllabi and examinations in a number of different genres of dance? If it does, then it should organise the genres into neat categories presided over by Faculty Committees as the ISTD does, not introduce them willy nilly and in a piece meal fashion with no coherent overall plan. Do we need another multi-genre dance organisation? Or should the Academy stick to its original point of difference and specialise in classical dance and the other related genres which potential dancers need, like character dance and contemporary dance. And leave it at that?

Historically, the Academy has always upheld high standards in its examinations. These rigorous standards increased over time until many teachers and students could not meet their demands. A significant failure rate settled into the system. This situation, if left unchecked, would very likely have resulted in lower levels of entry and reduced income for an Academy which has always relied heavily on examination fees. Clearly, something needed to be done about this situation. Enter OFQUAL a regulatory body with a rather inelegant and incomplete acronym which stands for The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation in England.

 I do not pretend to have a thorough knowledge of OFQUAL or the negotiations which took place with this regulatory body or within the Academy itself which, in the end, resulted in a radical change to the Academy’s examination system. The big attraction of qualifications regulated by OFQUAL is that they are widely accepted around the world and can also help students to enter colleges and universities. These are considerable benefits, and they appealed to the major UK dance organisations who all decided to get regulated. So far, so good. The downside was that you had to trade in your existing arrangements and accept those of OFQUAL in order to get their blessing and wear their logo. OFQUAL calls the shots. When government departments get involved in the regulation of a broad range of disciplines and make insufficient allowance for the differences which may exist in any particular one of them, like dance, about which they know very little, then it is very likely that there will be problematic outcomes. I don’t know how hard the Academy argued to get the best fit for its own particular circumstances or even whether that was possible, but I do think the outcome was far less than ideal. From what I can gather, it is apparently not obligatory to join OFQUAL. They themselves acknowledge that there are unregulated courses which deliver excellent training and that these have a place in the market. For the RAD, it was obviously preferable to join up rather than continue to improve its own modus operandi.

Having embraced OFQUAL, the Academy adopted a pass mark, in examinations, of 40%. Whether this was in line with OFQUAL guidelines, or a decision made by the Academy itself is unknown to the writer, but the effect was the same regardless of its derivation. The new pass mark represented a huge drop from the Academy’s previous one of 65 % which carried with it a further requirement that students had to pass in each section of the examination in order to get an overall pass. This latter requirement no longer applied to the new marking system in which it was possible for candidates to be unsuccessful in all technical sections of the examination ( i.e. receive 3 marks out of 10 in all the main sections ) and still pick up enough marks in other sections like musical timing, performance quality, and the like, and still pass the overall examination! It beggars belief that the Academy would give serious consideration to implementing this system. And then actually do so. There was a warning given about the inadequacy of this half-baked and deeply flawed marking system by a senior artistic figure within the Academy, with extensive experience and expertise in such matters, but her strong advice was ignored. The CEO had obviously taken other advice, or had strong opinions of his own, and he had an absolute determination to go ahead with it. And that was that. It was an extremely unfortunate decision, the effects of which are still being felt to the present day. That state of affairs will continue unless something is done about it.

One did not have to be a clairvoyant to predict that the low expectations embedded in a pass mark of 40% would have certain consequences. When you set the bar so low, people jump less high. There is, for many, no longer any need to try so hard when the marking scheme is so generous. I have always believed that you get the standards you ask for. There was indeed a strong argument to lower the previous pass mark of 65% to something less rigorous, but I can find no justification at all for dropping it to 40 %. Was there any attempt to argue for a mid-way point between these two extremes with OFQUAL or whoever else set this benchmark?  Or did the Academy have no choice but to accept it? Clearly this marking system is not one that is likely to contribute to improved standards which was the whole raison d’être for the establishment of the Academy in the first place! I assume it was thought that there would be more entries for examinations and that the new marking system would produce more successful and happy candidates with marks they could be proud of, but which they didn’t always necessarily deserve. And more income.

We are told that organisations which have the OFQUAL imprimatur carry with them an assurance of quality control in the courses offered and in the assessment of those courses. Well, I am not assured, and there is no quality in a 40 % pass mark. Setting a pass mark at this level is based on an acceptance of mediocrity. It may even encourage it. And what does it say about any organisation that adopts this standard? That 40% is good enough for us? That this is how we value ourselves? I understand that a pass mark of 40 % is the one commonly accepted in academic subjects in UK schools, and it was thought that this pass mark should therefore also apply to the Academy’s examinations. Pass marks at this level might be acceptable for academic subjects at school – 40% in a science or maths examination could be acceptable for students who have no interest in or ambition to follow a career path that requires that knowledge but I would strongly argue that 40 % of a ballet technique is simply not enough. One should not have to make that case to an organisation who has long specialised in it and who should therefore know better. Classical ballet is the most difficult and challenging of all dance techniques both to learn and to teach. Physically, it requires a complete re-education of the posture, the development of complex motor learning skills, and a radically new way of moving with turned out legs. There are potentially, very real safety concerns for those students who have failed to gain any real understanding of how to use their bodies safely when learning this technique.

Despite the current marking system, there is still good work seen in examinations because there will always be a number of good teachers producing it, but in general, and quite predictably, there has been a lowering of standards across the board. And those lower standards are being rewarded with better results than before. Nowadays, hardly any students are unsuccessful in most examinations despite many instances of very poor work. Most students are rewarded with marks well above the pass mark and the vast number of candidates – up to over 90 % of candidates in some countries – receive either merit or distinction marks. These results do not conform to the normal curve; they are skewed to the higher levels of achievement. In many cases they give a false impression to students, teachers, and parents about what has been achieved. Who then, is best served by such a marking system?

The same approach to assessment also applies to teaching examinations thus admitting some poor teachers into the system and weakening the whole structure from the ground up. Poor teaching obviously leads to poor student outcomes. The Academy claims that parents are able to rely on its list of Registered teachers to deliver uniformly good standards of teaching to their children. Well no. Not always. This will only ever be the case when more attention is given to the development of practical teaching skills in the classroom in all of the teacher training it offers, and when more rigorous standards are applied to assessing teachers in examinations. In order to back up the reliability of its list of registered teachers it also needs to set the pass mark for teaching examinations at a much higher level than applies at present. No question about it. In some academic circles nowadays, there is a view that anyone who actually completes a course must be given a pass in it regardless of whether they come up to the pass mark or not. These standards have come dangerously close to the Academy which for some years now has accepted a pass mark at such a low level of 40 %. Such is the influence of academics and educationalists nowadays in the world of the performing arts that standards could well stay at those levels unless there is a strong and determined pushback against them.

Read Part Three of this three-part essay.

John Byrne

John Byrne is a graduate of the University of Sydney (BA), the University of Westminster,(Postgraduate Diploma in Arts Administration) and the Professional Dancer’s Teaching Diploma, ARAD (RAD London) He worked at RAD headquarters in London from 1990 – 1994, for most of that time as Artistic Director and Chair of the Examining Board. He has had an extensive international career in teaching and examining classical ballet and is regarded as an elder of the classical dance community in Australia and one of its leading teachers and pedagogues.

In 1997 he established and was the founding director for 8 years of the Redlands Ballet and Dance Academy in Sydney now in its 28th year and under the direction of former Royal Ballet dancer, Gilly Revie.

He has created ballet syllabi for the RAD and for Classical Dance Australia, which he established in 2015. He has also written occasional dance criticism, feature articles and commentary on dance for many years.