Annual Review 2021/2022
With a renewed board, led by Brenda Emmanus OBE, New Adventures had an inspiring and exciting year in 2021-2022. The highlight was a wonderful production of Nutcracker! – seen by over 149,000 people, filmed by the BBC and shown on Christmas day 2022.
Doorstep Duets surprised and delighted people from Farnham to Bradford with outdoor performances at care homes, refugee centres and beaches.
Take Part visited schools around the country, and we did our first sensory adapted performance at Sadler's Wells. We are growing from strength to strength and including more people from all walks of life in the work of New Adventures.
Executive Summary
191,273 audiences attended 321 live performances
We spent 32 weeks touring 2 productions nationwide
45 dancers employed on tour
941,863 people engaged with our work online through REEL Adventures
Over 500 participants engaged in Take Part participatory activity
179 Take Part sessions with 3,613 attendances
10,284 audiences across 102 cinema screenings
25,978 podcast listeners
Nutcracker! UK Tour
‘Bourne’s faultless Nutcracker is the sweet treat we all deserve’ - The Evening Standard
Following its postponement in 2020-21, our newly designed and reimagined 30th Anniversary production of Nutcracker! opened at Theatre Royal, Plymouth in November 2021 before embarking on New Adventures’ 21st Christmas season at Sadler’s Wells. This was followed by a UK tour.
33 dancers, 17 of which came through one or more of New Adventures’ talent development programmes
16 offstage workers and crew
14 venues over 23 weeks
164 performances
149,703 audiences
A message from our Chair
The world continues to change, and New Adventures remains exceptionally agile and resilient through a continued difficult time for the Creative Industries.
Having been decimated by the pandemic, it fuels me with optimism to see audiences back consuming arts with a passion. But the Arts now faces unprecedented financial pressure from inflation, and dance which is fuelled by the energy and patronage of audiences continues to suffer tremendously.
Challenges can be character building, and New Adventures have returned to deliver world class performance on stage in 2021-22. Sir Matthew Bourne, alongside his outstanding creative team of associate artists, created The Midnight Bell – a bold large to mid-scale production. The World Premiere enticed audiences back to theatres, reaching an audience of 42,733, and reminded us of our universal passion for dance. Critics were also seduced by the passion and originality of this new work.
This was followed by our annual large-scale production, a tour of Nutcracker! - back with a fresh touch, beautiful costumes and staging, and fabulous dance talent to boot - it was seen by 149,703 people across all regions of England and the UK. We were delighted to then bring this vibrant show to the screen for Christmas in 2022.
We continue to expand our Take Part strand of work, to find and develop creative ways to engage communities, work with schools and young people and support talent development. This is proving to be a significant part of our New Adventures USP. Our development of dancers both pre-professional and sustaining careers, reached a total of 1,273 people in 2021-22. We launched Cygnet Schoolfor ten underserved young dancers in the Southeast, and Doorstep Duets, our response to social isolation saw us take dance to 67 places, seen by 4,578 people. Both these new initiatives will continue this year.
We continued to develop REEL Adventures, our online digital strand of work and a vital and successful source of connection between ourselves, our audiences, and the dance world. The programme includes professional classes and workshops which attracted over 600 participants in 2021-22. Sky Arts broadcast Swan Lakeand Romeo and Julietand the BBC broadcast The Red Shoes, with over half a million broadcast and on-line views in total. There were also 102 cinema screenings that were seen by over 10,000 people. This was no mean feat.
I want to record my thanks to the whole New Adventures family. Our brilliant leadership team, incredible staff, magnificent tour management teams and all our freelance artists, dancers, technicians, and others, who ensure we ‘open up a world of JOY, WONDER, CONNECTION and CREATIVITY’.
I also need to extend huge gratitude to our driven and talented Trustees, who provide incredible governance, leadership, support, and protection to New Adventures. Together we work for the greater good of New Adventures and celebrate dance in all its glory.
Brenda Emmanus OBE
Chair, Board of Trustees – New Adventures
Digital
Following the accelerated launch of REEL Adventures in 2020, in 2021-22 we continued to build on our work in this area and look to digital to support our creative ambitions, cultivate an authentic and exciting presence online and to reach new and existing audiences.
- The Red Shoes broadcast on the BBC at Christmas 2021 and available to watch on demand via BBC iPlayer, with a total of 204,067 views.
- Sky Arts broadcast The Car Man, Romeo and Juliet and Swan Lake, reaching approximately 187,000 viewers.Romeo and Juliet and Swan Lake were also made available for streaming online, reaching a further estimated 105,000 people.
- Five of our productions – The Red Shoes, Romeo and Juliet, The Car Man, Cinderella, and Swan Lake - were screened 102 times in cinemas worldwide, seen by 10,284 people.
- More film content was made available across our platforms, with Behind The Scenes content for The Midnight Bell and Nutcracker!achieving a total of 131,833 views.
- A new series of video content – Two Minute Tales – proved particularly popular and enabled us to spotlight the career paths of New Adventures’ workforce. A total of 30 Two Minute Tales were released across the tour of Nutcracker! with 105,143 views.
Freelancers
Following the success of our Spring Forward programme in 2020, we continued to provide career development opportunities for our freelance workforce throughout 2021-22 to ensure continuity of support during the transition out of the pandemic.
Emerging Artists
In 2021-22 New Adventures remained committed to supporting the next generation of dancers and artists as well as providing continuous professional development opportunities for company members and dance artists.
- Launched our first Emerging Artist Apprenticeship designed to support one dancer for a year of mentoring, residency opportunities and a paid apprenticeship.
- Launched Cygnet School in July 2021, our pre-vocational training programme for young people, providing a much-needed pathway between our participation work and talent development opportunities.
- Principal Dancer Glenn Graham was appointed Associate Artist in July 2021 as part of a new annual leadership development programme, developing new and underrepresented leaders in the dance sector.
- Our 7th year of the Overture programme consisted of a mix of residential and online professional development opportunities across 2021-22 for 16 dance artists and teachers.
- Pro Class took place at Trinity Laban in January 2022 with over 100 dancers taking part in sessions over the course of 1 week.
- Recognising the impact of COVID-19 on training and development opportunities, we ran two successful residencies targeted at recent graduates, An Autumn Adventureand A Winter Adventure.
Audience
One of our three core company values is Audience. Our audiences are why we do what we do. Entertaining and engaging audiences is our passion. We strive to be widely accessible and welcoming to both our loyal and new audiences. As a company we are driven by a desire to make great art that is seen by as many people as possible.
- 1 sensory adapted performance
- 4 post-show talks
- 15 audio described performances with touch tours
- 330 free tickets
International
We are proud to be recognised as one of the most successful British exports for dance and are committed to promoting British culture abroad both through live and digital presentations, online and in cinemas.
During 2021-22, our work reached 11 countries, with international audiences totalling 98,511
Green Adventures
We are proud to be regarded as an industry leader on environmental sustainability and to have a prominent place on the Theatre Green Book where we have introduced new Green Rider and Sustainable Procurement policies for the entire industry. This year we appointed an Environmental Manager as lead of our Green Champions Working Group who are working to ensure the highest percentage of our sets, costumes and props are reused or recycled.
Other achievements include:
- Power usage for our main productions has been reduced by 68% as a result of swapping to using LED lighting whilst on tour.
- Working in partnership with Rambert to create a resource pack for the sector of recommended ethical and sustainable suppliers for use on productions and projects.
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
This year we have continued to work with our sector support partners to help us achieve our EDI aims, including Creative Access, Inc Arts, Tonic, PiPA (Parents and Carers in the Performing Arts) and Stage Sight.
Prior to The Midnight Bell and Nutcracker! tours, the company took part in Safeguarding, Unconscious Bias, Allyship and Anti-Racism and Performance Anxiety training. Dance Artists and members of the New Adventures office team also took part in this training, plus training in Embracing Neurodiversity and Mental Health First Aid or Awareness.
Subsidised or free places are offered on all our talent development projects and we continue to review the level at which these are offered. Our Overture programme is fully subsidised for participants with additional support offered as required to support caring or access needs.
The focus of our equity, diversity and inclusion work continued to be around race, age and socio-economic background. We received a Creative Case for Diversity rating from Arts Council England of ‘Strong’ in recognition of the company’s work to increase and celebrate diversity and representation. During 2021-22, the Board was 30% ethnically diverse, 70% female (including the Chair) and 30% LGBTQIA+.
Finance and Governance
Income
- 73% income from our productions of The Midnight Bell and Nutcracker! and other charitable activity (including our Offstage work encompassing Talent Development, Young People and Communities and REEL Adventures)
- 21% grant and donation income from Arts Council England and other funders and supporters
- 6% was received through the Theatre Tax Relief scheme
Expenditure
- 90% spent on developing, producing, and touring our shows
- 6% spent on support costs
- 4% spent on Talent Development, Young People and Communities and REEL Adventures projects and activities
The Company 21/22
- 45 Dancers
- 23 Dance artists
- 5 Leadership team
- 13 Staff team
- 6 Associate artists
- 8 Trustees
- 3 Patrons
Supporters
During 2021-22, in addition to the support received from Arts Council England, a further £157k was raised from the following funders. We are incredibly grateful for their vital support and generosity.
Trusts and Foundations
Julia & Hans Rausing Foundation, teamArchie, The Dorfman Foundation, The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, The Noel Coward Foundation, Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Individual Donors
Heather Acton and Peter Williams, The Honourable William Archer, Roger de Freitas, Linda Herd, Debby Landesman, Andrew Manley, Huw Morris, Kate Redfern, James Tod, Pieter Toerien, Jeanette Siddall OBE, Emma West.
Corporate Supporters
Edwardian Hotels London, Fortnum & Mason and Buccellati London.
Partners
We are grateful to the Partners we have worked with this year. We couldn't deliver the range and quality of work that we have produced or reach such a breadth of audiences without them.
Organisations:
Creative Access, Culture Box Surrey, Dance United Yorkshire, Farnham Maltings, Julies Bicycle, PiPA, Sky Arts, Supercool, TEA Films, Tonic, Inc Arts, GoodCRM, LIPA, CAT Trinity Laban, DanceXchange, Performers College, The Marlowe, Wendy Whatling School of Dance, Central School of Ballet, Italia Conti, London Studio Centre, Rambert, the Royal Ballet School, BBC, Broadway HD, DigitalTheatre, Curzon Home Video, Applause for Thought, Carshalton High School, Highworth Grammar School, Knights Templar School, St Ivo Academy, Tring Park, Elmhurst Ballet School, Bristol Met Academy, Roger Ascham Primary School, Fordway PRU, Pavillion Dance West, BEE Creative, Dacorum Community Dance, Watford Council, Dance Woking, Dance United Yorkshire, The Marlowe Theatre, Dance East, Greenwich and Docklands Festival, Dance Network Association, Stage Sight, NSDF, De Montfort University, West Midlands CAT.
Venues:
Cheltenham Everyman Theatre, Brighton Theatre Royal, Sheffield Lyceum Theatre, Dartford Orchard Theatre, York Theatre Royal, Sadler’s Wells, Leicester Curve, Liverpool Playhouse, Oxford Playhouse, Warwick Arts Centre, Inverness Eden Court, Bath Theatre Royal, Plymouth Theatre Royal, The Lowry Theatre Salford, Bristol Hippodrome, Birmingham Hippodrome, Milton Keynes Theatre, Glasgow Theatre Royal, Liverpool Empire Theatre, The Marlowe Theatre Canterbury, Wales Millennium Centre, Mayflower Theatre Southampton, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Nottingham Theatre Royal, New Victoria Theatre Woking.