Yorke Dance Project has been awarded £66,000 as part of the Government's £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) to help face the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure they have a sustainable future, the Culture Secretary announced.
Yorke Dance Project is one of 588 cultural and creative organisations across the country receiving urgently needed support - with £76 million of investment. This follows £257 million awarded earlier in October to 1,385 organisations, also from the Culture Recovery Fund grants programme being administered by Arts Council England on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Further rounds of funding in the cultural and heritage sector are due to be announced over the coming weeks.
Yorke Dance Project was founded in Los Angeles in 1998 by Yolande Yorke-Edgell and relocated to the UK in 2009. The hallmark of the company's programming is its unique commitment to presenting immaculately re-constructed classics alongside premieres by established and emerging UK and US choreographers. Each production includes dynamic outreach activities to engage, inform and inspire the public. The company's master classes and residency opportunities provide a major contribution to the UK arts ecology and the talent pipeline for dancers, choreographers, filmmakers and composers.
Yorke Dance Project performs nationally and internationally. Their performances at the Royal Opera House have been part of the Royal Ballet's seasonal programming, including their most recent programme TWENTY, the company's 20th anniversary season in 2019. Yorke Dance Project works extensively with one of the UK's leading choreographers and educators, Sir
Robert Cohan, the man who is rightly credited with bringing contemporary dance from the US to Britain. Their reconstructions of ballets by Sir Kenneth MacMillan have gained them notoriety as one of the UK's leading independent ballet companies. They have been nominated twice for both the UK Theatre Award and the Critics' Circle National Dance Award for Best Independent Company.
Artistic Director Yolande Yorke-Edgell said:
"Yorke Dance Project are thrilled that we have received this grant from the Cultural Recovery Fund! We are enormously grateful to Arts Council England, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and HM Treasury.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been doing all we can to sustain the company while keeping our dancers and collaborators actively engaged and unified. This funding will be vital to our onward survival and to maintaining our commitment to our work and training so we can all return stronger than ever.
Yorke Dance Project is aware that not everyone will be receiving this funding making it even more important that we continue to support all artists' creativity through our ongoing projects.
As ever, the company remains committed to education and to artist development. Even with new restrictions in place, we will forge ahead to deliver workshops and professional development alongside newly devised opportunities for performers and audiences alike.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said:
"This is more vital funding to protect cultural gems across the country, save jobs and prepare the arts to bounce back. Through Arts Council England we are delivering the biggest ever investment in the arts in record time. Hundreds of millions of pounds are already making their way to thousands of organisations.
"These awards build on our commitment to be here for culture in every part of the country."
Chair, Arts Council England, Sir
Nicholas Serota, said:
"Culture is an essential part of life across the country, helping to support people's wellbeing through creativity and self-expression, bringing communities together, and fuelling our world class creative industries.
"This latest set of awards from the Culture Recovery Fund builds on those announced recently and will help hundreds of organisations to survive the next few months, ensuring that the cultural sector can bounce back after the crisis. We will continue doing everything we can to support artists and cultural and creative organisations, with further funding to be announced in the coming weeks."
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