Wales Dance Review – Response from National Youth Arts Wales
The Night is Darkest Just Before The Dawn 2024 production | National Youth Dance Wales | Choreographer: Yukiko Masui ©Sian Trenberth Photography
At National Youth Arts Wales (NYAW), we welcome this Wales Dance Review and recognise its vital importance in shaping the future of dance in Wales. We fully support its 11 Recommendations and are committed to working collaboratively with Arts Council Wales and other arts organisations throughout Wales to help make these recommendations a reality.
National Youth Dance Wales (NYDW) supports young people in every Welsh local authority to access dance, and our bursary scheme helps ensure that household income should never be a barrier for talented young dancers. Therefore, we particularly welcome the recommendation regarding training.
At a time of great difficulty for the dance community in Wales, this report and consequent funding boost from ACW are a huge opportunity to inject new energy into the dance sector. At National Youth Arts Wales, we will ensure that the interests of young people form part of the ongoing conversation.
In response to a question raised about us in the report, we are pleased to confirm that we actively recruit both dancers in professional training and those who are not, with a strong focus on identifying and developing young Wales-based talent from across the country.
We will continue consulting carefully with young people to ensure a broad range of dance styles are reflected and valued in our own provision. While we will continue to uphold strong technical training in Contemporary styles, these are not our sole focus. Our approach celebrates diversity in dance practice and opens pathways for wider participation and expression across the whole of Wales. With that in mind, we are shortly hosting a Boys Day of Dance in partnership with Ballet Cymru and National Dance Company of Wales; and later this year, we will launch a new programme of dance and music opportunities for young people in specific areas of multiple deprivation.
National Youth Dance Wales is proud to champion homegrown dance artists, from every region of Wales and from a wide range of backgrounds. We actively support and employ Wales-based practitioners and choreographers across our programmes. In recognition of the sector’s significant challenges at the moment, we have strengthened our own capacity by increasing the leadership in dance role to a full-time position, ensuring sustained support and strategic development for dance in Wales for future generations.
Jamie Jenkins
Head of Dance, National Youth Arts Wales
4th July 2025