Dance Vote 2010 are campaigning with a pledge of support through personal emails to local MPs raising awareness of the importance of including dance and the arts in the new regimes that will follow the May 6th election!

As a Dance UK Student Representative for the University of Winchester I am involved with dance on an educational, professional and personal level. Excuse the cliché when I state quite honestly, that dance is my life. Dance means a vast and diverse range of things for each individual it touches; with certainty I can tell you that there are literally millions across our beautiful country that similarly to myself cannot imagine a life without it. Whether it means a livelihood, socialising, exercise, or escapism, it offers such a dynamic world of passion, expression, freedom and hope. Dance has been extremely underrated for a great many years below such other arts as drama or music despite the fact that our colourful dance history has bravely grafted the divide between the human body and mind.

This is not the only gap to be conquered by our discipline; some of the most committed crusaders for equality are pushing the line through this versatile medium. Dance is a medium that doesn’t see a difference between race, gender, age, sexuality or disability. Dance as an art-form is at the front line fighting against prejudice, bringing its wonder and spellbinding energy to all. Dance has the power to move people, the power to affect change and the power to bring us towards a brighter and more unified future. Dance is not for a high-brow few but for everyone.

Dance UK is the ‘national voice for dance’ aiming to ‘create a diverse, dynamic and healthy future for dance’. I hope that you will hear my personal passion here and the commitment of the body I have the honour to represent. Think of all the children’s glinting smiles as they wait in the wings for youth dance company shows, the giggles of elderly couples feeling youthful in a tango, the joy of the dance teachers watching their pupils pass their exams, the devotion of the dance choreographer on late night rehearsals.

We are all too aware of the problems in the current world climate, the economic crisis, the wars and the suffering, the natural disaster and the sickness, but dance stands strong against the depression of hard times. British people need the morale and the inspiration that dance brings, for it is more than simply an art, more than simply food for thought: it is revitalisation for the heart.

Below is just an example of what I chose to send to my local MP, and there is also a link  for anyone who will support this fantastic campaign:

As a Dance UK student Representative I am supporting  DanceVote 2010, www.dancevote2010.com, the national campaign to put dance on the agenda of local political candidates.

Getting involved is easy, click here http://www.dancevote2010.com/contact/get-involved to send an email to the candidates standing to be elected as your local MP asking them to pledge their support for dance and the arts. To find out more about DanceVote2010 and follow the campaign go to www.dancevote2010.com or call Dance UK on 020 7713 0730