Our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy

We strive to make sure that three themes resonate throughout our work and underpin our equality and diversity aspirations:

Opening doors; holding hands; and seeing myself.

We firmly believe in developing an organisation where peoples’ differences, views and ideas are respected and factored in how we commission and programme dance, in how we look after our artists, staff, our volunteers and the members of the public who come to see and participate in dance. In recognising both the value of diversity in enriching our arts and cultural offer as well as ensuring that all artists have access to the opportunities and resources to create truly excellent work, our approach is pinpointed by the principle of ensuring that we reflect the communities in our conurbation in the work that we do.

At Pavilion Dance, we recognise Equality as providing the platform where no one is discriminated or treated unfairly based on their age, gender, disability, race and so forth. We see Diversity as the respect and appreciation of peoples’ differences irrespective of their protected characteristics. We recognise Inclusion to mean the creation of respectful and safe spaces for our audiences, staff, artists and companies to feel valued and welcomed at Pavilion Dance.

Our commitments for 2022 – 2027

Our equality, diversity and inclusion objectives will be:

• To embed the creative case for diversity across all of our work;
• To Engage with a diverse range of people in widening participation to our programmes;
• To support artists and companies to thrive within a caring environment and so doing make reasonable adjustments to any relevant diverse needs;
• To ensure that our staff and board better reflects above and beyond the 5% of BAME communities that live within a 45 minute drive from PDSW;
• To support and develop our staff to maximise their potential within a caring environment.

Accountability

We will communicate our work and progress publicly including to our audiences, and publish an annual report that summarises our performance against the targets we have set.

Progress achieved in 2023-24 included:

Performance programme included works by LGBTQIA+, global majority, older, and disabled-led companies. 60% of our visiting artists selected via open calls identify as female
Partnership established with PRIDE/Bourne Free and built on throughout year with LGBTQIA+ dance workshops and performances programmed
Appointed a fourth Changemaker, Corrie Drew, to support us to make our work more inclusive and relevant to people from a lower socio-economic background
Former Changemaker Natasha Player appointed to Board and supported to attend the Emerging Chairs Programme run by Cause4
Our Community Focus Group, formed of a diverse group of service users, met twice and their feedback informed changes to our programme and communications
Anti-bias training delivered to all staff