Dance fever ... a scene from Val Bourne Gala, Sadler's Wells. Photograph: Tristram Kenton
It's official, dance is now the fastest growing art form in the country. Dance UK has just assembled statistics that make glowing reading for the profession: 13% of the population now regularly attend dance performances (40,000 people bought tickets for Dance Umbrella in 2005 compared to 5,000 in 1978) while new research claims that dance is second only to football as the preferred physical activity of school kids. Strictly Come Dancing, meanwhile, is a national obsession.
What doesn't feature among the numbers is any suggestion of why Britain has turned so enthusiastically to dance. Fans of the art form may assume it is simply getting the audience it has long deserved. But there have to be other reasons for such a dramatic rise in profile.
Could it be a spin off from the new touchy-feely Britain, reflecting the fact that as nation we have become so much more visually and physically literate? Or could it be that the current airbrushed, digitally enhanced, computer-generated products that dominate today's cultural industry make dance seem suddenly exceptional? Real, sweaty people, aiming to create something perfect in front of a live audience - that seems increasingly precious in a culture where so much is mediated via a chip or a small screen.
What do you think?
