19 December 2024
ISTD Chair Michael Elliott
On 25th July 1904, nearly 200 independent ballet and ballroom dance teachers came together at the Hotel Cecil in London, and ever since that day the Society has been led by dance teachers, for dance teachers.
ISTD-qualified teachers are represented within every facet of the Society, including among our Trustees, staff, Faculty Committees, Examiners and Lecturers.
However, during the last financial year, we sought to further strengthen both our relationship with you, our members, and our governance structures to help us to remain responsive to the needs of all members and foster a more inclusive and supportive environment for everyone involved.
We have sought to equip the Society to meet our members’ contemporary needs more effectively through the establishment of two subsidiary companies – ISTD Academy to advance our educational mission and ISTD Enterprises to increase the Society’s commercial income and partnerships.
We have also embarked on:
- a qualifications development strategy to future- proof and enhance the relevance and attractiveness of our offer in a rapidly changing and uncertain educational, social and economic context for our members, their students, and those supporting them
- a project to transform the organisation’s digital capabilities and business processes
- steps to maximise the value and potential of our Paul Street offices to support our mission
Our founders’ aim to elevate and advance the art of dancing, whilst improving the standard of work and teaching throughout the UK remains as relevant and as important today as it was at the beginning of the last century.
I am pleased to report, therefore, as we embark on then next chapter in our history that our vision and strategy are firmly focussed on:
- the future development of our qualifications and the support of progression and the highest possible standards
- the support of our members and your businesses, and
- campaigning for greater access, equity, diversity and inclusiveness in dance.
In these endeavours, we will be hugely supported by the Society’s new President, Shirley Ballas, who was appointed earlier this year following the very sad passing of Dame Beryl Grey at the end of 2022.
As you are aware, Shirley is known globally as the Strictly Come Dancing head judge and a champion ballroom dancer with a long list of championship titles to her name, but most importantly she is an ISTD member, dance school owner, teacher and lifelong advocate for the value of dance for all.
Her appointment and that of Vice Presidents from other genres to be announced in 2025, marks the beginning of another exciting phase for the Society.
All round, our 120th anniversary has provided a unique opportunity to reflect on our legacy while setting ambitious goals to expand our membership, enhance our services, and deepen our impact in the wider dance community.
None of these developments would be possible without the continuing encouragement, support and constructive challenge of you, our members, who daily face significant challenges in the growth and development of your teaching and businesses.
ISTD’s Trustees and staff, continue to study, admire and celebrate your innovation, tenacity and determination, and we seek to serve you with a matching passion, sensitivity and effectiveness.
Our leadership team and staff team, so ably led by Ginny, our Chief Executive and all our Trustees, including those who left us in the last financial year, are to be thanked for their exceptional commitment and determination to serve our members and enhance the fortunes of the Society in ever challenging times. As Chair of the ISTD Council, I am indebted to them all and to my two Vice Chairs, Frederick Way and Leanne Kirkham, for their wise counsel and support.
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ISTD Chief Executive Ginny Brown
During this year, we saw the green shoots of new growth as our members’ businesses gradually recovered from the aftermath of the pandemic, and the Society too enjoyed a year of expansion.
Below are just some of the successes the ISTD has enjoyed in 2023-24:
This year ISTD has celebrated a 13% growth in examinations, alongside a total membership of 5917, with a full member retention rate of 95%.
Our Graduation Ceremony took place on Tuesday 13th February 2024, attended by the largest number of graduates to date.
In total, we celebrated 606 graduates, who achieved 842 teaching qualifications between Sept 2022 and December 2023. The event was well received by those who attended and 1.7K people joined us online to watch the live stream.
During the event, we also presented Imperial Awards to Jacqui Norton, Helen Green and Diane Durant.
We were delighted that our Find Your Dance Space campaign was recognised by three Memcom Excellence Awards. These celebrate some of the best work in the sector and ISTD received awards for Best Member Support (winner), Best Integrated Marketing or Membership Campaign (winner) and Best Public Awareness Campaign or Advancement of a Cause (highly commended).
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On 31st March 2024, Liz Dale retired as Director of Dance following five successful years at ISTD.
To ensure her good work continues, a new Qualification Development Team has been formed, led by Julie Campbell and the events and CPD team have been combined under the direction of Louise Molton.
Julie and the team have made great progress in the past six months, and she is with us today to provide a report on our new Qualification Development Strategy.
To celebrate the Society’s 120th anniversary, we planned a host of events designed to celebrate our heritage as an inspiration for future growth and to strengthen connections with our members and the dance industry. These included:
The Society launched a refreshed Street Dance syllabus to coincide with break dancing entering the Olympics.
We also collaborated with Dansez to create a new ISTD uniform that is high quality, fully inclusive and made of sustainable materials, fit for dancers of all ages - both student and teacher.
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To secure our heritage, we supported Coventry University to successfully apply for a Midlands4Cities Collaborative Doctoral Awards (CDA) for a student to work with the Society’s historic collection to create an accessible archive.
The Society’s archival materials are currently uncatalogued and dispersed and therefore at risk. So, this is an excellent opportunity to gather, sort, catalogue and then share our significant archive which traces the evolution of dance teaching.
A PHD student is just starting work on this project which will span a four-year period, with the aim of making our archive accessible in time for the Society’s 125th anniversary in 2029.
We have also progressed our advocacy commitments with the launch of Dance for All: Extending Our Ambition for Dance.
This sets out a series of sector-wide commitments that we intend to support and advocate for, and I am pleased to report that some of these are already coming to fruition through the Let’s Dance campaign
Led by Angela Rippon, with broad support by the dance sector, this aims to raise public awareness of the many benefits of dancing by shining a light on the amazing work of dance teachers across the nation.
Let’s Dance day is Sunday 2nd March 2025 and we are excited to see all the creative ways our members get involved.
Thank you!
None of this would be possible without the dedicated hard work of our assessors, examiners, lecturers, representatives and staff, nor the steady guidance, support and professional knowledge of our Faculty Committees and Board of Trustees - skilfully led by Michael Elliott.
Sincere thanks to all for devoting their expertise and passion to build a strong future for dance education.
