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Brexit or Covid? It’s not a happy choice, but when I ask Colette Hansford, executive producer of the Hofesh Shechter Company, who will be the most decisive for UK theater and dance companies, she doesn’t hesitate. “Brexit will have the biggest impact because it’s a long-term restriction. We are a flexible and dynamic industry and can pull ourselves out of Covid – but if we can’t produce and export our work, it will have a devastating effect. “
The musicians denounced the neglect of the Brexit deal towards artists who depend on European labor. They feel “shamefully failed” by the inability of the British government to guarantee the free movement of touring artists. But for many performing companies in the UK the situation is just as difficult. Unresolved questions remain regarding touring, co-production with European theaters and attracting international collaborators to the UK. Which take off first? “Oh my God,” sighs Farooq Chaudhry, executive producer of Akram Khan Company (AKC). “They are all to varying degrees depressing.”
EU sources have claimed the UK has rejected an offer to allow performers to tour visa-free because it would not allow a reciprocal exemption. Did UK companies anticipate this unresolved outcome? “Honestly, I didn’t,” Chaudhry admits. “Our biggest fear has always been mobility – touring and accessing talent. I didn’t seriously think it was under no threat.
As it stands, each of the 27 EU member states has its own rules on visas and work permits, making multi-country travel more complex and costly. The transport of the physical elements of a production (such as the set or the musical instruments) becomes more expensive, especially as the rules of “cabotage” prohibit British trucks from making more than two journeys after entering. the EU. There is also uncertainty about the demands of foreign nationals working with artistic societies in Britain. Last week, the National Theater suspended its European tour, explaining that in this unresolved situation “it is currently not financially viable”.
British contemporary dance companies are also European stars. Festivals call for Khan, Shechter or Wayne McGregor: emotional and enterprising choreographers who draw crowds and push art. Before Brexit, sorting through paperwork was almost routine for their companies and, as Hansford says, ‘we could travel in the EU as we did at work’. Now she is wondering about “short-term visas, work permits, carnets and cabotage”. She fears that tours in six countries no longer exist and that European partners may also face increased costs. “Does that make British theater less attractive financially?” Will they look for European artists instead or cut costs for British artists? “
Could big UK companies just suspend European tours until things resolve? Chaudhry straightens me up. “Ask any UK company – a UK tour is an absolutely tragic leader. If we were only filming in the UK we’d be strapped for cash – step, jetty and you’re broke! International revenues represent 72% of AKC’s revenues over the past 20 years, and “the most lucrative market – where we have quick access and can make a lot of money – is Europe.” Despite hubs like Leicester and Manchester, the UK audience for contemporary dance is limited, he argues. “In 2006 we found out that it was costing us £ 17,000 a week to tour a UK location. I don’t know what the cost is now. It is not a viable model. We couldn’t survive.
Businesses invest in administration. “If nothing changes,” says Hansford, “every business will need a full-time role, dealing only with visas, travel, spreadsheets. We had to divert someone from our company into logistics just to get us through the next three months.
“Taxation is important and nobody understands it,” she continues. “Many people rely on co-commissions to support creative work. At the moment, this is part of a double taxation agreement [exempting workers from paying tax in both Europe and the UK], but I don’t know if it exists anymore.
Visa regulations go both ways and could deter international talent. “It’s a big concern,” Chaudhry says. “Our art form thrives on different bodies and perspectives – we invigorate ourselves with different ways of doing and seeing things. I would be concerned if we didn’t have access to this talent. His comparison is elite sport: “Are they going to do that with football teams? This is the perfect example of what happens when you bring together global talent – [without it] the Premier League would lose its global appeal. “
“People are the lifeblood and core of the work,” Hansford insists, noting that for most years the Shechter Company employs more than 90 artists, creatives and technicians, from Britain and beyond. “There are grassroots musicians and dancers who have been with us for 12 years.” She has already had to “remove” 10 musicians without a European passport – “if it takes time, we will lose these precious artists.”
The two dance company executives are worried about emerging companies, inhibited by intimidating restrictions. To explore the impact, I talk to Lauren Mooney and James Yeatman of Kandinsky, one of Britain’s smartest young theater companies. The pandemic interrupted their new multilingual piece with the Schauspielhaus in Vienna (postponed to 2022). Its title, SHTF, refers to the shit hitting the fan: who better to ask?
“For a company like us, there’s no real way to make it work like a career that doesn’t involve Europe,” Mooney said. Revered Schaubühne from Berlin invited Kandinsky to perform there in 2019, demonstrating Europe’s appetite for ambitious work – Mooney says just three performances prompted “15 emails from different people who had watched the show.” ” One was from the Schauspielhaus who, Yeatman recalls, “took us to Vienna last January for a 20 minute meeting where they said, do whatever you want”. “That’s not what happens when commissioning in the UK,” Mooney adds dryly.
Unlike large corporations, Kandinsky lacks administrative support – Mooney and Yeatman examine post-Brexit details on taxation and the contracts themselves. “This enormous administrative burden has fallen on us,” says Mooney. “The support the theater gave was incredible, but it was still a bloody nightmare. There are larger companies for whom the income from European tours bolsters their work and overhead in the UK. For us, this is not the case.
Last month, the Shechter Company served as a case study in a joint letter from UK arts organizations to UK ministers. Hansford adds to the recommendations. She hopes that the period of a European tour authorized by the Level 5 Sponsorship Certificate can be extended from three to six months, and that visas for commitments paid in the UK will be extended from the current month. In the longer term, she calls for a bilateral agreement with the EU exempting performers, creatives and crews from entry restrictions for up to 90 days.
It’s time for some of the worst case scenarios. Could European sites avoid British companies? “We are not there yet,” protests Chaudhry. “We need this to play out for a few years before we have any idea of the implications.” And could some UK-based artists just uproot their businesses or pursue freelance careers? “It is possible,” said reluctant Hansford. “You can look for where you can freely deliver work the way you want. I think UK businesses are very proud to be here. But you might tire yourself out after a few years if it doesn’t go well.
I gag for a ray of hope. What good results for successful companies? Long silences. Mooney holds up his hand: “I have one thing, potentially.” She hypothesizes that British artists could rebel against insularity to create more multilingual works. “There might be a greater desire in the arts to talk to Europe, to make connections.”
Watching poet Amanda Gorman at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, Chaudhry “realized that in adversity, when voices speak, they shake us, they evoke a vision of a new world. In my idealistic and romantic notion of what [might come], Hope we will get better art. We will not be deprived, we will not end up in a cultural desert. But first, Hansford insists, the UK and the EU must negotiate to protect their artists. “We don’t want the UK to be left behind.”
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