IT’S fortunate for Scotland that the talent of Morag Deyes was spotted when she used to dance in her Edinburgh street because there wasn’t enough room in her house.
The family budget did not stretch to dance classes but, thanks to the generosity of an elderly neighbour who saw the four-year-old’s pirouettes, she was able to begin a career that has resulted in the creation of Scotland’s National Dance Centre.
In the process, Deyes has helped to launch the careers of many dancers, has brought famous international professionals to Edinburgh and has started Prime – the country’s only semi-professional dance group for people aged 60 plus. She was given an MBE for her services, but her greatest legacy is Scotland’s National Centre for Dance.
While such national centres existed in other parts of the UK and Europe, such a place was notably lacking in Scotland until Deyes took over as artistic director of Edinburgh company Dance Base almost 27 years ago.
“Scotland is a country – and not a region of anywhere else – so I felt very passionately that Scotland needed to celebrate dance with a national centre – that there should be a building dedicated to dance because Scotland is a dancing nation,” Deyes told the Sunday National.
“We have ceilidhs and all sorts of indigenous dancing that people outside Scotland might not be aware of. I felt it was in the DNA of Scotland to dance, and that was, to me, another reason why Scotland could, and should have, a national centre for dance.”
Her creative vision was supported by her general managers. Funding applications were made, an architect was appointed and an old building suitable for renovation was identified in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket.
Less than five years later, in 2001, the transformation of the former working men’s boarding house into a state-of-the-art centre for dance was complete. The team also restored a piece of Scotland’s history by opening up the vennel that runs alongside the building and leads directly to Edinburgh Castle.
The end result has been “ten times more successful” than Deyes ever imagined.
“I believed every word I was saying about how exciting it would be and how it would reach out to the community – but I was also worried that, financially, it would not work, and we would end up with studios no one was using,” she said.
“That is the complete opposite of what has happened. We are a big success, not only in Scotland but globally, and the centre is a flagship for a lot of people in the arts who want to emulate us and which I am very proud about.”
The centre is part funded by Creative Scotland, and Deyes hopes that in future, it will be funded to the same guarantee as Scottish Opera and the National Theatre of Scotland to allow more innovation without fear of failure.
IN August, the centre’s main role is its Fringe programme which this year – her last as artistic director of Dance Base – has seen over 300 performances, involving over 30 companies from all over the world, including Scotland.
The rest of the year, the centre is still an “amazing” place, according to Deyes, used by dancers aged from three to 90 and with outreach programmes to schools and dance classes for people with Parkinson’s disease. Research is also ongoing into how dance can benefit people with dementia and other conditions.
As well as the elder dance company, there is a youth dance company and classes throughout the week in every possible style of dance, from Highland to flamenco.
“There are four beautiful studios, and each one has people dancing in it, so the energy in the building is really positive,” said Deyes. “Even if you are not going to dance, it feels like a good place to be because of the positive energy.”
While this was Deyes’s last Fringe programme, she has no intention of retiring and is now going to mentor dance companies in Taiwan and India, as well as working with an elder dance company in Australia.
“I have been back here over 25 years, and I am interested to see what is going on elsewhere,” said Deyes.
“I would like to be a bit of an ambassador for Scotland too, as I want to be talking about Scottish dancers and what they are doing. That is the reason I started the Fringe programme in the first place, as not only did we lack a national centre for dance, but at the Fringe festival, the biggest festival on the planet, there was nowhere you could go to see Scottish dancers. That made me wild.
“I thought it was ridiculous, so I made a programme that showcases Scottish talent, which has been very successful. A lot of Scottish dancers have found work through it and been invited to festivals outside the UK as a result. People come from all over the world to watch shows at the Fringe in order to invite those shows to their festivals, so it is like a huge audition.”
AFTER her departure, Dance Base is to launch a fundraiser in her name to help other young dancers the way Deyes was helped when she was little.
“I couldn’t help myself – I couldn’t not dance,” said Deyes. “I used to make up dances, but the house we lived in was so small it was not big enough, and I used to go and dance in the street, which is why this old lady saw me.
“She came to see my mother to ask her to send me to dancing school. My mum didn’t have enough money, so this old lady paid for me to go to my first dance classes.
“As a result, I became a dancer and the artistic director of Scotland’s National Centre for Dance.”
