I had the pleasure last week of declaring ‘open’ the new dance studios for the Mark Bruce Dance Company. This award winning company is based in Frome and has just renovated a space on one of the town’s trading estates. They used to use the Merlin theatre to rehearse and develop work and they will be premiering the next production, Macbeth, there in the New Year but the Merlin could only be used temporarily. What struck me about the new space was that if felt like home for the company… this studio space has a long term future not just one more area in which to develop the next dance. It got me thinking about how a home is different. A home is where you feel settled and can relax. You commit to making it cosy, and welcoming, you invite people in, it’s yours. Support gathers around you… or you develop the support you need. Our town wraps around the business. Frome is a web of local organisations that provide support not only for the business but also for the individual dancers and families. People offer their homes for dancers to stay while rehearsing, there are businesses to help keep everyone fit and healthy and ready to perform or to provide the services any modern business needs to function. Frome is a great place to bring up a family.
Forgive me for sounding a bit twee but I can’t help thinking that this sounds like the natural world. For example if you look in detail at a forest you see a web of plants and creatures that support or create the forest ecology. Apparently trees are much more interconnected than we once thought. It seems they support more than compete with each other… so there’s a long lived model to mirror.
