ABSTRACT
I am a very lucky person. All my working life has been spent in network television at the British Broadcasting Corporation, working in production, most of it in dance, with choreographers and dancers. At the start, 30-odd years ago, we were mostly making TV versions of stage works, but recently we have also commissioned original made-for-the-screen dance works for BBC TWO in the UK. The shift to commissioning outside production companies to make programs came about for two primary reasons: a government decree that 25 percent of all broadcast programs should be made by production companies outside the Corporation; and the development of lightweight, simple video technology that did not need teams of engineers to keep it going. Until that equipment became available, only large companies like the major networks could afford such teams. (The BBC is a public broadcaster that has six channels at the time I am writing. Two are terrestrial: BBC ONE and TWO. The rest are digital channels. All are supported by an annual license fee paid by all owners of television receivers in the UK, even those who don’t watch the BBC. The BBC does not screen advertising.)
When we talk about dance for the small screen, do we make a distinction between TV versions and made-for-the-screen dance works? What the camera does to dance is the same. The language of film and video making is the same. What is different is how that language is used.
