CONTINUOUS gives audiences all over the country access to the best in experimental independent dance and choreography from around the UK.

CONTINUOUS was a four-year partnership between BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead) and Siobhan Davies Dance (London). The project sought to advance the creation, presentation and development of audiences for experimental independent contemporary dance within visual arts contexts. This was the first collaboration of its kind in the UK, and recognises the need enhance the dialogue between contemporary dance and visual arts.

The partnership expanded to form the CONTINUOUS Network which incorporates institutions around the country. These include galleries Bluecoat (Liverpool), Nottingham Contemporary, The Tetley (Leeds), Tramway (Glasgow) and Turner Contemporary (Margate), and dance organisations Dance4 (Nottingham) and Yorkshire Dance (Leeds). The partnership continued until 2022.

This ambitious collaboration initiated a step-change in the commissioning, creation, and presentation of experimental contemporary dance in galleries to grow audiences for dance across the UK. With a spirit of collaboration and learning, the network offered financial and practical support for presentations of dance works, initiated co-commissions of new dance works among network partners, brokered relationships between dance artists and curators, and facilitated audience development through participatory engagement activities. It also aimed to improve the profile of experimental contemporary dance in the UK among national and international audiences.

By 2022 the network presented 5 new dance works for galleries co-commissioned among network partners and toured 8 existing dance works by the UK’s most innovative dance makers. It aimed to reach over 75,000 people live and online over three years.

This major collaboration was awarded an Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grant and generous support from the John Ellerman Foundation.