Would you like to make an award to Scottish Ballet through a trust or foundation?

Relationships. We are proud that many trusts and foundations choose to continue working with us past an initial award. We put this down to the level of contact we nurture during a grant period and the impact we make through our projects.

If you are a trustee, or grants officer, and would like to find out more about how Scottish Ballet works with trusts and foundations, below are just some of the ground-breaking projects that have been made possible through grants.

To speak to us about how your trust or foundation can support our charitable activities, please contact Sarah Potter, Copywriter – Advancement on 0141 331 2931 or sarah.potter@scottishballet.co.uk.

New Work - The Five in Five Campaign

The Crucible choreographed by Helen Pickett, the first new narrative ballet supported by our Five and Five Campaign. Photo by Andy Ross.

Trusts and foundations are helping us to bring five new full-length ballets to the stage in five years.

To celebrate Scottish Ballet’s 50th anniversary in 2019, we launched our Five in Five Campaign – the most ambitious commissioning programme in our history. The plan sets Scottish Ballet on a bold new path, defining our direction and building our capacity for the next 50 years.

Scottish Ballet is one of the nation’s exports, regularly touring to the Far East, USA, and remote locations around Scotland, as well as large theatres across the UK.

Neurological Health

Elevate© is a Scottish Ballet dance health project for people living with multiple sclerosis. Photo by Andy Ross.

Moving everyone to tap their toes. Our dance health programme includes three projects that support people living with neurological conditions; Dance for Parkinson’s Scotland, dementia-friendly Time to Dance and Elevate™, for people living with multiple sclerosis.

Dance for Parkinson’s Scotland (DfPS) was launched in 2015. With support from five trusts and foundations we have been able to roll out DfPS to a network of 10 hubs across the country.

‘‘The ballet covers all aspects. It’s the only thing that addresses the whole spectrum - cognitive, the social side, personal symptoms addressed… these are all things you’ll not see in an exercise class’’
Participant, Dance for Parkinson’s Scotland.

Time to Dance was a natural next step. In 2017, the Life Changes Trust enabled us to start delivering dementia-friendly classes in Glasgow and tour to care homes near theatres that our professional company perform in. Specialist knowledge of everyone in the room means that we can offer one-to-one support during Time to Dance sessions. We encourage intergenerational opportunities, bringing families and communities together. Becoming dementia-friendly has impacted Scottish Ballet company life in a positive way.

In 2019, we developed Elevate™, a new dance programme for people living with multiple sclerosis.

We are part of wider, ongoing research. All our dance health programmes involve international and community partners across health and dance sectors, including; Founders of Dance for PD®, the Mark Morris Dance Group, New York, Georgetown University Medical Center (Arts and Humanities team) and the University of Florida (Center for Arts in Medicine) USA, MS National Therapy Centre (Revive MS Support Glasgow) and MS Society Scotland.

‘As a total non-dancer, Elevate™ has opened my mind and confidence. I feel that my body is responding to the moves, my brain embraces the instructions and wonderful live music. I leave the class with such happiness. I smiled all day’
Elevate™ participant

‘It meant a lot to me that the dance session wasn’t about the participants’ medical identity, it was about dance and being a dancer. The benefits – social and physical - were woven into the dance without it feeling like a set of exercises. Yet the impact went beyond being ‘light-touch’. We are pleased to be able to support this important project, promoting Scottish Ballet’s capacity to meet the needs of those living with a health condition’
Director of The RS Macdonald Charitable Trust, Rachel Campbell

Young People’s Wellbeing

Safe to Be Me is a project for Primary 6 pupils, promoting respect and celebrating the individual.

We have developed two intensive health projects for young people.

The Close is designed for young people in special unit high schools, hospital referral groups, and residential care who have experienced serious adversity in childhood. We work with small groups of young people on an intensive creative project. Through dance, music, film, arts, and crafts we support the group to realise their own creative potential, whilst building confidence and developing communication skills.

Safe to Be Me™ is our schools project for Primary 6 pupils. Through dance we explore themes of tolerance, diversity, identity and respect. The pupils watch a dance performance in their school, then work with our dance artists to create their own Safe to Be Me performance for their peers, families, and community.

‘We learned that being different is good and we expressed our feelings through dance’
Participant, Safe to Be Me™

Talent & Professional Development

Youth Exchange (YEX) recruits nationally to build a young company. Photo by Andy Ross.

Your trust could help us to nurture the next generation of dancers and musicians. Our development opportunities range from pre-professional ballet training for children to dance education for professional dancers.

Our Youth Exchange Programme (YEX) simulates a professional touring company. So far, YEX dancers have travelled to Singapore, New York, and Turin. TEX will partake in another international tour this year.

Our Masters in Music (Piano For Dance), run in conjunction with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, ensures that we are training the very best pianists to accompany both professional and community classes.

Scottish Ballet’s Associate Programme has been running for over 30 years and is the first step in the professional career for many aspiring dancers from all over Scotland. Trusts such as The John Mather Charitable Trust and The Castansa Trust have made it possible for our Associate Programme to accept over 200 candidates aged eight to 15 years old each year, they have also extended their awards to provide further development opportunities for our candidates.

We are also committed to helping develop new choreographers and offer regular opportunities for professionals and emerging talent to grow their choreographic skills.

Digital Platforms

Frontiers choreographed by Miles Thatcher was one of five new digital works created for our 2019 Digital Season. Photo by Mihaela Bodlovic.

From poetry to motion capture, we collaborate with artists working in different disciplines. We encourage experimentation with multimedia platforms, such as 360-degree technology. Thanks to The John Ellerman Foundation, Scottish Ballet has delivered two Digital Seasons, a world first for any ballet company.

In 2019, our Digital Season videos were watched over 420,000 times and we won the One Dance UK - Dance on Screen Impact Award.

‘Scottish Ballet’s Digital Season is a perfect way to showcase the advances our artform is making in the conversation of identity, diversity, and fluidity.’
Choreographer, Myles Thatcher

In 2019, three trusts helped us turn our film footage from the last 50 years into a digital resource for the public to access. Footage of Peter Darrell’s The Nutcracker is now available to watch at National Library of Scotland’s interactive Moving Image Archive at Kelvin Hall alongside films from the Digital Season.

Live Music

An intrinsic part of dance. As well as presenting The Scottish Ballet Orchestra, our aim is to make live, professional music that accompanies dance as widely accessible as possible.

Participant dancers of all ages regularly tell us how important live music is to them. Support from trusts and foundations make it possible for us to include our musicians in our training programmes and to travel with us on tours to remote communities.

Making Theatre Accessible to All

Our Inclusive Performances have been adapted so that families and communities affected by learning disabilities and dementia can access a positive experience of dance, live music, theatre, and the arts. We aim to inspire, lift morale, and encourage repeat engagement with dance and music.

Scottish Ballet’s audio description programme enables visually impaired patrons to experience the beauty of dance. Prior to the audio-described performance, we offer our visually impaired patrons a 'touch tour', which allows them to engage first-hand with costumes and props.

Would you like to know more?

To speak to us about how your trust or foundation can support our charitable activities, please contact Sarah Potter, Copywriter – Advancement on 0141 331 2931 or sarah.potter@scottishballet.co.uk.

Scottish Ballet is generously funded by:

Paul Hamlyn Foundation
The R S Macdonald Charitable Trust
The Linbury Trust
The Robertson Trust
The Rayne Foundation

Barcapel Foundation
Elizabeth Frankland Moore and Star Foundation
John Mather Charitable Trust
Scottish Enterprise
The Castansa Trust
The Cruden Foundation
The Esterson Trust
The Hugh Fraser Foundation
The JTH Charitable Trust
The Mickel Fund
The Mrs M A Lascelles Chritable Trust
The MEB Charitable Trust
The Monument Trust
The MSO Settlement Fund
The Spifox Foundation
The Sylvia Aitken Charitable Trust
The Turtleton Charitable Trust
The W.A Cargill Fund
Walter Scott Giving Group
The family of the Wendy Hamilton Scholarship Fund

Scottish Ballet makes a commitment to individuals, trusts and foundations that make financial contributions towards our work; to be honest and transparent, respect privacy, and apply gifts responsibly to their intended purpose. Scottish Ballet undertakes to comply with all relevant laws including tax legislation, the Data Protection Act 1998, the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, and the Institute of Fundraising’s Code of Fundraising Practice.