INTRODUCTION

Tony Mills became Artistic Director of Dance Base on 20 September 2021.

Tony Mills moved to Orkney from Ghana at the age of six. After initially pursuing a career in veterinary medicine, he discovered his love of dance in part through classes at Dance Base and has been working as professional dance artist in Scotland for almost 20 years.

Prior to taking over at Dance Base, Tony was Artistic Director of Room 2 Manoeuvre (R2M). He has worked with Freshmess Dance Company, State of Emergency, Off Kilter, Iron Oxide, Curious Seed, David Hughes Dance Productions, All or Nothing Aerial Dance Theatre, Scottish Ballet, Derevo, and the international street dance show, Blaze. He has also worked as a movement director/choreographer in theatre for companies such as Terra incognita, Cutting-Edge Theatre and commercially for high profile stars such as Martin Garrix and Kelly Rowland.

Tony is a keen ambassador for the breakdance scene in Scotland and has been involved in the production and hosting of major dance events including Castle Rocks Breakdance Championships, Breakin’ Convention Edinburgh tours (2007 – 17) and Breakin’ Rules at the Dundee Rep Theatre and The Brunton.

INTERVIEW

How did you get into dance/performance? What initially inspired you?

I must admit I was always a bit of a show off when I was young. I used to do impressions for my parents and dance in the living room to the 7 inch singles my sister would buy at woolworths. I didn’t have a problem “performing” in front of other people from a young age. Getting into dance was really a gradual process. There was no one major turning point. Back in the day, I saw a friend do the running man and I was like, “I gotta do that”. We were both the hype men at school discos. Coming to Edinburgh I joined all the uni societies I could just to meet people. The Modern Dance Society had a taster breakin’ class. I found out there were more classes that took place at Dance Base when it was at the Assembly Rooms. I went a long and suddenly I couldn’t wait until Saturdays came around to learn a new move. What gripped me about breakin’ was that you had permission to be creative straightaway. All you needed was your body, the floor and some music. And your creativity was celebrated by others. I had stumbled on this outlet for my energy and my personality. I had found this space where I could start to be me or start the process of finding out who I am. This developed into having a crew, doing shows and almost quitting uni to dance full time. I did finish my degree. But after about a week of graduating I was offered a job with a dance company called Freshmess. The artistic director of the company was someone who taught me and at the time it was the only company in Scotland that fused hip hop and contemporary dance. I joined them for a fringe run and that was it really. I worked for Freshmess for about 3.5 years and then I thought I should get some proper dance training. I applied to Northern in Leeds, which was one of the most stressful days ever and I still didn’t get in. But I also applied to the Space in Dundee and did a year there learning more ballet and contemporary technique. I definitely improved during that year as there was not much else to do but train. But in retrospect, I think I could have gotten more out of spending a year in Berlin working and taking class and workshops from all kinds of artists. But I had nobody to tell me that there’s more than one way to carve out a creative career. Anyhow, I finished the year and decided I wanted to make my own work and Room 2 Manoeuvre was born. Since then, I’ve been lucky to tour my work from Shetland to Shanghai, support artists, create festivals, develop platforms for the hip hop theatre scene and have a great time doing it. All that has led me to now being the artistic director of Dance Base.

What themes do you tend to interrogate in your work?

As an artist I was quite interested in identity and relationships (with yourself and others). I began to realise that I often created work that was set in a void. A nowhere space or limbo. I think upon reflection, I was interrogating my mixed heritage. I think the idea of not quite knowing where you fit in, so you exist in the in between spaces, was always present in my work. My work has never been political or commenting on an outside event. It’s always been quite self-reflective, but then then thinking how I could make it relatable to an audience. Often my shows would end with a sense of something continuing. For me this was about saying that despite the struggles we may go through there is some hope there, and things will carry on regardless. I have always been concerned with the audience’s experience. Whether this was a show, an event or a party. So what their experience might be, has also influenced me. These last few years I started to develop an interest in sport and dance. I think being surprised by art is a really powerful tool for changing someone’s mind. I don’t mean changing someone’s opinion but just widening your perspective on the world. Like watching a film you have no clue about and being completely blown away by it. I started to place dance performances, with a sport theme, into sport spaces. Like a squash court, bouldering centre or swimming pool. Our relationship and understanding of sport is far more ubiquitous than with dance (or art in general I would argue). So when you walk onto a football pitch, I would say that most people know what this place is and what happens here. But then there is this dance performance taking place on it, which almost relates to the space but not quite. This juxtaposition is interesting and stimulating and that was something I pursued for a while. In the last work I made I felt had come full circle. I had started with breakin’, moved into contemporary dance and then came back to breakin’ but with an ability to deconstruct and re-frame it without (I felt) losing its integrity. I suppose this work was a little bit political because it was about Edinburgh. A city that prides itself on its cultural activity, yet constantly takes away space from artists. Over the years, I’ve seen many arts spaces consumed by developers. Yet we constantly fly the flag of culture in this city. I used to roam around this city with my roll of lino trying to find somewhere to dance. It feels like artists are still trying to fit themselves into nooks and crannies just to be able to do their work. This was a piece about the relationship between the artist and the city. But also maybe a gentle call to action to claim the space you live in. Like in breakin’ when you rock up to a spot and you claim that spot and say “I’m gonna dance here”. It was a provocation to see cities as places of creativity and inspiration, not just places to live in.

What is your favourite project you've ever worked on and why?

This has to be At Your Leisure (AYL). AYL was a week long international festival of sport and dance that I delivered in across East Lothian and Edinburgh. There were many things that I loved about this project. First of all we managed to make a dream become a reality. After I started exploring the combination of sport and dance, I thought to myself wouldn’t it be cool if we could turn a leisure centre into a theatre. And basically, we did. We presented shows across several locations including leisure centres, swimming pools, football pitches and a bouldering centre. Audiences saw dance meet football, judo, running, climbing and table tennis. It was a huge project for me and I managed to work with a great team and we pulled it off without any real drama at all. That in itself was a win and a real confidence boost when you work at that kind of level with multiple venues and international companies. The project also enabled me to connect more to communities and people in East Lothian. I had been based in the region for 6/7 years but always doing projects elsewhere. The depth and spread of AYL created new relationships and doorways that I hadn’t known were there. It made the subsequent time I had in the region much easier when it came to delivering activity because there was more trust and access within communities. And finally, I felt like the project actually made a difference to some of the young people we worked with. Over my career, I’ve taught in many places and done lots of outreach work in challenging environments. On the other side of the scale, I’ve had big grants to tour work to theatres on the other side of the world. I’ve often asked myself that apart from me (because I’m having a good time) who is benefitting from this investment. With dance sometimes it is hard to see the benefits of these kind of projects, because they are not always immediate. You have to continually work with people over long periods to see the change and that was not something I had done. But in AYL we worked with a group of young people for a period and I saw them change from being weary, reticent with arms folded not wanting to engage to completely starting to take ownership of the project. It was like watching those stop motion videos of flowers blooming. That has always stuck with me because out of everything I’ve done, I finally felt I had had some impact.

What advice would you have for creatives of colour looking to get into dance/the creative industries?

I will start of by saying that advice is something that you can either take or leave. Advice or feedback (especially from someone you respect) is great and very worthwhile. But in my opinion, it should always be used to strength test your ideas or opinion, not something you should follow blindly. Especially if you are receiving it from someone who may be in a position of power. Listen to what someone has to say, maybe try it out. If it feels right, then ok. If not, perhaps you were right in the first place. All of that helps you to carve out a strong artistic voice. Cultivating a strong artistic voice, I believe, is so important in this industry. Sometimes we feel the pressure to adapt to the scene we are in. We conduct ourselves in a certain manner because we believe the scene dictates certain expectations. Have some faith that the scene will adapt to you if your voice is strong enough. So with this in mind, if you are thinking about getting into dance or the creative industries then yes training in your area (dance school etc…) can be the right move. I certainly learned a lot and carried a lot of that info with me through my career. But there is more than one way to carve out a career as an artist and institutions are not the route for everyone. If you do want to go to dance school, then do a bit of research. Visit the places, meet the teachers and speak to the students. Once you’re our of school and/or working, Institutions like Dance Base are there to serve you the artist. Yes we do have an agenda and it’s dictated by our vision, mission and aims. But within that is a responsibility to help support the careers of dance artist. I think my strongest quality was that I was never too afraid to walk into a space and find out what was going on or knock on doors. Not everybody feels that way. But I encourage any young artist out there to remember that publicly funded arts organisations are there, to varying degrees, to serve you and to work with you. So don’t be afraid to go into a building, or an office, and ask for what you need or what are they interested in and how they might support you. After you have done that once, it gets easier.

It can be easy to say perseverance is key, but it’s hard to do. But if you want to have a career in the arts, then simply sticking around long enough can lead to what could be perceived as being  successful (which is different for everyone). Being able to persevere is not just about having certain characteristics, it is equally about learning to ask for help when you need it and leaning into those around you when you need support. I say this knowing full well that not everyone has the same level of resources or support, but if you can adopt approaches that create longevity in this game, good things will come.

And when they come, you must be ready. So always try to practice and work on your craft whatever it is, even when you’re not working or the conditions aren’t super great. There is no short cut to being a good artist. Try to find the pleasure in what you do as that can help to keep you motivated to continue developing your craft.

The above is more general advice and could be taken on board whether you are a person of colour or not. However, speaking very personally and looking back in terms of where I’m at now, I would have appreciated the chance to be around more people who looked like me. Having folk that you can relate to, and who relate back to you, I think is an important thing personally and also for your development as an artist. Either way, your sense of identity will feed into your work. For me, not quite grasping what it meant in my early years became a source of inspiration. Now I can more confidently use it as that source if I wanted to. People reading this will have had a totally different upbringing than myself and perhaps they have already found their people, that peer support group you can relate to on a socio-cultural level. I would encourage young artists of colour, that if you haven’t found those people, then try to. 

Also if anyone ever tells you that what you do is waste of time or doesn’t make a difference or they don’t understand why dance matters then try not to let their short-sightedness affect you too much and then tell them to watch this video – www.vimeo.com/56406342. This is a film called Bouncing Cats and if one of the best examples I’ve ever seen about the power of dance and art to change peoples lives.

What are you currently working on?

I’m currently working on figuring out how to be Artistic Director of Dance Base and how to best serve the artists and public we work with. It’s a fantastic job, an immense privilege but incredibly challenging especially given all the things the world is currently going through. But there’s nowhere else I would rather be because I love dance and I love what I do. At the moment, we are looking towards what professional and health & wellbeing opportunities we might deliver in 2023. What has been great is that I’ve been able to come into the organisation and tackle some of the gaps that I’ve perceived in the sector. Such as a lack of regular performance platforms for artists or opportunity to work with large number of dancers (funding generally doesn’t permit that). So in response, we will be delivering our 2nd scratch night in March and placing an independent choreographer with Scottish Dance Theatre for a week. In collaboration with a number of other dance organisations we will be delivering a 3rd round of the Love Dance Scotland bursaries this year. I’m excited about this one because we have tried to impart the need for closer relationships between artists and organisations and time for reflection. If we are serious about supporting the growth of artists in Scotland then better understanding across the sector is needed, as well as acknowledging that time to stop and reflect is just as important as time to work on your project. That is my humble opinion anyway. Right now I’m typing this as I sit on a train heading to London to co-host the Jamuary Breakin’ Jam by @hashtagunity so I’m also working on my host banter…shiver me timbers!

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Photo credits:
- Image above by Scott Akoz
- Square Image on profile by Michael Hess