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By Vivien Schweitzer
10 May 2007
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Thanks to increased funding for the arts in the Australian federal budget, the financially unstable Sydney Dance Company will be allocated an additional A$700,000 annually, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
The increased subsidy, which signifies a 42% increase over previous allocations, will take effect next year. The Sydney Dance Company, which recently announced that Tanja Liedtke will become its artistic director in October, is running a deficit for the third consecutive year; it stood at A$180,000 in 2006, according to the Herald.
Grants to the company from the federal and New South Wales state governments now total about A$1.64 million a year, of which NSW contributes 10%.
Sydney Dance Company's financial situation was examined recently in two reports by consultants, which both suggested an annual base government funding increase of A$500,000 to A$600,000; the new government grant exceeds that amount.
The extra funds should mean the company will be able to keep its 17 dancers, according to the Herald. The paper adds that this good news might be "little comfort" to former artistic directors Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon, who resigned last July, after thirty years at the company's helm, out of frustration with the endless financial problems.
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