Scottish Dance Theatre’s origins sit within a wider shift towards community-based arts. In the early 1980s, community dance was flourishing across Scotland through artists, teachers, and the investment of local authorities. Royston Maldoom OBE, appointed Scotland’s first Dance Artist in Residence in 1981, helped build a vibrant dance culture in Fife and Tayside. At Dundee Rep Theatre, the commitment of Associate Director Alan Lyddiard towards community drama, and his relationship with Maldoom, helped turn that energy into a resident dance company, made possible by two Scottish Arts Council grants, totalling £50,000.
We started in the community, and we just continued.
– Royston Maldoom OBE, Founder and Artistic Director of Dundee Rep Dance Company
Dundee Rep Dance Company
Formed in the spring of 1986, Dundee Rep Dance Company gave Scotland’s growing community of contemporary dancers a new professional home. Based inside a repertory theatre, it linked performance, touring, training and participation, allowing contemporary dance to be seen, made and shared from Dundee.
Importance of Community
From the beginning, the company challenged a conventional separation between artistic integrity and community engagement. Its dancers were not only performers: they were teachers, facilitators and dance advocates, working in schools, local groups and regional settings while developing professional repertory. In many of the earliest shows the professional repertoire of the company was performed alongside the community pieces, and the professional dancers shared the stage with community participants.
Development of the Company
Over the years, the company evolved through successive artistic leaders. Tamara McLorg carried forward Maldoom’s commitment to community, participation and dance as a civic practice. Neville Campbell oversaw the change of name to Scottish Dance Theatre, giving the company a clearer national identity. Janet Smith MBE raised its profile, expanded its recognition, secured new investment and took Dundee-made work to wider international audiences. Fleur Darkin continued that ambitious, outward-facing trajectory. Today, under Joan Clevillé, the company carries this inheritance forward, embracing both its grassroots origins and international profile.
The way to create art in a particular place is through love and roots.
– Alan Lyddiard, former Associate Director at Dundee Rep Theatre
