A word on our arts industry, in particular musical theatre which I’ve been involved with for five plus years now.

I notice very few specific statements from shows showing their allyship during this time, and more are perhaps coming to light purely because they’re conforming through fear of missing out or guilt, I don’t know (even though shows on the West End and their social media

Followings are massive. This is what I was faced with on my first day of a new job last year and I still think about it to this day. I think my name would have sufficed but somehow this was seen as appropriate.

Instantly seeing that label puts me in a box, all the while ticking their own. “Ah yes, we have our bame dancer, that’s all we need to do for diverse casting”. We must do better to see people for who they are and what they can give in this industry.

What if we don’t want to be seen as BAME dancers? It shouldn’t be enough to tick off having the minimum token black people in these shows, so that producers and casting meets quotas and guidelines.

It is not enough to call us BAME dancers, and think of us solely as that. It should be the job of everybody when being put forward for jobs to ask 1. Are the creative teams representative of equality and diversity ie. or are they all middle aged white men?

And 2. Are they casting a diverse and equal show or are they just looking for two black/ BAME (?) dancers? Speak up people. We ALL must INSIST for better. ALWAYS.

I must say that after I pushed for a response, an apology was given. Now in the grand scheme of things, this might not be a big deal. It certainly isn’t just now at all. However these small things add up to a much bigger, deeper rooted problem.