Having set and reset the creative vision for Dance Base since 1994, Morag Deyes MBE stepped down from her role as Artistic Director in September 2021 and bid her final farewell after delivering our 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme.
Among Morag’s many achievements in her time at Dance Base, she steered the creative vision of our extraordinary, custom-built dance centre, developed the artistic voice of the organisation as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, won the 2009 Spirit of the Fringe Award, hosted and programmed the major UK dance platform British Dance Edition in 2014, founded PRIME (Scotland’s first semi-professional dance company for over-60s), curated two versions of the large-scale stage show Off Kilter and was awarded an MBE by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth for ‘Services to Dance in Scotland’
‘If I had one word to choose to describe my time with at Dance Base, it would be gratitude. What a gift to have seen this wonderful place grow and to have played a part in it. This gratitude also goes to those people who believed a national centre could happen and truly invested in it. People who believed that dancers in Scotland should and could have a permanent, beautiful and welcoming home, and individuals who went to those often-intangible places with me over the years as Dance Base evolved.
‘The managers and chief executives who played a massive part in what we see now were Dr Cindy Sughrue OBE, Lindsay Robertson, Lucy Mason, Katie Stuart, Jenny Langlands, Emma Stewart-Jones, Matt Roe and our current CEO, Jim Hollington. Without their support and without the wonderful energy and love of dance from everyone at Dance Base, the organisation would never have arrived at this proud home – made precisely for dance and designed by the great Edinburgh architect Malcolm Fraser. Such strong foundations hold the roots for an amazing future for Dance Base.
‘Throughout my time here, I have experienced unerring respect and admiration for the independent dance sector of Scotland; the courage and diversity, imagination and tenacity they have is astonishing. So many dance artists are great teachers too, and they bring those skills to our wonderful class participants who dance for the joy of it. Let’s make sure all of them always enjoy this place that celebrates what they love to do.’
– Morag Deyes MBE, Artistic Director