Dancing home to Scarborough

By Tim Tubbs
Director, UK Foundation for Dance

Tim Tubbs brought The Jingwei Bird featuring Jacqui Chan to Woodend

As an ambitious youngster born in Scarborough half a century ago, my one big idea was to leave home for the bright lights, where I hoped a theatre career would beckon.

I did; it did; and I enjoyed an unmissable 25 years working in London's dance and theatre world.

I learned the business from the bottom up at Sadler's Wells, which I programmed for six years.

And what years they were... working with every conceivable type of opera, operetta, musical, ballet, modern dance, world theatre, children's shows, rock concerts.

After a brutal redundancy caused by a 'necessary' regime change, I formed my own charitable company UK Foundation for Dance (UKFD) and continued on a freelance basis to represent dancers, manage dance companies, produce and tour shows, and train dance managers.

The UKFD is now based at Woodend Creative Industries Centre

In 1998, UKFD launched London's Marylebone Dance Studio, a rehearsal space with open classes in everything from ballet to belly dance, jitterbugging to tai chi, martial arts to folk dance.

And all the while, I produced touring dance shows and events, perhaps the most exciting being "The Big Dance" with 800 dancers on Trafalgar Square for the Mayor of London, broadcast live on BBC1 TV with Bruce Forsyth and Zoe Ball hosting. Wow!

And then, one day in March 2008, I stepped off the roundabout, the scales fell from my eyes, and I realised that I was no longer enjoying London enough to take the hassle of daily living and the pressure to earn the wherewithal.

I suddenly and desperately wanted to return home to Scarborough and to use the rest of my life to do what I wanted to do... not everyone else!

It was a real cultural shock, and certainly my timing could have been better. The move meant selling my London flat in the recession but I never made a better decision.

Now I am established back in this fantastic seaside town, with UKFD based at Woodend, a beautifully restored Victorian villa which now operates as a dynamic small business centre for creative industries.

In November 2009 I brought the first co-commissioned theatre performance to Woodend; Chinese Carib Artslink's The Jingwei Bird. It is a three-woman 'theatre collage' with text, martial arts and physical theatre featuring the extraordinary Jacqui Chan.

Marylebone Dance studio has classes in everything from ballet to belly dance

I am reinventing my career, doing the things I want to do, engaging all over again with the fascinating life of a small town, and bringing home what I learned in the 'prodigal' years.

Award-winning Scarborough calls itself a Renaissance Town... and I can see why! The quality of life is fabulous. I'm among extended family and friends, old and new.

Gone the commuting and the struggle to pay a mortgage for a postage stamp-sized flat. I can turn my energies to what I want to do and to new opportunities.

I'm directing Carousel for the local society, which is a total blast! Thanks to the internet, Marylebone Dance Studio can be run from Yorkshire. And I'm still networked in London and further afield.

If leaving Scarborough was the first 'best move' I made, the second was undoubtedly coming home again. I recommend it!