Arts Council - Please ensure equitable provision for Classical Ballet

In Ireland, Opera receives 18x as much funding as Classical Ballet and Circus 1.5 times as much! Classical Ballet is provisioned for under Dance and receives less than 5% of the Dance Budget. This is against a back drop where former Arts Council Director, Mary Cloake said, “The climate of policy making and funding over recent years has, in the main, fostered diversity in dance and therefore has perhaps been more complementary to contemporary dance making. In Partnership For The Arts the Arts Council identified a need to create policies for the unique requirements of ballet, which can differ fundamentally to those of contemporary dance.” and other policy documents acknowledge that ballet is "An integral part of cultural life in ireland" and that it is "Important to the development of many forms of professional dance." This is NOT an agressive petition. The provision for ballet in Ireland by the Arts Council has fallen from 87% of the Dance budget in 1984 to the relatively minuscule levels of today. When the goal of 5,000 signatures has been achieved this petition will be presented to the Irish Arts Council to show the unity and volume of support for ballet in this country and it is believed that this display will result in more equitable provision for our artform.