Ambidexterity within the Professional Ballet World: Scottish Ballet’s Dancers’ Education Group (DEG).

This chapter draws on the concept of ‘contextual ambidexterity’ to explore how Scottish Ballet’s Dancers’ Education Group (DEG) enables and evidences a balance within the company that sustains and promotes innovative yet competing education and performance demands. Using ethnographic data, we identify the key mechanisms by which dancers are supported to engage in DEG and demonstrate the unique impact this programme has had on Scottish Ballet and the education participants worked with. The research presented contributes to the dance literature, and to the landscape of professional dance, through sharing a model that can be adopted and amended by other companies.