Blue Eyed Soul Dance Company, Shrewsbury, Shropshire

Kevin Isaacs - Steering Group member

Kevin has over twenty years experience in marketing and communications, producing, and as a performer and Director. Kevin began his career in the commercial sector where he held senior management roles with Blue Chip Companies including Smith Kline Beecham, 3M and Guinness (now Diageo), from where, having achieved the position of European Marketing Director, he left to take up a full time course at Drama School.
Following work as an actor and director, Kevin has worked as an Arts Management Consultant for a range of organisations since 1998 including Audiences Central, Arts Council England, Royal National Theatre, LIFT Festival, The Drum, mac, Blue Eyed Soul, Motionhouse, Warwick Arts Centre and Loughborough University.  Kevin has spearheaded Fierce’s marketing strategy since 2003 and in 2007 produced Architecture Week West Midlands for Fierce Earth on behalf of Arts Council England. At the end of 2007, Kevin became Executive Producer of Fierce Earth, producing the 2008 Festival, including My Fierce Festival, alongside a number of other Fierce projects and strategic initiatives. Kevin is also Executive Director of Wunderbar Festival Ltd, based in Newcastle, and led the delivery of the first Wunderbar Festival in the North East of England in November 2009.
Kevin has held a number of board positions for arts and cultural organisations, including Motionhouse and The Other Way Works, as well as being a trustee and board member of several charities.

Sarah Jassal - Steering Group member

Sarah Jassal took up the position of Sub Regional Dance Development Officer for Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire in 2005 and the project soon became Dancescape. In the past 5 years Sarah has led Dancescape to become regarded as one of the West Midlands’ regional dance agencies and has undertaken a programme of work that has included youth dance development, artist support and professional development and dance and health projects. Dancescape is currently involved in the development of boys dance across the region and is a key partner in Boys Dancing, a People Dancing commission with activity across the West Midlands. Sarah meets regularly with other regional dance agency key contacts, and is a member of the West Midlands Youth Dance Advisory Group and the People Dancing Advisory Panel.

Prior to her current role with Dancescape, Sarah spent 5 years at the Foundation for Community Dance as Information & Marketing Officer where she managed members’ services and the Public Liability Insurance Scheme, edited the bi-monthly newsletter, was first point of contact for member support and advice, developed the CRB Disclosure Service and managed the organisation’s first website. Sarah graduated from De Montfort University in 1999 with a BA (Hons) in Arts Management and worked on Dance4’s NOTTDance festival before joining the Foundation for Community Dance.

Sarah lives in Wolverhampton with her husband, little boy and extended family and spends the majority of her time looking after everyone when not working!

Alan Kenny - Steering Group member

Alan Kenny

Alan was born in High Wycombe in 1941, and enjoyed boxing and motor bike racing alongside his work in engineering.  Following his marriage in 1964 and with two children, he moved into the building trade.  In 1981 he fell from a scaffolding platform which left him physically disabled and without speech.

He was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, and started the High Wycombe MNDA support group, which also helped to focus on how to support himself.  Undaunted by negative attitudes from hospital speech therapist staff, he found a private speech therapist.  Through much laughter and persuasion they gained success.
He has striven to challenge attitudes and regain his independence.  He successfully won a court claim to regain his driving licence previously lost due to his medical condition, and is now a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists.  Through the Windsor Ascot Maidenhead District Sports Association for the Disabled (WAMDSAD) he participated in archery, air weapons and swimming.  He then developed a passion for diving – taking part in over 200 open water dives around the world.  Having been temporarily banned due to his paralysed throat and tongue, he re-qualified with the International Association of Handicapped Divers.

Through WAMDSAD he took part in a contemporary dance workshop with Nikki Campbell in 1996.  He has never looked back and is now a freelance dance artist working across the UK.  He is also in the Intergenerational Dance Company Crossover based in Oxford, with nine dancers aged between 8 – 66.

Through his life he has been constantly inspired and lifted emotionally by his appreciation of the generosity of nature – its giving spirit has been his role model and taught him to live in the moment.

Louise Portlock – Steering Group member

Louise Portlock

Louise has a long history of working in integrated dance practice, in 1996 she was involved in her first creative experience with Candoco dance company.  After graduating  In 2002, Louise went on to work for Ludus Dance as a youth dance artist, and a dancer / teacher with the touring company, before returning to her home county of Gloucestershire working as the Integrated Dance and Access Officer for Gloucestershire Dance (GD) in 2005.

This was a post that was set up to start to build strategic relationships and partnerships, locally regionally and nationally, and although originally a 2 year post, the position has remained through successful fundraising and partnership working.  Now a core aspect of GD’s vision, we have an extensive team of skilled practitioners, and in house admin team.  We have strong relationships with a variety of leading companies and artists across the UK, who strive to develop the sector for dancers who have disabilities.  Louise’s work currently involves researching and developing training initiatives for artists, in line with current national developments and programmes.

Louise’s other work currently consists of managing the Education programme for Moving Bodies, a national project led by Candoco, and working for Dance South West, as the Dance and Health Regional Lead based at Dance South West.  Louise is also a qualified teacher in post 16 education and has worked extensively at the national star college, developing courses, leading BTEC, and enhancing community links.

Jane Ralls – (dx) supporters of Dance Transformations

Jane Ralls: photo credit Ed Moore

I am passionate about dance and the benefits it provides from peoples engagement in it, whether as a participant or an audience member – and part of my role as Dance Development Director at DanceXchange is to find ways to develop partnerships and projects that increase other peoples access to dance, so that they too can enjoy the art-form. I really enjoy working with others and, through meaningful consultation and collaborations with dance agencies, venues and learning settings, have been able to address many gaps in provision, create better routes for progression and promote information sharing and networking.
Example of the sorts of projects that have been initiated in this way include:

• DAiR To… a partnership with Dudley Community Dance Consortium (now Dudley Performing Arts), Solihull Arts Comples, Stoke-on-Trent Theatres and BORDERDance in Shropshire (no longer in existence), which saw 5 artists appointed to work with disadvantaged young people

• The Dance Advance Programme – a partnership with Coventry University and University of Wolverhampton to provide opportunities to their most talented dance students to improve their dance technique and performance skills

• Centre for Advanced Training (CAP) – a partnership with sampad South Asian Arts, funded by the DCSF Music and Dance Scheme, to provide a training programme for young people aged 11-16 who demonstrate exceptional talent and potential in dance. Our CAT offers two strands; one focusing on Contemporary dance which draws students from across the West Midlands; one focusing on the South Asian dance styles of Kathak and Bharatanatyam which draws students from across the country

I have been at DanceXchange since 2001, starting as Dance Development Officer, so my work has changed a lot over the years and as the organisation has grown. It is such a different dx to when I started – when we were based in a temporary office in Albany House with just 5 members of staff. My role has progressed from a big focus on project management work to a lot of strategic planning and support of other staff; I now line manage the Class Programme Coordinator, the Programme Manager for CAT, the Programme Manager to Access and Inclusion and a Project Manager, whose work currently focuses on the Telford area – and I love the variety of my work. I also serve on the board of the Foundation for Community Dance and the Management Group of Dancescape.

Before working at DanceXchange, I worked at Swindon Dance – and before that I worked as Dance Artist and Project Manager for Bucks Dance, and ran Wycombe Dance Project. I started dance at the age of 7 and trained at University of Surrey (BA Hons degree) and De Montfort University, Bedford (PGCE).

Professor Sarah Whatley - (ICELab) Partner for Dance Transformations

Sarah Whatley

Sarah Whatley is Professor of Dance and Research Director, ICELab, Institute for Creative Enterprise, who are a partner in the Dance Transformations Programme.

She is a writer and artist; and her research specialises in dance analysis, the interface between dance and digital technologies, and dance pedagogy, particularly in relation to dance and disability. She led the AHRC-funded Siobhan Davies archive project; Siobhan Davies RePlay; the first digital dance archive in the UK and is now working on the AHRC-funded Digital Dance Archives project with the University of Surrey to create a web portal for digital dance resources and to enhance user-engagement through the development of virtual scrapbooking and visual search technologies. She also leads the JISC-funded D-TRACES project; investigating how to embed Siobhan Davies RePlay within the BA dance curriculum.

She is working closely with AHRC Creative Fellow Ruth Gibson who is in residence for three years in ICELab to create a range of visualisations for international venues, and which bring together motion capture technology with somatic dance practices. Amongst her other research projects she is a member of the AHRC-funded Screendance Network and is international associate for a pan-European research cluster, Inside Movement Knowledge. She is author of Moving Matters; Supporting Disabled Dance Students in Higher Education, she edits the international Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices and is on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Screendance. She is also part of the ‘international education workgroup’ for Motion Bank; a project of The Forsythe Company developing a range of digital dance scores in collaboration with leading international choreographers and dance makers.