Dancers announced for mentoring scheme

Posted on October 29, 2012

Twenty dancers have been chosen to take part in Dance UK’s leadership mentoring scheme. The programme offers workforce development for mid-career dancers who have been nominated by their peers as future leaders. It is organised by by Dance UK in partnership with Dancers’ Career Development, with the support of Arts Council England. Over eight months, each dancer will be provided with a paid mentor who is a high-profile leader from the arts world or beyond.

Demand for the scheme was particularly high. Dance UK plans to respond by seeking further funding, hoping to extend the programme to Scotland and to repeat it in 2013 and 2014 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The dancers selected to take part this year are:

Kate Coyne, dancer, Michael Clark Company

Shane Shambhu, dancer, actor and artistic director of Shane Shambhu Company

Neil Westmoreland, resident director for Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures

Kit Holder, first artist, Birmingham Royal Ballet

Jonathan Goddard, independent dancer

Laura Jones, dancer for Stopgap Dance Company

Lee T Johnston, dancer, National Dance Company Wales

Henrietta Hale, independent dance artist

Sonia Sabri, artistic director of Sonia Sabri Company and independent dancer, choreographer and teacher

Malgorzata Dzierzon , dancer, Rambert Dance Company

Jonathan Payn, first soloist, Birmingham Royal Ballet

Hannah Bateman, leading soloist, Northern Ballet

Angela Towler, dancer, Rambert Dance Company

Catarina Carvalho, dancer, Wayne McGregor | Random Dance

Anusha Subramanyam, artistic director of Beeja, performer and choreographer

Emma Dunn, independent dance artist

Naomi Cook, Springs Dance Company, freelance dancer, teacher, rehearsal director

Catherine Bennett, independent dance artist

Dena Lague, independent dance artist

Nicole Watson, dancer and creative director at Surface Area Dance Theatre

The selection panel included Pedro Machado, co-artistic director of Candoco Dance Company (who was in the mentoring scheme of 2006); Marie McCluskey, founder and director of Swindon Dance; arts manager and dance company leader Sue Wyatt; Benjamin Dunks, artistic director of Attik Dance; Dr Scilla Dyke, senior lecturer at the Royal Academy of Dance and trustee of Dancers’ Career Development; Monique Deletant, administrative director of Akademi South Asian Dance UK and Jan De Schynkel, former dancer, teacher, choreographer and Arts Council England relationship manager.

Picture: Kit Holder. Photograph: Tim Cross

Zoe Anderson

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.