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Dance Centred is a not for profit community interest dance company with creativity at its heart 

 

The company is recognised across Cornwall and the South West for creating wonderfully imaginative participatory projects that respond to social need and demand.

We are an Associate Company for Hall for Cornwall, a key provider of dance for Active Cornwall and have a studio/office base at the Liskerrett Community Centre in South East Cornwall.

Our dance practice nurtures, inspires and empowers.

Since founding in 2019, Dance Centred has established an ambitious and extensive community programme with a strong health and well-being strand to the work. All ages and abilities are invited to engage in our work. Our considered planning, marketing, co curation with partners and creative delivery, break down barriers to participation.

Dance Centred Values

Human Connection - intimacy, personal dialogue, and nurturing are central to our work. 

Inspirational experiences - DC believes in the transformative power of dance.

Strength through Equality of opportunity - we believe that diversity positively enriches our world. We will actively challenge prejudice and barriers to participation. 

We work with fabulous artists to explore, experiment and collaborate.

Creative Team.

 
 

Co-Directors Lois Taylor and Sam Lawrence lead on the management and creative direction of the company. They are expert in bringing together teams of freelance artists and managers who are aligned with the values of ethos of Dance Centred.

  • Lois is an improviser and deeply creative facilitator and choreographer, who through dance, explores the potential of ideas with others. Her work is often embedded in a non-theatre contexts.

    She takes risks and is ambitious for the potential of dance to be transformative for herself, the individuals and communities involved.

    Lois has been a dance lecturer for Plymouth and Falmouth Universities and co founded and established a diverse range of creative companies and initiatives including Attik Dance, Physical Postcards, The Vital Spark and Dance Centred. Lois’s own performance work includes improvisational work with Physical Postcards, Trans - Form - an improvised response to the work of artist Trevor Bell, Shallal dance Theatre and solo performances.

    Lois is an established mentor for dance artists, and contributes to the strategic development of dance in Cornwall and the SouthWest.

  • Sam is a dance artist with a wealth of experience and a passion for creative collaboration. Over many years of community arts practice, Sam has developed a strong belief in the value of the arts as a tool for change and the vital role it plays within our lives.

    Sam’s artistic career began in Visual Arts and Theatre, working for many years as a community artist in a diverse range of contexts, later training in Contemporary Dance. This multi-disciplinary and rich background informs Sam’s work as both dance facilitator, maker and performer.

    Current and recent work includes: weekly Contemporary Dance classes for adults, workshops in Care Homes and Age UK Day Centres, performer and choreographer in ‘Grace’ a collaboration with writer Claire Owen for Unit 3, performing in Rosemary Lee’s Passage for Par as part of the Groundworks Festival, choreographing a community cast in The Moon is Huge Tonight for Bodmin Moor Poetry Festival, performing in Deep Space – a Mayes Creative project, weekly Fun and Funky dance classes for adults, Lostwithiel Flying Monkeys – a creative dance project for children aged 6-9 and running Big Little Movers - creative dance classes for pre-school children and their carers. 

    Sam is Co Director for Dance Centred also a Co-Director of Unit 3 CIC Arts Collective.ription text goes here

Find out more about Lois Taylor here

Visit Lois on Facebook here

Visit Sam on Facebook here

 

Lisa Townsend is the Dance Centred project manager and also freelances, working with social enterprises to make the world a better place. She mainly helps them with all things marketing helping them to work in a clear and focused way on their most important projects.

  • Lisa gets what it is to build a business that has a social mission and has 15 years experience blending the two. She has run her own creative business delivering Baby Signing classes and training. She also spent 5 years working as Office Manager for the arts charity Sterts. Lisa is a mentor for the School of Social Entrepreneurs, Cornwall.

    “Lisa came along just as we were managing a significant transition as an organisation. Lisa really helped to make it happen. Her confidence and 'can-do' attitude was infectious and gave us the push we needed. Lisa helped us to make big changes, even on a small budget.” Emily Foulkes - Music for Good

    Lisa is Project Manager for Dance Centred and coordinates their Physical Postcard Project.

 
Lisa is sat smiling holding a diary.

Our Board.

 

Hayley Bentley - Ebb & Flow

Hayley has worked with organisations such as, Barbican Theatre Plymouth, Exim Dance Company, and Plymouth Dance and currently runs Ebb & Flow Dance Studio - dance classes for young people.

  • I first began my further education by studying Dance at St Austell College and continued into higher education studying Dance Theatre at the University of Plymouth, where I achieved a first-class BA (Hons) degree.

    I have had the privilege of working with organisations such as, Barbican Theatre Plymouth, Exim Dance Company, and Plymouth Dance, where I've been involved in delivering dance classes/workshops and facilitating events in educational and community settings across Devon, Plymouth, and Cornwall.

    In addition to this, I currently work in the charitable sector and run my own dance classes for young people in South East Cornwall through Ebb and Flow Dance Studio.

    I love to engage and promote the community and arts sector and continue to develop my own practice too!

Find Hayley at Ebb & Flow Dance

 

Sarah Hawken

Dance was very important to me growing up, I did ballet until I was 18. For many years I couldn’t find dance classes to suit until Lois ran classes at Sterts Studio which reignited my desire to dance. I have been lucky enough to participate in several community dance projects too but also now I get to dance weekly and the soul and the brain are so much better for it!

I love to support Dance Centred because of the commitment they have to finding ways for dance and movement to be accessible to all!

 

Rebecca Mordan - Scary Little Girls

After graduating from Bristol Old Vic and working in film, theatre and television, Rebecca Mordan created her own company, Scary Little Girls, populating stories with fascinating, diverse female characters and rescuing amazing women from the dustbin of history.

  • Rebecca has been intimately involved with every aspect of SLG, writing, directing, producing and performing to take the company from strength to strength. She is still also a grassroots campaigner against male violence, a frequent guest expert on BBC Radio and Sky News and has compared the Big Top, Glastonbury Festival for 20 years.

    In 2021, her co-authored book on Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, Out of the Darkness, was published by The History Press, she was a member of the BBC’s Writers Room and she had both her first fiction and documentary on BBC Radio 4. She is currently optioned by World Productions (Show Trial, Line of Duty) to co-create a new feminist legal drama.

Find Rebecca at Scary Little Girls

 

Jae Hainsworth

I loved dancing as a youngster and have danced my way through most of Lois and Sam’s classes and projects!

Dance is great for my physical health (and brain!) but especially good for my general wellbeing. I get totally lost in the music and movement and I fully intend to stay as physically active as I can, for as long as I can.

I enjoy being able to help Dance Centred in their efforts to bring the benefits of moving more to people at home or with others, sharing laughter and a lot of fun together.

 
 

Jackie Taylor

I first met Lois during the Vital Spark project in Liskeard and have been lucky enough to participate in lots of dance/community/creative loveliness since that time with both Sam and Lois.

I love the joy, creativity and commitment that Dance Centred bring to all their projects; it’s a privilege to be able to support their work.

www.jackietaylor.org.uk

Associate Artists.

 

Sally Robbins - Dance Artist

Sally has spent almost 20 years using dance to creatively explore ideas and connect with others. Sally has taught in Cornwall College, Plymouth University and TR2, alongside a broader Dance Artist role at Attik Dance.

  • Trained at Roehampton University in Contemporary Dance, Sally has spent almost 20 years using dance to creatively explore ideas and connect with others. Whether in school settings or a tiny tucked-away community group, it’s always been for the pure joy of dance.

    Sally trained at Roehampton University in Contemporary Dance and returned to Cornwall where she taught in a number of formal settings including; Cornwall College, Plymouth University and TR2, alongside a broader Dance Artist role at Attik Dance. This role fulfilled an ambition from when she was a teen and first fell in love with Contemporary Dance, attending Attik Dance workshops.

    In 2012 Sally qualified as a primary school teacher. She has continued to find creative ways to teach in this role, often using movement to enable all children to access the curriculum and thrive in their learning. Now, a Mum of two boys Seb and Howie, she enjoys living, playing, and exploring this beautiful county with her boys and husband, Nick.

    Sally has recently returned to working in dance alongside teaching and also teaches yoga. It feels apt that she has rekindled this connection with the people that inspired her all that time ago.

 

Antonia Eden - Artist

Antonia is currently based at UNIT3 Studios in Lostwithiel, Cornwall.

www.antoniaeden.co.uk
Find Antonia on Facebook
And Instagram

  • Indices, memories and traces are key in my work and how narrative can be conveyed through materials and interaction. The use of domestic imagery is a vehicle for demonstrating the personal as political.

    This reverberates, the outside world impacts and travels back to the dining room table. The journey is a perpetual cycle.I use a variety of materials, layering, collaging, cutting and sticking - film, sound, objects, space and sticky back plastic.

    Currently based at UNIT3 Studios in Lostwithiel, Cornwall

 

Lauren Syrett - Dance Artist

Lauren, a dancer is looking through a large gold picture frame, smiling and having fun.

Lauren has been a freelance dance artist for the past 10 years, currently working at Hall for Cornwall in the Get Creative Team as Project Support & Dance Specialist.

Find Lauren on Facebook

  • Lauren has been a freelance dance artist for the past 10 years working predominately in education, health and community settings across Cornwall. She is passionate about using dance to improve well-being, inspire confidence and bring communities together, working extensively in Early Years and Primary Education providing creative, playful dance workshops.

    Lauren works at Hall for Cornwall in the Get Creative Team as Project Support & Dance Specialist. In such a varied role, she works with a wide range of communities, artists, schools & young people, inspiring the next generation of creators, choreographers, theatre-makers and theatre-goers.

Creatives We Work With.

 
 
  • Stephen’s career started in London as a graphic designer for print. Music is a major part of his life, and he was lucky enough to begin producing sleeves for major record labels and international artists such as Kate Bush and Paul McCartney.

    Stephen then discovered moving image and never looked back. He soon gained experience in broadcast design and TV brand Identity before deciding to take his skills to Auckland, New Zealand.The world famous Kiwi can-do attitude inspired him to then direct and produce many TV commercials, promos, short films, music videos and channel identities, picking up a few awards on the way. After 9 fantastic years down under he returned to the UK.

    Armed with a strong story-based approach and a myriad of skills in both motion and design, Stephen continues to explore new possibilities in image making.

    Some clients Stephen has produced work for: EMI, Polydor, Sony, Virgin, Sega, Nintendo, BBC, Mizuno, UEFA, Discovery Channel, Channel 4, Liverpool FC, Tottenham Hotspur FC, TV3 (NZ), Universal Music, Warner Music, Aerohub, Bacardi, Marks and Spencer, Google, Youtube, Telefonica and British Telecom.Skill set: directing, scriptwriting, filming, editing, motion graphics, 3d / 2d animation, photography, design and illustration.

 
  • Hi. I’m Melanie Chadwick a full time illustrator and designer living and working in Cornwall. I freelance with individuals, small businesses, and design studios on illustration, surface pattern, brand, and design projects.

    I believe that design should be fun, lively and enrich the lives of those around it. I work in a variety of media from traditional watercolours, pen and ink, collage to digital and vector brushes and specialise in map, food and lettering illustration.

    I'm the illustrator working behind the Physical Postcards. Sam, Lois and Lisa tell me what they'd like to see and I turn their ideas into brightly coloured postcard designs! I think the best part of working on this project is that each of us is integral to the project, and we all have something different to bring.