Education & Community
Like all areas of my work, I lead community and engagement with honesty and transparency - challenging attitudes around hidden disabilities and contributing to wider conversations around disability, mental health, chronic illness, HIV, addiction recovery, neurodiversity, queerness, inclusion and intersectionality.
My education and outreach practice centres on creative thinking, making, dialogue, and co-creation. I offer provocations while supporting reflective processes which invite participants to consider their own lives and practices.
Driven by what I call sky-blue dreaming, my hope is to empower people to unmute, to engage on their own terms and bring their whole selves to the process. Narrative and autobiographical approaches run throughout my work, breaking down emotional barriers around shame, loneliness, exclusion, punishment, isolation, cultural silencing, and being "othered".
Through trauma-informed and intersectional practice, I aim to reframe hidden disabilities and lived experiences as superpowers. I bring this into every space with pride, modelling an inclusive, evolving vision of leadership - one that recognises complexity as strength and fosters new ways of creating, connecting and leading together.
Projects
Talent Accelerator – Creative Mentoring Programme (2025)
Talent Accelerator is a dynamic initiative supporting young people in East Sussex to pursue creative careers. I was commissioned to design and deliver a bespoke creative mentoring programme for three cohorts of emerging artists.
Across six focused sessions, participants were supported to explore their artistic identity, reflect on their creative practice and take actionable steps towards their personal and professional goals. The cohorts consisted of a selection of artists across fine art, sculpture, film, writing and performance.
Inside Out - Supporting Early-Career Dance Artists (2025)
As part of my Arts Council England funded project Inside Out, I created a professional development opportunity for early-career dance artists based in the South East. In partnership with South East Dance, four artists were selected through a public call-out. They received free access to:
Masterclasses led by disabled artists specialising in inclusive dance practice.
Studio time with Inside Out collaborators.
One-to-one and group coaching sessions, delivered online.
This programme was designed to nurture emerging talent and champion inclusive, care-led approaches in dance.
British Council and Unlimited Partner Award (2022)
I was honoured to receive a British Council and Unlimited Partner Award in 2022 — part of a cultural partnership initiative celebrating international collaboration.
This award supported a remote research and development exchange between myself and Unmute, a pioneering inclusive dance company based in South Africa. Together, we explored creative ideas, shared practices and deepened our connection through cross-cultural dialogue, in inclusive performance, and studio, practice.
Queer-Led, Community-Engaged Projects (2022-2023)
In 2022, I was awarded a commission from Arts Council England’s ”Let’s Create” Jubilee Community Fund to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
In partnership with Brighton’s queer community centre, The Ledward Centre, I curated a joyful, inclusive event to celebrate the centre’s opening.
Collaborating with cabaret artists and local food suppliers, we created a welcoming space for queer, and non-queer, families and communities alike — offering free food, soft drinks, entertainment, conversation and connection.
It was a true celebration of queer togetherness — a wonderfully queer time was had by all!
Community Celebration – A Creative Response to the King's Coronation (2023)
With support from local partners and The Devonshire Collective, I curated a day of cross-arts, family-friendly engagement in Eastbourne — a celebration of community and diversity, as a gentle act of resistance in response to the King’s Coronation.
While the national event showcased wealth and tradition, we chose to centre inclusion, creativity and care.
The day offered free workshops, light refreshments and entertainment, creating a welcoming space for vulnerable and underrepresented communities to connect, express and celebrate together.
A joyful reminder of the power of community-led creativity.
Suffolk Pride Digital Parade & Doorstep Exhibition (2020)
During the first COVID-19 lockdown, I collaborated remotely with Suffolk Pride to deliver a community-engaged project which responded to the challenges of the global pandemic.
Together, we produced a digital Pride Parade - a vibrant, inclusive celebration which brought people together online when physical gatherings were not possible.
As the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, sparked by the killing of George Floyd in police custody, gained global momentum, our collaboration expanded to include a doorstep exhibition.
This socially distanced, street-level art installation created space for community reflection, protest and solidarity with the movement.
These projects used creativity as a tool for connection, resilience and collective action in a time of crisis.
Mental Health & Dance – A Collaborative Research Project with Rambert School (2020-2021)
This research project, developed in collaboration with Rambert School, fostered a meaningful and ongoing relationship with both students and staff.
I was invited to curate and co-create a series of workshops, discussions, and short films exploring the question: Where are we in dance with mental health?
Together, we created space for reflection, dialogue and artistic response - supporting students to engage critically and creatively with mental health in the context of dance training and the wider industry.
Critical Dance Pedagogy Network (2023-2025)
The Critical Dance Pedagogy Network is a concept founded by Professor Angela Pickard of Canterbury Christ Church University, who also serves as Director of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health within the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Social Care. Angela is a dancer, choreographer, practitioner and academic, whose work bridges artistic practice and research.
I was invited to collaborate with the network and commissioned to co-design and deliver its Artist Lab - a key strand of the network’s activity, hosted at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds.
My role extended to contributing to the design and facilitation of development workshops, mentoring the teaching artists involved in the network and participating in critical reflection, discussion and action during the network’s symposia held at the University of Edinburgh, Queen’s University Belfast, and Coventry University.
This collaborative team also involved:
Darren Carr, Vice Principal, Northern School of Contemporary Dance
Dr Wendy Timmons, Senior Lecturer in Dance Science and Education, University of Edinburgh
Dr Kathryn Stamp, Assistant Professor (Research), Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University
The network is currently paused as plans for future development and direction are being shaped.
