YORKSHIRE DANCE - Key Persons
Adie manages our dance programmes for older adults.
Alan works as part of the facilities team ensuring maintenance and upkeep of the physical aspects and systems of the building.
Job Titles:
- Operations Manager ( Maternity Cover )
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Artist
David is an artist, working across performance, film, installation, books and digital art. As co-founder and Co-Artistic Director of Fevered Sleep (feveredsleep.co.uk) he has made projects with Tate, The Place, Dance4, National Theatre Wales, Wellcome Collection, The Lowry, Brighton Festival, and the Young Vic (where Fevered Sleep was an associate company from 2008 - 2016). He is also Professor of Interdisciplinary Practice at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London.
Ebony ensures the smooth running of our building. She also manages our evening class programme.
Gavin is a Junior Soloist and Creative with Northern Ballet. His varied performance career has included performances on some of the biggest stages in the UK, including The Royal Opera House and Sadler's Wells. His choreographic and directorial work for stage and screen has gained critical acclaim and he works across the sector engaging with organisations both operationally through coaching and choreographing and also strategically at board level.
Job Titles:
- Marketing & Communications Officer
Hannah supports the Marketing & Development team with digital and print communications.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Creative Director
- Director
Hannah Robertshaw is the CEO and Artistic Director of Yorkshire Dance, which works across the region from the company's home in Leeds.
Job Titles:
- Community Development Officer
Hannah supports Adie Nivison to promote and coordinate the Dance On project across Leeds and Bradford.
Job Titles:
- Youth & Community Dance Manager
Ione manages all of the youth and community classes and programmes in and around Leeds.
Job Titles:
- Youth and Community Dance Intern
Job Titles:
- Director of Strategic Development & Partnerships
Job Titles:
- Artist Development Producer
Job Titles:
- Creative Projects Producer
Kirsty supports the Artistic Director in co-ordinating the artistic programme, this includes continuing professional development for choreographers and dancers, performances, and artistic projects.
Lizz is responsible for the administration of the organisation and works predominantly in the office. She is often the smiling face that welcomes you to Yorkshire Dance!
Job Titles:
- Interim Executive Director
Maria is a public health nutritionist and Reader in health inequalities at Leeds Beckett University. Maria leads the Migrant Health Research group at Leeds Beckett, Chairs the University's Race Equality Forum, and is a member of the Yorkshire & Humber Migrant Health Group. She is also the UK lead of a multidisciplinary and multiagency network addressing malnutrition, urban renewal and sustainable livelihoods among vulnerable women and their children in Ghana and Nigeria. Her research approach combines epidemiological and sociological methods, shaped by a range of theoretical lenses including community-based participatory research, social justice, and socio-ecological theories. This approach also acknowledges the importance of class, gender, and wider social, economic, and environmental conditions which, taken together, shape differences in health status, health related behaviours and access to healthcare. Intersecting with this multiplicity of factors, the role of ethnic inequalities, as a key driver of health inequalities, is a central feature of her work. Her activities are built on community links established over time, providing access to wide-reaching networks that are trusted among their local populations. Maria integrates her research into teaching and learning at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and she supervises several PhD students conducting projects among migrant/ ethnic minority populations in the UK and in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Chairman of the Board of Directors
- Executive Director of Unlimited Theatre
Mark trained in Theatre Arts at Bretton Hall in Yorkshire. Over the next fifteen years he worked as a theatre actor and director, and later as a Radio Studio Manager for the BBC World Service. Following a period living and working in Spain, after his first child was born, Mark became Theatre Officer at Arts Council England, Yorkshire. He remained there for 12 years, moving in to other roles as Acting Head of Performing Arts and Senior Relationship Manager.
In 2013, Mark became Executive Director of Unlimited Theatre and, following this, was Executive Director for the award-winning Phoenix Dance Theatre, working alongside Artistic Director Sharon Watson MBE. In 2020, Mark took up the role of Executive Director for Leeds Culture Trust playing a key role in setting up the operational infrastructure and the fundraising strategy for Leeds 2023.
Over the years, Mark has also worked as a freelance arts consultant and, in February 2022, having qualified as an ILM level 5 Coach, he returned to freelance work as a consultant, coach and mentor. Through this role he supports arts and cultural organisations and their boards, individual artists and practitioners.
Job Titles:
- Head of Marketing and Development
Rachel manages Yorkshire Dance's fundraising and marketing and communications.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Artist Support
Sean studied at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, graduating with a BA Hons in Performance. He went on to tour with postgraduate company Verve 05 before going on to tour as a principal dancer and rehearsal assistant with 2007 Culture award-winning Sakoba Dance Theatre. He has had an extensive career performing on the West End, touring internationally, dancing for recording artists including Sophie Ellis Bextor and Elton John and for TV and film projects.
As well as choreographing musicals and professional pantomimes, Sean has produced many dance pieces for youth dance and has successfully led a dance department in a Yorkshire secondary school, as well as teaching as a freelance artist in FE colleges and universities all over the UK before becoming the Associate Assistant Vice Principal Talent Development Leader for CAPA College.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Head of Connected Technology Academy at KPMG
Yasmin is currently Head of Connected Technology Academy at KPMG, a role that allows her to break down barriers for women and young people coming into the tech industry and educating through outreach activity in schools, colleges and universities.
Her storied career includes stints at a host of tech giants, from NHS Digital and Accenture to Jet2 and Sky Betting and Gaming.
But her passion for gender equality doesn't stop at the office door. She's a powerful voice in the tech community and is committed to helping people feel empowered to take the leap into tech, regardless of background and experience. Something that's evident in her place on the WILD Digital Board, where she helps in their mission to inspire people from minority groups to consider a career in digital. She is also a Board Member at Maggie's Cancer Centres and a School Governor.