DOODLE DANCE - Key Persons
Catherine is a dance artist who believes that dance has the power to make a meaningful contribution to everyone's mental and physical wellbeing. She graduated from Trinity Laban in 2021 and now performs, creates, and teaches dance in a range of settings across West Sussex and beyond. She is also a talented writer who is excited to explore how her love for writing can add to the creative content of Doodles delivery. Catherine is available to deliver On Your Marks, Get Set Go and MAD Primary workshops in Horsham and the surrounding areas, as well as Doodle Dance Commissions.
Job Titles:
- Critical Friend and Advisor
Upon graduating from Middlesex University with a B Ed (Hons) in Dance, Claire taught in London for a number of years before joining Cheshire Dance firstly as an animateur, then progressing to the role of Director. After eight years she returned to education as an Advanced Skills Teacher and also completed her MA in Dance Studies.
Currently Claire combines a number of roles including Lead Practitioner for Dance for Derbyshire CC, a member of The Royal Opera House's ‘Create & Dance' team alongside being a general freelancer-about-town. She has published ‘First Steps in Teaching Dance'; a guide for non-specialist primary teachers, regularly contributes to ‘TES Resources' and wrote and presented ‘Step by Step' for BBC's Teach in conjunction with Cornucopia TV.
Claire has recently been appointed to One Dance UK's Primary Advocacy Panel.
Our Trainee Doodle Dance Artist Claire joins us with a love of dance that started in childhood. This has continued to grow in every stage of her education. She loves the freedom of music taking over and consuming the body to move, therapeutic movement for the body, lost movement which can be found and the limitless boundaries of dance allowing escapism and exploration.
Within her ten years experience Claire has had a diverse career in a variety of roles. Being a dancer, choreographer, teacher, director and project manager she has worked with a variety of age groups and abilities. She enjoys the learning process in each new project, expanding skills and gaining new insights.
One of her greatest achievements is the establishment of Mature Movers, a movement to music chair based dance and exercise session based within the community and in residential care homes.
She now joins the team with an enthusiasm for play which is a focus in her practise in early years and primary delivery.
Being freelance and a mum can be isolating at times and Doodle Dance welcomes the opportunity to further Claire's knowledge and ability, collaborate and give Claire a stronger platform to continue her practice whilst investing in her creativity and becoming part of our community.
Job Titles:
- Artistic Director and Lead Artist
Upon graduating from Chichester University with a BA Hons in Dance and Related Arts, Jo worked as a Freelance Dance Artist locally to West Sussex/Hampshire and nationally creating choreographic work, delivering workshops and projects to young people, families, adults and children with and without learning disabilities, as well as to older adults in stroke rehab and living with dementia.
One of the projects which Jo is most proud of and has become a legacy of her work is Breaking Waves, a Creative Dance group for the over 60s which was established through an Arts Partnership Project for West Sussex Council before Jo became a mum. Realising she could not carry the group on when pregnant with her first child, she supported the group to explore their own teaching and devising of class content, allowing the group of 12 woman to continue. The group is still running now 10 years later, growing in size and has included dancers performing. Like many projects Jo has run, she is most proud when she is no longer needed and the method of delivery and planning allows the project to sustain itself, allowing Jo to move her skills towards new and needed projects.
Jo's past work had included a vast amount of training and cross curriculum projects in primary schools and nurseries, and becoming a mum led her to create Peek a Boo Moves which later then developed into ‘Doodle Dance'. During this time Jo had her second daughter and realised that to maintain a career in the arts around the juggle of motherhood, she needed to also support herself. Although Jo had frequently delivered on Arts Council England funded projects, it was the first time she had applied herself.
Being successful in receiving Arts Council England funding means Jo is able to further develop Doodle Dance, exploring the most supportive structure to enable her to develop her career whilst offering support to other artists through the FUEL COLLECTIVE. In addition to this, Jo hopes to expand the resources and opportunities to and for children, parents/carers, nursery staff and teachers, enabling children to Make their Mark!
Jo has recently been appointed to One Dance UK's Primary Advocacy Panel which she is excited to support, campaigning further for the case of Dance and the Arts to support children's learning and well-being.
Outside of work Jo loves the outdoors, dancing at the beach or in the woods and getting busy in her garden. She also loves spending time playing scrabble or watching a film with her family and walks in any weather!
Job Titles:
- Associate Artist Leicestershire Area
Louise is a creative arts practitioner with a specialism in dance and movement and has over 20 years experience of delivering across a wide range of projects, settings and events. Louise and Jo met in the online world of dance, sharing values of using the arts to support children's well being. As the online dance world and pandemic collided Louise stepped into the role of Associate Artist for Doodle. This was an invitation to share existing Doodle Dance work in Leicestershire and collaborate with Doodle, developing more ways for children to Make their Mark!
Louise's broad experience in dance means she can connect quickly to the pre existing work that Doodle offers to schools such as On your Marks, MAD workshops and developing resources. However her broadening knowledge now in forest school also brings a passion for collaborating on Doodles work towards sustainable action!
Louise has always had a passion for dance and after graduating from Lancaster University with a Theatre Studies degree, decided to complete a Masters in Dance at the University of Surrey. Since then, Louise has worked on a wide variety of projects, including performing and choreographing with local companies, working as a Performing Arts lecturer in further education and was the Dance and Health Worker at Dance4.
Louise founded JumpStart into Primary School Dance in 2010 to extend her creative work in schools, which provides curriculum delivery, one-off workshops, teacher INSET and resources, and for 10 years ran the Jump2it! Dance Festival. She is the dance coach for her local School Sports Partnership and has co-authored the ‘Making a Move' dance resource alongside Jo Cone and Claire Pring.
Her interest in nature and the outdoors has led her to become a Forest School Practitioner and outdoor educator, which has informed her approach to her dance delivery, which centres around enabling children's creativity and empowering their voices through movement, nature and dance.
Louise and Jo are currently creating the next Doodle Dance resource which uses creative dance, movement and connection to inspire children to protect their planet. The resource will be available to primary teachers this autumn.