What We're Up To

We are thrilled to welcome our two new patrons: Kay Ashton MBE and Sofia Oxenham. As patrons Kay and Sofia will champion our work and inclusion in the arts. 

Kay Ashton MBE, is a podcast, vlog creator talking about all things disability and also works day to day for a large media organisations consulting on disability.

Sofia Oxenham is an actor who graduated from RADA in 2017 and has since acted in a variety of roles for film and TV, including Poldark and Cursed.

We're so grateful for their support and are excited to be working with them.

(Posted February 2022)

We were invited by Carousel to take over their radio show for an episode. Parable Dance Artists Joe, Lauren, Hannah and Megan had a great time being the radio hosts; introducing music, chatting about health and wellbeing and of course covering all things inclusive dance!

(Posted February 2022)

Parable Dance Artistic Director Natasha is being honoured with a British Citizens Award at The Palace of Westminster in March in recognition of her services to the arts. Natasha will receive a medal of honour and be invited to use the post nominals BCAa as a legacy of her achievement. 28 people will be awarded a BCA at the event in March, often referred to as ‘the peoples honours’. We look forward to sharing pictures with you after the event!

(Posted January 2022)

Our work is being supported by The Royal and Derngate, Northampton. Parable Dance has been selected as one of 10 Generate Associate Artists who R&D will support for the next 18 months. Natasha and Erica will attend monthly meetings to network with the other artists and will receive bespoke support from the amazing R&D team to develop Parable's work.

(Posted December 2021)

We have had a great time delivering panel events and professional development sessions online and in person for universities and organisations including: Canterbury Christ Church, Winchester University, The ISTD, University of East London, Edge Hill University, University of Central Lancashire, The RAD, Kingston University, University of Lincoln, University of Suffolk. 

This project was supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. It has enabled us to meet lots of emerging dance artists and introduce them to a network of other inclusive dance practitioners and companies. A huge thank you to the panel members that we have worked with so far: Rachael Lines, Kate Stanforth, Corali, Helen Mason, Patrick McGeough, Adam Benjamin, DanceSyndrome, Kimberley Harvey, Annie Waller, Paul Davidson Natt, Caroline Lofthouse and Ella Fleetwood.

(Posted Jan 2022)

We have been working on an Arts Council funded project with DanceSyndrome called Connect. Dancers from DanceSyndrome have had workshops with Erica over Zoom to explore their choreographic methods and connection through dance. They will be performing their work in February. Alongside this work, Natasha has been project evaluator, delving into DanceSyndrome's creative ethos and successful ideas for connection in dance to take forward into the future. The findings of the project will also be shared publicly in February. 

We'd like to thank the amazing dancers and team at DanceSyndrome for asking us to be part of such a great project and for being so welcoming!

(Posted January 2022)

We are excited to announce that we will be running a 5 month mentoring programme for dancers/dance teachers with and without disabilities. We are offering 12 FREE places to train with us in fortnightly online sessions which will cover a range of inclusive dance topics. This is a brand new bespoke programme which will be developed to suit the needs of the cohort. Applications are open and we'd love to hear from you if you're interested. 

(Posted Jan 2022)

Parable Dance is thrilled to announce that we are the winners of She Inspires Awards 2021 National Culture Champion Award. We are so grateful for the support of our artists, dancers, and community!

(Posted December 2021)

Natasha has been shortlisted for the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Autism Hero Awards. The awards ceremony will be held in a hotel in Chelsea in March 2022 (delayed from Nov 2021) where the winners of the 12 awards categories will be announced. We're looking forward to meeting all the other finalists and hearing their stories.

(Posted November 2021)

Annie and our team of dance artists will be delivering fun dance workshops to 12 schools and organisations around Sussex in the lead up to Christmas, to spread the word about our new weekly classes.

The Brighton based classes (youth 10-18 yrs and adults 19 yrs +) will launch in January in partnership with South East Dance and Carousel. For more information and to book your place click on ‘what we offer’ and scroll down to ‘weekly classes’. We’d love to see you there!

Thanks to Active Sussex and Sports England for supporting us to get these started!

(Posted Sept 2021)

We’re excited to be kicking off our virtual visits to 12 universities and organisations around the UK, delivering professional development, streaming our film and panel discussions. The panels will feature the Parable Dance Artistic Directors alongside two guest inclusive dance artists. We’re looking forward to the first few events on our schedule at The University of East London, The ISTD and Kingston University and our guests at these include Sarah and DJ from Corali and Adam Benjamin. As always we’re thrilled to be working alongside such incredible artists.

(Posted Sept 2021)

This week we started working with pupils at Brunswick Primary School in Hove. Natasha will be visiting to deliver weekly dance classes across all year groups for the whole academic year, leading to dance films and mini sharings of work as each group celebrates their achievements.

(Posted Sept 2021)

We’ve been working with the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD), a global organisation who provide quality dance training across a diverse range of genres. Parable Dance will be delivering a second professional development session for ISTD teachers in October, looking at practical tips for translations/adaptations of technique. In addition, Natasha and Erica are excited to be supporting the team at the ISTD to address access and inclusion in a bespoke piece of work with their lead lecturers later in the year.

(Posted Sept 2021)

We are finalists for two She Inspires Awards; Culture Champion and Women in social enterprise. We feel honoured to have been shortlisted for such prestigious awards and will be attending the glamorous awards ceremony in November when the winners will be announced … watch this space!

(Posted Sept 2021)

We were selected by South East Dance to deliver a joint project with Carousel as part of ‘Our City Dances 2021 Festival’. Our project was a live inclusive dance party for people of all ages, where Annie and Joe led routines to cheesy pop tracks, written and recorded by learning disabled bands. You can still join in the fun by watching again on our YouTube channel.

(Posted Sept 2021)

Catch Natasha and Erica on the podcast Love, Life & disABILITY with Kay Ashton MBE. The episode is available on YouTube (Link below), Spotify, Apple, and Audible.

(Posted June 2021)

We are thrilled to have secured £10,000 from The Maria Bjornson Memorial Fund which (alongside the £10,000 we secured from The Backstage Trust) will be for an exciting new education project supporting the next generation of inclusive dance artists... more soon!

If you're an emerging dance artist/ new graduate we'd love to hear from you so that we can add you to our list of contacts to tell about this work.

(Posted May 2021)

We are delighted to have been awarded £10,000 by The Backstage Trust to develop an exciting new project which will expand inclusive dance training opportunities UK wide... watch this space for more info!

(Posted April 2021)

We have been invited to be guest speakers for a webinar by The Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD). 

The session on Monday 24th May at 4.30pm is available for free to ISTD members and for £15 to non members. 

This session will guide you to ensuring accessibility in dance classes. We will provide top tips  around communication, touch, props, access, adapting movement, performance and progression, as well as there being a chance to ask questions and discuss ideas.

Follow the link to book.

(Posted April 2021)

Following the release of our resource film 'Inclusive Practice is Good Practice' we were delighted to be asked for interviews by BBC Radio Sussex & Surrey, Brighton Radio Reverb and Latest TV. 

These interviews gave us a chance to talk about the film but also about future projects, the wider world of inclusive dance and fair employment for dance artists with disabilities ... Follow the link to our YouTube channel and select the 'News & Interviews' playlist.

(Posted April 2021)

Following the success of our film resource 'Inclusive Practice is Good Practice', we and many of the other artists in the film wanted to stay connected. We have decided to host a monthly 'inclusive cuppa catchup' as an informal space to chat, share opportunities and feel connected.

We are aware that there are so many more experienced inclusive dance practitioners out there who we couldn't feature in the film and we'd love to connect with you. If you're experienced in this area of work and would like to join our community we'd love to hear from you. Please email natasha@parabledance.co.uk to be added to the list.

For those newer to inclusive practice there will be a group for you coming soon too... watch this space!

(Posted April 2021)

We were delighted to be asked to speak at the 11 Million Reasons to Dance Network on 13th April 2021. The network is hosted by People Dancing and is for anyone who currently works or aims to work with access and inclusion embedded into their dance practice.

We spoke at the event about the film resource 'Inclusive Practice is Good Practice'; about how people could make the most of the film and what we'd learnt from the process. If you're not already a member, you can find out more and join through the link.

(Posted April 2021)

We are delighted to have been awarded a donation of £3000 from The Chalk Cliff Trust! This funding will go towards the development of our work supporting emerging inclusive dance artists. We can't wait to get started on the project.

(Posted March 2021)

Our film 'Inclusive Practice Is Good Practice' featured on BBC South Today News on 24th February 2021. The two minute feature highlighted the contributions from 7 of the dancers who feature in our film. It also included an interview with Paul Davidson, who both speaks and dances in the film. Paul makes a poignant comment in his interview about dancing for love and joy and not letting disability define you.

(Posted February 2021)

Parable Dance are delighted to have been asked to be part of a panel event for South East Dance on 30th March 2021, appearing alongside dancer Laura Dajao (LauraDDances) and James Greenhalgh and Laura Jones from Stopgap Dance Company. This will be an online discussion about making your work accessible and is a free event aimed at dance graduates and emerging dance artists.

(Posted February 2021)

We’re delighted that Natasha will be the inclusivity expert on the judging panel for the South East Dance U.Dance selection process for the sixth consecutive year. The panel will shortlist groups from the South East region in March 2021, all hoping to be featured in the online festival in April and for a place in the National U.Dance festival. 

(Posted February 2021)

The Royal & Derngate (Northampton) host The Generate Festival. As part of this they are running 'Genfest Movement' on 20th March. The day is dedicated to supporting the work and development of professional and emerging artists.

There will be workshops, Q&A, CPD and interviews throughout the day, including with Parable: a CPD session, interview, streaming of our resource film and a panel event. 

We're delighted to be programmed alongside wonderful artists such as Sir Richard Alston and Diverse City and to be embarking on an exciting new relationship with the wonderful Royal and Derngate team.

(Posted Feb 2021)

Our fun online inclusive dance warm ups and club night in partnership with Carousel have proven popular and have been featured in 5 local newspapers! We're really grateful for the features by:

Brighton & Hove Idependent

Brighton Magazine

GScene

Crawley Observer

West Sussex County Times

(Posted Dec 2020)

We are thrilled to announce that we are being supported using public funding by The National Lottery through Arts Council England. The funding we have received is for an exciting nationwide inclusive dance film project. We are hugely grateful to be able to work with 45 inclusive dance artists and organisations around the country. Thank you to Arts Council England, and to our partnering organisations and supporters: South East Dance, One Dance UK,  Disability Arts Online, and Unlimited. Watch this space for more announcements about the project and our collaborators!

We were asked by Carousel to collaborate with them to produce an online version of their inclusive Blue Camel Club night. Their DJs picked 6 cheesy tunes and we choreographed accessible routines to teach to the BCC party goers.

This project presented the opportunity for us to pay dancers with learning disabilities for the first time as members of the team. Natasha, Associate Artist Annie and Dancers Joe and Lauren spent a fun day socially distance filming the instructions and routines. The six 20 minute segments are being aired as 'warm ups' every Monday night in the lead up to the Live Dance Party on Dec 14th 2020 when we will be leading 2 of the dances live. 

We're excited to be delivering online zoom sessions in collaboration with South East Dance, which address inclusion for both online and in person teaching. 

For more information and to book:

Inclusion & access for online dance teaching: Weds 5th August @ 10am

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/inclusive-dance-for-online-teaching-tickets-112220522604

Inclusion and access for in person dance teaching: Fri 11th Sept @ 10am

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/inclusive-dance-for-face-to-face-teaching-tickets-112224089272

We are delighted to have been nominated for The 'Entrepreneur of Excellence Award' in The National Diversity Awards. Thank you to everyone who voted for us.

Natasha has also been nominated for the second year running for the Mentor of the Year Award' in The Inclusive Companies Awards. 

Check out "Dance and Disability: A Parable of Progress" written by Imogen Hunte, featuring Parable Dance with interviews by Natasha Britton and Kimberley Harvey! Illustrations by Niamh McBride.

Natasha has been asked to bring her inclusive dance expertise as a judge for a new online dance competition. The RAD's Step Into Dance have launched 'Step on Trend'. Young people aged 11-25 from London and Essex are being asked to submit original dance moves that could be the next trending move like the Floss or the Dab. The competition runs throughout June and July and we're excited to be involved.

We've been busy reaching out to previous clients as well as making new connections, to publicise our offer of inclusive dance training online. We now offer two shortened professional development sessions via zoom. One addressing face to face inclusive dance teaching and another covering techniques for working inclusively when teaching online. We are also offering bespoke online mentoring sessions.

We have delivered several exciting projects so far:

We successfully delivered a one hour training session to a group of 68 dance teachers from the national franchise babyballet, who took their work online during lockdown.

We created a short instructional film for The RAD (Step into Dance), advising how families can support a child with additional needs taking part in their online classes.

We delivered training to a team of 7 teachers from Imagination Arts to add to their inclusive dance knowledge, ready for when they return to face to face teaching.

There are more projects in the pipeline... Watch this space! 

Join us for fun, 15 minute online, inclusive dance classes!

Fun 15: Families

Fun 15: Care homes and assisted/residential living

Natasha has really enjoyed being a mentor for the RAD Step Into Dance programme this month working with one of their wonderful teachers and a group of students in South London. She will be taking on a 'Partnership Support' role with 6 more teachers throughout 2020!

Get in touch for bespoke inclusive dance mentoring opportunities with us.

We are thrilled to have returned to deliver workshops for Mencap in Merton, Burgess Hill, and East Grinstead groups. We have various workshops scheduled throughout 2020. Keep an eye out for dates as they approach!

We had a great time working with students at Hill Park School & candidates from Team Domenica in Brighton (October & November 2019) on behalf of Katie Dale-Everett Dance.

Parable Dance is in the press! We have a feature in Wellspring Newsletter. Click the read more button below and scroll to page 14 to read all about us!

Erica is an editor for The Dancer-Citizen, an online, open access journal exploring the work of socially engaged dance artists. See her Letter from the Editor and the journal's Issue 9: dancercitizen.org/issue-9

In January we will be working with Canterbury Christ Church University's Dance Education degree students. We will be exploring methods of inclusive practice and supporting the students' work at a local special school.

Feeling proud- Natasha has been nominated for the Inclusive Companies ‘Mentor of the Year’ Award 2019. 

Erica and Natasha are honoured to have both been nominated for the One Dance UK ‘Inspirational Community Dance Practitioner Award’

We had great fun delivering a training day to the freelance team of Step Into Dance teachers at The RAD on 11th September. The team deliver workshops in schools in London & Essex, funded by The Jack Petchey Foundation. One Step Into Dance freelancer commented, “I think this was the best SEND training we’ve had so far”

We’re delighted to be working with South East Dance, Natasha was on the panel for their event on 12th September: ‘Artist conversations; Access, Studios and the Dance Space’. 

We’re excited that Natasha will be the inclusivity expert on the judging panel for the South East Dance U.Dance event for the fifth consecutive year. The panel will shortlist groups in November 2019 and those selected will perform in the platform at The Brook Theatre in Chatham in March 2020, all hoping for a place in the National U.Dance festival.  

We're so excited to be up and running! Be sure to follow us on social media!