We had a brilliant Creative Industry Insight this morning with Lucy McCrudden. Lucy spoke all about her career so far and how to navigate a freelance career in dance learning, participation and management balanced with motherhood. The insight was exclusively for our Dance Surrey Directory and Dance Surrey PRO members and gave them so much to take away and build upon.
Lucy will be hosting a CPD on Tuesday 13th July that is open to all on how to maximise your portfolio career and after today’s session we can’t wait to hear what she has to say!

Click here to book your place on Lucy’s CPD

Creative Industry Insights are held exclusively for Dance Surrey Directory and Dance Surrey PRO members. To find out more about becoming a member and becoming part of a thriving local dance community click here

We had such an amazing day on Wednesday at The University of Surrey. It was brilliant to see our PRO members having a face to face CPD session with Zoie Golding and then watch our Supported Artists have some studio time and film some interviews with them.

The day was then topped off with some filming with some Dance Surrey Directory members for a very special platform we have planned! More videos to follow but for now, enjoy a highlights reel of the day!

Dance Surrey Directory and Dance Surrey PRO members have exclusive access to Creative Industry Insights from professionals across the arts. We are delighted to announce our industry insights for late Summer & Early Autumn 2021. To book onto these events you must be signed up as a Dance Surrey PRO or Dance Surrey Directory Member. If you need help to do this please contact us

August – Summer Social and Performance – Monday 10th August at 7pm

This event will be a fantastic chance to meet, network and enjoy a Summer Social together whilst also viewing some live performances. We will be giving more information about the performances in the coming weeks. This is an in-person event. Places are free, but limited and must be pre-booked.

September – Creative Industry Insight with Kate Finegan – Tuesday 7th September at 7pm

Kate Finegan gives an insight into her in-depth career in community dance, in particular her specialism in Dance for Health. This event will be held online.

October – Creative Industry Insight with Tom Beetham – Monday 4th October at 7pm

Tom’s Creative Industry Insight will focus on his work and experience to date, but he will additionally provide valuable tools on mindfulness techniques, for greater self wellbeing and to avoid ‘burn out‘. This event will be held online.

November – Creative Industry Insight with Sam McCaffrey – Tuesday 2nd November at 9am

CEO & Artistic Director, Dance Woking, Sam McCaffrey, gives an insight into her-journey to date in the creative industries and an insight into her funding application processes. This event will be held online

December – Creative Industry Insight – TBC

Links to these exclusive events are available to directory members

You can find out more about becoming a Dance Surrey Directory or Dance Surrey PRO member here

Dance Woking has been working extremely hard behind the scenes to confirm an Autumn programme of CPD and Creative Industry Insights and are thrilled to now release the details. It promises to be a jam packed programme and with a mixture of online and in person events, we are sure there is something that will appeal to everyone within our thriving local dance community.

Dance Woking has secured some exceptional CPD and Creative Industry Insights for the Summer & Autumn. Forthcoming insights include maximising your portfolio (in July), a summer get together special (in August), seated dance (in September), Wellbeing (in October) to fundraising (in November). We hope that within this blended offer there something that appeals to you. If you have a CPD idea or Creative Industry Professional you would like us to consider as part of our programme please do let us know. We will be sharing more details on each workshop over the coming weeks but for now, please head over to our events page to secure and book your place.

CPD events are available to book via our website and are open to all. Creative Industry Insights are exclusively for Dance Surrey Directory and Dance Surrey PRO members only and booking details will be sent out via email.

You too can join our thriving local dance community by signing up here

Lucy McCrudden is Dance Woking’s July guest providing a creative industry insight on Tuesday 6th July EXCLUSIVELY for Dance Surrey Directory and Dance Surrey PRO members.

Join Lucy McCrudden (aka Dance Mama) for a 25-minute insight as she shares some thoughts on her 2-decade portfolio career in dance learning, participation and management balanced with motherhood. This session will be delivered online, and will provide an opportunity to hear from Lucy, about her entrepreneurial approach to the sector and may spark some ideas about how you approach alternative ways of working, with some top tips on getting started with your idea. This will be followed by a live 15-minute Q&A.

About Lucy: aka Dance Mama, is a London-based dance entrepreneur and advocate. She is Founder of dancemama.org – a community and platform profiling significant parents in dance and the arts. Lucy has dove-tailed her own work with holding key positions in learning and participation over the last 18 years.

As an independent specialist she has taught over 19,000 people across the UK and has engaged with a wide variety of dance and arts organisations in many other capacities: consultant, management, choreography, and presenting/public speaking. She is Ambassador for the Parents in Performing Arts Campaign and Secretariat to the Scientific Advisory Board of the Active Pregnancy Foundation. She has an Honourable Mention as a Nominee of the inaugural AWA Dance Woman in Dance Award 2021.

This Creative Industry Insight is EXCLUSIVELY for Dance Surrey Directory & Dance Surrey PRO members. To book your place email ellie@dancewokingltd.onmicrosoft.com. Once you have signed up for your FREE ticket you will be sent the Zoom login details.

Click here to find out more about becoming a Dance Surrey Member

Introducing Emily Neighbour – A Dance Woking Associate Artist

Emily is an experienced freelance community dance artist, working in Surrey and West London specialising in contemporary and creative dance for early years and older adults. Emily is using her time with Dance Woking to develop her work with early years and families within Surrey later this year. She says of the opportunity : ” I believe that dance is for everybody and creating work that is inclusive of all ages and abilities with Dance Woking to communities who need it most will be incredibly rewarding”

“Creating projects that respond to the community is really important to me. The support from Dance Woking will allow me to develop my work in early years as well as enable me to collaborate with other like minded artists“

As a Dance Woking Associate Artist, Emily will receive a bursary which she is using to establish new creative dance classes for families with under 5’s. Emily is currently working within the Dance Woking Outreach team and has been involved with various projects that have focused on getting young children to experience dance. She shows a brilliant ability to adapt to all participants involved in the classes she leads and we are sure her new classes will be a success.

You can find out more about Emily by visiting her profile page here

Dance Woking developed the Supported Artist Programme, a new annual programme, to support up to 11 local dance artists and creatives living or working in Surrey to help them either re-establish their practice or begin it and help make working within Surrey a more sustainable proposition. Each week we will be introducing you to one of our supported artists and showcasing their ongoing work, achievements and capabilities. For more information about the scheme please click here

Introducing Kate Finegan – A Dance Woking Supported Artist

Kate is an experienced freelance dance artist working with all ages in Surrey, specialising in working with older adults and those with long term health conditions. Kate co-runs Inclusive Intergenerational Dance (iID), an arts for health company working within Surrey. She has recently collaborated with Arts Partnership Surrey to facilitate dance classes for Parkinsons sufferers over the course of a year. Kate is using her time with Dance Woking to support her personal development and gain a further understanding of marketing a dance organisation.

“My work this last year has been a testament to my belief that everyone can enjoy dancing and that dance and creativity is good for mental and physical health. It has been a real lifeline to some and to me, I am keen for that process not to be underestimated as we step towards normality”

Kate has shared an excerpt of Autumn Stories on our Instagram page which is from a collection of creative work from Smile Inside, an @iid_dance project bringing together the stories of isolating older adults and artists. Autumn Stories is a Surrey based project using for which poems were created and readings recorded by Creative Response, Zambesi Dance Company,  professional and community dancers, culminating in a film- the clip shares a story and filming on a very rainy day in the Surrey Hills. You can watch it by visiting our Instagram page

You can find out more about Kate by visiting her profile page here

Dance Woking developed the Supported Artist Programme, a new annual programme, to support up to 11 local dance artists and creatives living or working in Surrey to help them either re-establish their practice or begin it and help make working within Surrey a more sustainable proposition. Each week we will be introducing you to one of our supported artists and showcasing their ongoing work, achievements and capabilities. For more information about the scheme please click here

Introducing Ihsaan De Banya – A Dance Woking Associate Artist

Ihsaan is an experienced dance professional, working across both performance and teaching. Ihsaan is using his time with Dance Woking to explore his practise and develop his work with younger dancers. He says of this opportunity: “Working with young dancers or having the space to explore movement on my own body or doing research and development with other professionals feels integral for me to understand what the product of this practice might be“.

“My own choreography seeks to explore the ideas of remaining present within our moving bodies, diving into our sensation, mood, and quality of movement to reveal what we can learn about ourselves, by listening to ourselves.“

Ihsaan is using his Associate Artist bursary to explore his own movement vocabulary and choreography. He will be in the Arts Suite in Woking this August continuing with this exploration. Dance Woking provides Associate Artists with CPD training, bursaries, rehearsal space and 1:1 mentoring support, alongside platforms to share works in progress with other artists.

You can find out more about Ihsaan by visiting his profile page here

Dance Woking developed the Supported Artist Programme, a new annual programme, to support up to 11 local dance artists and creatives living or working in Surrey to help them either re-establish their practice or begin it and help make working within Surrey a more sustainable proposition. Each week we will be introducing you to one of our supported artists and showcasing their ongoing work, achievements and capabilities. For more information about the scheme please click here

Dance Woking, with the support of Arts Council England’s Project Grants Scheme has provided a unique opportunity in 21/22 for eleven dance professionals who either live or work in Surrey to become Supported Artists and Associate Artists.

The Supported Artist Programme, a new annual programme, supports 11 local dance artists and creatives living or working in Surrey to help them either re-establish their practice or begin it and help make working within Surrey a more sustainable proposition.

Each week we will be focusing on one of our supported artists highlighting their work, achievements and capabilities over our social media channels and on the website. We can’t wait to showcase them all!

If you would like to know more about our supported artists click here