Take time for yourself, be in your body and connect with new people in FREE monthly facilitated dance & conversation sessions. 

When and Where:

Our next session of Dance Included will run from 3:30pm - 6:30pm on Sunday 24 November at Metal (Chauffeurs Cottage, St Peter’s Road, Peterborough, PE1 1YX).

Join us in Peterborough for this free weekend activity - use the link below to book your place.

What to Expect:

Each monthly session will include 2-hours of movement led by an artist (with regular water breaks) followed by a 1-hour discussion period facilitated by a speaker.

The movement sections will be mostly improvisation-based, so you can choose how much you move your body. During these moments of dance, the artist will offer movement ideas and exercises for you to follow, however, this is a time for you to connect with your body, so you can participate as much or as little as you like.

While there will be independent dancing, you will not be expected to present anything to the group - though there will be a chance for you to share your moment with others if you wish to. It’s important to note that these sessions do not come with any preconceived ideas about aesthetics there’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way that something should look, only what feels right to you.

This is followed by a 1-hour facilitated discussion with a speaker.

Expectations in Dance Included Sessions:

It is very important to us that our events provide a positive and respectful environment for everyone. We have drawn up some guidelines about our expectations for conduct during sessions, as well as the procedure for giving feedback during or after a session. Use the link below to read about our conduct guidelines and how to provide feedback.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What to bring:

Comfortable clothing and a water bottle.

Age restrictions:

Dance Included sessions are for ages 16+

Access:

If you have access needs that we can support you with, please let us know when booking your place and we will be in touch to make arrangements.

Dietary Requirements:

Light refreshments will be provided. Please do let us know if you have any allergies or dietary requirements. Donations are welcome to help cover the refreshments.

Welcome to Dance Included’s New Artist: Kate Marsh

Kate Marsh is a disabled dance artist with over 20 years of experience in performing, teaching and making. Her interests are centred around perceptions of the body in the arts and notions of corporeal aesthetics. Specifically, she is interested in each of our lived experiences of our bodies, and how this does (or doesn’t) inform our artistic practice. Her practice-research focuses on leadership in the context of dance and disability and draws strongly on the voices of artists to interrogate questions around notions of leadership, perceptions and the body.

Kate’s work is strongly fed by co-design and co-facilitation, we all arrive into our practice from our own place and pace and this will inform the ways we work together. We will privilege all experiences and ways of being in these sessions, prioritizing a playful, accessible and generative environment.

Welcome to Dance Included’s New Facilitator: Malika Speaks

Malika is a Spoken Word artist and community producer. Peterborough’s Poet Laureate from 2019-2022, she uses her platform to empower people and build bridges across communities.

She is passionate about using the power of communication and creativity in helping individuals heal within themselves and create connections with others, centring her work around self-expression, self-awareness and empathy. Access and inclusivity is a key focus in her practices, reflected in her commitment to supporting other organisations in engaging with wider audiences and creatives. Her work includes consultancy, research, performance, and workshop facilitation.

Her creative practise stretches beyond poetry, exploring and incorporating theatre and dance. Her recent projects investigate the power of movement & visual communication. She is curious about how these practises can support the development of empathy and self-awareness. Malika is developing an initiative to support well-being through workshops consisting of creative and therapeutic writing activities, enriched with holistic wellness methods, including nurturing an awareness to the mind & body connection.

Partnerships include Metal, Peterborough Presents, Syntax, Landmark Theatres, Jumped Up Theatre, and Islah. Malika has performed and appeared on TV and radio shows internationally, including: BBC Look East, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, Inspire FM, Salaam Radio and New Jersey Women’s Club, USA.

Could You be an Artist / Facilitator for Dance Included?

We’re looking for Expressions of Interest! More information using the button below.

Get to Know our Upcoming Artists…

Kate Cox

Sessions: Sunday 12 January, Sunday 2 February & Sunday 2 March

Kate trained at Northern School of Contemporary Dance, and since 2013 has worked as a performer, choreographer, theatre maker, teacher and co-Artistic Director of award-winning dance theatre performance collective Gracefool Collective. 

Kate is a regular collaborator with Liverpool-based Art-Pop band Stealing Sheep. She has choreographed four live shows for them; Luma Disco, (for Manchester International Festival), Suffragette Summer (an outdoor promenade performance for festivals across the UK) WOW Machine (an immersive music and dance experience inspired by electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire), and most recently ‘Eurotopia’ - a live show for the 2023 Eurovision Festival opening concert, performed for a crowd of 20,000 at the ‘Eurovision Village’ in Liverpool. In 2025 she will be choreographing a new full live show for the band. 

Kate teaches regularly at conservatoire and HE level including as a guest teacher and choreographer at Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Edge Hill University and York St John’s Uni. She teaches choreography masterclasses and movement workshops nationally and internationally. She also works across community settings, facilitating movement sessions and co-creating performance work with a diverse range of groups.

Since 2021 Kate has been a lead artist on Yorkshire Dance’s ‘Company of People’, an ongoing project in collaboration with Performing Gender; running regular creative dance groups with communities across Leeds aged 10 - 90 and co-creating work with them as a touring performance company.

Give Us Your Feedback:

Have you been to a Dance Included session (or several)? We would love to know what you thought of it, and how you have found the programme as a whole.

Take a minute to answer our short questionnaire using the link below to let us know how Dance Included is impacting you.

Steering Group

A new steering group will be formed of 6 participants to influence and make decisions about Dance Included, such as co-designing and evaluating the programme within the context of our wider dance strand.

The success of this group will rely on us all practising effective communication skills, (i.e. being open minded, curious and good listeners) and having a diversity of lived experience (age, background, experience.)

We would also seek to identify how being on the steering group will aid their own development.

The steering group will meet 4 times a year and be paid for their time at a rate of the Real Living Wage (currently £10.90 per hour) for meetings.

To express interest in joining the steering group, please get in touch.