Photo credit: Niamh Donnelly, 2023
[Image Description: two young women dancers are sat, back to back, on a wooden studio floor. The dancer to the right is leaning forward with their arms resting on their legs. The dancer on the left is leaning backwards, against the other dancer, with their head facing upwards. The image is black and white.]
Emily started her MeshDance journey as a member of our youth dance company. She then began volunteering as a support worker in sessions, progressing on to paid employment with the company in 2019.
Emily currently trains in theatre and dance at Mind the Gap and Northern Ballet. Emily has been developing her dance facilitation skills further by undertaking a supported work placement at Mind the Gap with their One Day Dance course and at their new satellite Academy in Calderdale. At MeshDance, we supported Emily to apply for her own Developing Your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England in 2019. As part of this project, we supported Emily in developing her facilitation and choreography skills whilst working with our youth dance company.
On DITTO, Emily says ‘it’s been something totally different and I’ve been really inspired by the soundscape. I have enjoyed working with the dancers because they’ve worked hard and brought my ideas to life! I just love working with people and enjoyed choreographing the duet. We made three different versions of the same duet and it’s great to see how each pair has made their own version of the choreography. The soundscapes have made us think about moving in different ways, I’m excited to perform the work!’
Photo credit: Adam Perry, 2018
[image description: A black and white headshot of a young woman, Emily. Her hair is dark coloured and tied up. She is wearing a pair of dark rimmed glasses and a short sleeved dark coloured tee shirt. Her gaze is towards the left, following the direction of her outstretched arm. There are two other people in the background, but they are out of focus and unidentifiable.]