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Lisa Ullmann Travelling Scholarship Main Fund Award Report: Attending the The European Association of Dance Movement Therapy (EADMT) 2025 Conference in Lithuania

Last year our Artistic Director was lucky enough to be supported by the Lisa Ullmann Travelling Scholarship Main Fund Award to travel to Lithuania to the European Association of Dance Movement Therapy (EADMT).

Having a range of experience working with people with health challenges including those living with dementia, periodic limb disorders and poor mental health, I could see how my work was making positive impacts on people, but I wanted to further understand where my work sits on the continuum of movement in healthcare and to better understand what my offer is and how I might work with a Dance Movement Therapist (DMT) in the future.

Find out more about my experience and thoughts around the trip here: Lisa Ullmann Travelling Scholarship Main Fund Award Report.

📸 by Nerijus Jankauskas

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Read our 2025 social impact report!

As we move into 2026 we wanted to celebrate the impact of our work in 2025. Interested in finding out more? Read our 2025 social impact report below.

KDE Dance Social Impact Report 2025

📸 by Paul Read Photography

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Support from Arts Council England!

I am extremely grateful to Arts Council England National Lottery Funding for their support of my next project ‘Moving Together’.

Using dance and digital tools we will work with partners to nurture wellbeing, connection and creativity in paediatric wards, care homes and community spaces.

I know funding is tough so if anyone would like me to look over an application for them I can support the first person who reaches out.

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2025 Lisa Ullmann Travelling Scholarship Fund recipient

I am really pleased to share that I am a 2025 Lisa Ullmann Travelling Scholarship Fund recipient.

Thank you to the fund for supporting my travel to Lithuania in September so that I can attend the 5th European Association of Dance Movement Therapy Conference: Visibility, Vitality and Vision of Dance Movement Therapy in an Unpredictable World. Learning from the conference will help me discover new ways to communicate the importance of movement in rehabilitation, wellbeing, and connection.

Find out more about the conference here.

📸 by a project partner.

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Artistic Director receives a place on the UK Creative Community Fellowship Programme

United KingdomDerby Museums, The Bowes Museum and NAS are proud to announce the 20 talented individuals selected for the 2025 cohort of UK Creative Community Fellows, a unique leadership programme designed for artists, creative entrepreneurs and community leaders who are passionate about driving meaningful change across the UK.

This one-of-a-kind programme blends in-person and online learning to support leaders working at the intersection of arts, culture and community development. Over the course of seven months, Fellows will engage in an eight-day residency in Yorkshire, a retreat at Derby Museums, small coach-facilitated groups for personalized support and monthly online meet-ups fostering connection and growth.

“UK Creative Community Fellows reminds us of the transformative power of investing in people,” said Tony Butler, Executive Director of Derby Museums. “This year’s cohort is grounded, experienced and poised for growth. I’m confident this programme will assist them in amplifying their work and building lasting change in their communities.”

UK Creative Community Fellows’ curriculum is co-created by programme alumni and experts in the field to ensure it remains relevant to the realities creative leaders face today. Fellows will learn practical frameworks and tools centred around the pillars of Person, Process, and Project to amplify themselves, their work, and their partnerships within their community.

“This is not a typical fellowship—it’s a dynamic community of practice,” said Hannah Fox, Executive Director of The Bowes Museum. “We’re proud to support these inspiring individuals as they refine their vision and unlock new ways to scale their impact. Their projects are bold, imaginative, and urgently needed.”

Begun in 2020, this marks the fourth cohort of UK Creative Community Fellows. The programme is supported by Arts Council England. and delivered in partnership with NAS. The programme has become a launchpad for cultural entrepreneurs seeking not just to make art, but to make a difference.

The 2025 UK Creative Community Fellows are:

  • Mahmuda Ahmed
  • Katie Atkins
  • Dr Vicky Bowskill
  • Khadijah Carberry
  • Katie Fay Dale-Everett
  • Juan delGado
  • Hannah Engelkamp
  • Richard Eyers
  • Mark Hornsey
  • Katherine Hughes
  • George Jones
  • Anthony Kalume
  • Ayisha de Lanerolle
  • Toni Lewis
  • Astrid Mohr
  • Caroline Murray
  • Dina Ntziora
  • Polly Schomberg
  • Lois South
  • Claire Thompson

Article information from https://www.artstrategies.org/press-clippings/uk-creative-community-fellows-welcomes-20-new-leaders-using-arts-to-transform-communities/

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Bridging the Cosmos School Tour Impact Report

In November 2024 we toured motion capture and dance performances, have a go workshops and Q&A sessions to the following five schools across Surrey who also received activity packs:

  • The Abbey School,
  • Cranmere Primary and Nursery School,
  • Gosden House,
  • Potters Gate C.E. Primary School,
  • Thames Ditton Junior School.

Read about this work and it's impact in the report below. If you would like us to visit your school, please get in touch to discuss this further.

Bridging the Cosmos School Tour Impact Report

Bridging-the-Cosmos-Surrey-School-Tour-Impact-Report-2024-KDE-Dance.pdf

Thank you to Arts Partnership Surrey, Arts Council England National Lottery Funding and PlayWell Productions for the support in making this happen.

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Introducing Our New Social Story Video

We are delighted to share our new social story for Playscape: How to Build a Galaxy, a short video sharing all elements of what to expect when joining us for a workshop and/or a performance.

What does this social story tell you?
Our social story is broken up into different sections to reveal different aspects of the work for people to find out more about before joining us. These sections are:

  • Meet the team,
  • What is the tech?
  • What props do we use in our workshops?
  • What the piece is about?
  • How you may experience it?

Why did you want to make the social story?
We created this film to offer a deeper insight into our creative process and what we offer. Given that we use advanced technology not widely accessible, we felt it was important to share this information. Our projects incorporate numerous props, lighting, sounds, and textures to create an immersive experience. By making this film, we aim to eliminate any uncertainties and help people understand what to expect when they engage with our work.

Watch the Playscape: How to Build a Galaxy Social Story

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Supported by Arts Council England National Lottery funding to build more galaxies in 2024!

We are so excited to share that we are being supported by Arts Council England National Lottery funding to build more galaxies in 2024. 

With this support, we will be exploring how we can develop our motion capture work ‘Playscape: How to Build a Galaxy’ so that it can engage more young people who are not as often involved in scenarios that promote the development of their talent. More details to be announced soon! 

📸 by KDE Dance during a workshop with Spun Glass Theatre.

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Artistic Director Katie is now a Mental Health First Aider!

“It is well established that reduced wellbeing in children and young people increases likelihood of poorer wellbeing in adulthood, which may lead to reduced opportunities and outcomes within work, health and relationships.” (Mental Health Foundation, 2022). We hope, for a future where nobody is at risk of this and aim to be part of the conversation, action and impact helping to reduce this.

This is why Artistic Director Katie has become a Mental Health First Aider.

The course by MHFA England taught knowledge and skills for providing first aid to support people who may be experiencing poor mental health.

We commit to keeping up to date on best practice and to being there for our communities, beneficiaries and team.

Thank you to Active Surrey for supporting us to take this course!

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Finding Fathers R&D 2022

A special project of ours was working  on 'Finding Fathers' a film, dance and music journey exploring the intimate stories of real people seeking out their birth fathers, directed by Matt Kowalczuk. Here more about what he thought of our time in the studio together here.

Matt's Reflections: 

I am very happy to announce that the 1st phase of Finding Fathers R&D was a very successful experience. We spent one day exploring ways to develop choreographic movement to extract filmed interviews based on the themes of fatherless and masculinity in the 21st century, turning this into a contemporary dance piece/ film documentary.

I worked alongside the exceptional talents of Katie-Dale Everett (Choreographer), Gabby Sanders (Dancer) and YiAnn Kok (Assistant producer). We collaborated together and have created some content for us to explore these stories even further and deeper.

None of this would have been possible if it wasn't for the following help and support. Firstly thank you to our contributors (whose identity will remain anonymous as it is a sensitive subject), who have shared the stories of the relationships or their lack of; with their fathers and have given this project a rich abundance of storytelling that we can explore. I can definitely relate to their journeys and this has touched me deeply.

Secondly, I would like to thank Phakama who have been our funders for the R&D at this stage through the Phakama Artist Bursary. Thanks to Anna Glarin from Project Phakama for coming to Brighton and seeing our R&D. Also thank you to Phillip Edgerly@ Institute for Contemporary Theatre (ICT Brighton) for letting us have a space to explore these stories and to Jess Cheetham from Spunglass Theatre for her advice.

What's next?

I filmed what we created on the day. I will be in post-production over the next couple of weeks, editing what we created. I will share once completed. This will be used to secure further funding hopefully to scale things up, including adding more content by conducting more interviews around the country, working with two dancers instead of one, and creating a hybrid/poetic dance documentary and a theatre production.

Because my own story is still being explored as I don't know my father, I am on my own journey within this project. I'm currently doing some family research on my background; as there has been a lot of vague and conflicting stories that I got from my mother. I've ordered a DNA test and I will share the results once I have done the test.

Finally, we are always looking for people who would be willing to share their experience of fatherlessness. It doesn't matter what perspective you are coming from, but we would like to see this explored from a female perspective next time! If you are interested please PM and I will contact you.