I have worked in the dance sector for over 20 years in a variety of roles – as a performer, teacher, choreographer, producer, manager and programmer/curator. I joined the DanceXchange team in 2013 after finishing my Masters in Arts Policy and Management at Birkbeck College in London.

My passion and enthusiasm for dance started at my early age. My parents remember when I was about 5 years old that I tried to stage my first ballet in the living room on the music of Bedrich Smetana. I founded and for seven years led artistically a Prague based community dance company before going to study choreography at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where I gained my MA in 2006. After graduation I worked as a producer and rehearsal director for DOT504 Dance Company, the first regularly funded contemporary dance company in the Czech Republic. I was lucky enough to join the company following its great success in Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Tanzmesse.  During my time with the company I produced and managed numerous dance projects and toured internationally.  Moving to the UK in 2010 to pursue my MA at Birkbeck, I then worked for Retina Dance Company in Nottingham before joining dx as Programme Manager for Performance and Artist Development.

In this role I worked alongside the Director of Production and Programming on the development and delivery of the performance programme for the Patrick Centre’s regular seasons and International Dance Festival Birmingham 2014. I also led on the establishment of a more robust and cohesive Artist development programme. My most important personal accomplishment during this period was the start of regular professional classes in partnership with Birmingham Dance Network and the following increased number of professional development opportunities for the artists in the region.  Building on this initiative dx launched several of our current schemes such as dx Choreolab, dx Choreography Award and Artist in Residency and Dance Insights, an opportunity for artist to discuss creative process with the public.

I then moved within the organisation to the role of Executive Producer and led on the strategic development and delivery of all our Performance and Artist development programmes including the Jerwood Choreographic Research Project and curating the programme for International Dance Festival Birmingham.

In my current role of Head of Artistic Programmes I am leading on the strategy planning, development and delivery of all our Artistic programmes and working closely with the Learning and Participation team to ensure all our programmes share a common vision and work in harmony with each other. One of my main responsibilities is to lead artistically the Birmingham International Dance Festival.

In 2015 I completed The Clore Leadership short course.

My role within DanceXchange is to co-ordinate the performance and artist development programmes, this includes performances in the Patrick Studio and Birmingham International Dance Festival as well as artistic development schemes.

My passion for dance started at the age of three when I took up ballet, shortly followed by jazz, tap, modern and eventually contemporary at the age of 18 when I started my BA Hons Contemporary Dance degree at De Montfort University in Leicester. After graduating I worked as a Freelance Dance Artist before becoming Programme Co-ordinator at Warwick Arts Centre, starting at DanceXchange in March 2017.