Chair: Judy Evans
Physical Education, Dance and Arts Education Consultant, Berkshire
Judy is Chair of the NDTA, Director of Hands On CPDA Ltd an Arts in Education Company and an Education Consultant in Physical Education, Dance and the Arts. Judy provides advice, support and training in all phases of education including PESSYP, monitoring and reviewing the arts in schools, organising arts conferences and evaluating arts projects. Judy has had a wide teaching experience in dance from early years to higher education. Formerly an Adviser for Physical Education, Sport and Dance in Berkshire and an OFSTED Inspector Judy is currently engaged in a variety of projects and initiatives. She is an Artsmark adviser, assessor and member of the project team for Arts Council England, adviser and assessor on the Graduate Training Programme for the West Berkshire Training Partnership, external examiner for the University of Brighton PGCE Secondary Dance, editor of Primary Subjects and a primary school governor. Judy is also a member of the Association for Physical Education.
Vice Chair: Penny Perrett
Advisory Teacher for Performing Arts, Worcestershire
Penny is currently Vice Chair for NDTA and an advisory teacher for Performing Arts in Worcestershire. She originally trained as a physical education teacher, specialising in dance, teaching in two large comprehensive schools in London before re-locating to Worcester. She has worked as PSHE coordinator, Head of Year and curriculum manager for the PE and the Arts, ultimately working as an advanced skills teacher of dance at Bishop Perowne CE College. She is an examiner and moderator for GCSE dance and was a Lead Practitioner for the Arts with the Specialist Schools’ Trust. Her special interests in Dance and the arts in education include developing creativity within the whole curriculum, dance partnerships and providing access for young people to participate and to perform in school and beyond.
Treasurer: Lorraine Franklin
NDTA National Dance Teachers Association
Committee Members
Lucy Pocknell
AST & Manager for Dance, Davison High School, Worthing
Lucy Pocknell has been teaching P.E. and Dance for 10 years in the Sussex area following her training at Chelsea School, University of Brighton. She is currently Manager for Dance within a large P.E. Department, teaching both G.C.S.E. and A/S level Dance and has been a moderator for G.C.S.E. Dance for 6 years. Lucy acts as a mentor for both PE students undertaking initial teacher training and for PGCE Dance students. In 2001, she was designated an Advanced Skills Teacher and since then has worked closely with the local advisory service providing outreach work for local schools as well as setting up INSET courses in Dance for primary teachers and for those teaching both Key Stage 3 and G.C.S.E. Dance. She is vice chair of the West Sussex Girls P.E. association and has been instrumental in setting up Gifted and Talented workshops in Dance for girls in year 9. She has recently set up a G.C.S.E. Dance teacher’s support group for colleagues in the local area. One of her most significant contributions is joint authorship of “A Practical Guide to Teaching Dance”, a keystage 3 publication, commissioned by NDTA and AfPE.
Kate Beveridge
Head of Dance, St Bartholomew’s Business and Enterprise College, Newbury
Kate has a degree in Dance and Culture BA (Hons) from The University of Surrey and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from The University of Brighton. She completed two years of teaching in Wolverhampton before accepting her current position at St Bartholomew’s School. While teaching dance throughout Key Stage 3, GCSE and A Level in Wolverhampton, she also worked as a Specialist Link Teacher (SLT) for Dance. While working as an SLT, she developed dance in primary and secondary schools, which were part of the Wolverhampton School Sports Partnership, and she was responsible for outreach work and providing INSET training for primary teachers. She created a Primary Dance Resource pack and initiated sustainable dance projects within Wolverhampton. She has introduced dance to Key Stage 3 and AS Dance at St Bart’s and is involved with the development of dance as part of the SSCo Partnership. Kate is also a member of the West Berkshire Dance Network. Kate is committed to all children having access to high quality dance education and is proud to be teaching a subject in which all young people can achieve.
Liz Dale
Council for Dance Education and Training
Liz trained as a specialist dance and drama teacher and has accrued over 30 years experience teaching both subjects to Advanced level. She led highly successful departments in three schools, most recently at one of the top performing secondary schools in the country. Liz has produced and directed over eighty dance, drama and musical theatre productions during her career and her work has been performed throughout the country including at prestigious venues such as the National Theatre, Tate Britain, The Lowry, Laban and The Imperial War Museum of the North. An exceptional number of her former pupils have been accepted into top vocational schools including Central School of Speech and Drama, London Studio Centre, Laine Theatre Arts, Millenium Dance, Laban, Northern Ballet School, NSCD, LIPA, Doreen Bird, RSAMD, RADA, Welsh College, Rose Bruford, Guildhall and ALRA. Two of her former male pupils are currently in full-time training at the Rambert School.
As Chief Examiner AQA GCSE Performing Arts: Dance she was part of the team responsible for shaping the new GCSE Dance specification and she regularly leads training on all aspects of GCSE Dance for teachers, moderators and coursework advisors. Liz is also Head of Education and Training at the Council for Dance Education and Training in London; the national standards body of the professional dance industry, where she has specific responsibility for the oversight of the accreditation of programmes of training in vocational dance schools. She also works privately as a freelance dance teacher and consultant.
Rachael Jefferson Buchanan
Senior Lecturer in PE, Dance, Education Studies & Primary Professional Practice, Bath Spa University College, UK Consultant ‘Fundamental Movement Skills’ (STEPS PD)
Dance has been Rachael’s great passion for most of her childhood and adult life. It began at the age of three with those ballet gallops, followed by incessant RAD ballet exams and various enchanting roles in both amateur and semi-professional productions as a jewel in Aladdin’s cave, a ‘sylphide’, and a nutcracker rat! Many years later she remains dance-inspired! Rachael specialised in dance at Chelsea School of Human Movement in Eastbourne where she gained a BEd (Hons) in Physical Education and Special Educational Needs. She began her teaching career at a secondary comprehensive in Basildon, where she taught PE and developed GCSE Dance. In 1990 she moved to Switzerland to become a PE/GCSE Dance teacher in the International School of Geneva, working with students aged 5-18 for more than thirteen years and eventually becoming Head of PE & Dance in 1997. During her Geneva years, Rachael took a sabbatical year and embarked upon an MA in Dance Studies at the University of Surrey, focusing on dance education, anthropology, analysis and gender. She then began to develop a writing career alongside teaching full-time in Geneva, and has since published a Fundamental Movement Skills book, along with many PE/Dance articles and teacher resources. Rachael returned to her West Country roots in January 2004 to take up a senior lecturing post at Bath Spa University, where she teaches PE and Dance to trainee primary teachers, and leads a range of undergraduate modules in Dance Analysis & Criticism, Dance Research and Education Studies. Rachael enjoys working with all age groups in Dance education, teaching private Creative Ballet and Street Dance classes to children aged 3-11 years, and delivering Dance CPD to primary teachers. She also regularly presents dance papers, seminars and workshops at national and international conferences. In January 2007 Rachael became the UK consultant in Fundamental Movement Skills (STEPS PD, Western Australia); she is researching this fascinating area within her PhD at the University of Birmingham, interrogating the aims of primary physical education through a critical analysis of movement programmes and initiatives.
Beth Butler
Dance Coordinator, Theale Green Community School
Beth trained at Roehampton Institute, London before completing a PGCE in Dance at the Chelsea School of Education. She currently is the co-ordinator for Dance at Theale Green Community School; a specialist arts college. She has previously led a successful Dance Department introducing A Level Dance and developing the quality of boys dance. She has been instrumental in writing successful bids for re-designation of Performing Arts status and the Arts Mark Gold award. She is experienced in training PGCE Dance students; has worked on a number of collaborative projects with both secondary and primary schools and is also an A Level Dance practical examiner. Beth believes dance is a subject where all students can achieve and believe in themselves and their own potential.
Sue Trotman
Adviser for Effective Practice Physical Education and Dance
Sue Trotman has worked in education for over 30 years and is currently Adviser for Effective Practice Physical Education and Dance within Sandwell LA. She has spent most of her career in delivering Dance in-service training regionally, nationally and internationally. Sue is enthusiastic and passionate about ensuring all pupils experience high quality dance education. In 2000 she supported QCA in providing national guidance and was co-author of Top Dance which is now available to all Primary schools. She is a member of afPE and previously been vice chair of the NDTA. Sue believes that collegiate working is the way forward in securing a dance education for all.
Zoie Golding
Producer, Rock Challenge UK/Founder and Choreographer FuzzyLogic Male Youth Dance Company.
Zoie Golding has been the Producer of the national performing arts competition, Rock Challenge® the last 6 years. Zoie is also the founder and choreographer of the highly successful FuzzyLogic Male Youth Dance Company. Set up in 2000 the company now runs boys workshops in schools and referral units. Develops projects that engage ‘at risk’ young males and creating performance rep for the main company. Zoie also now runs training on ‘how to engage boys into dance’ as well as holding inset days in schools around the country.Since it began, FuzzyLogic has grown to become increasingly popular and well received across the country. FuzzyLogic aims to push the boundaries of male dance through a unique style of high tempo and energetic contact work fused with exciting narrative contemporary dance.As producer of the UK Rock Challenge, Zoie has seen first hand the powerful effects of the arts on mass. Her role as Producer includes organising and supervising all aspects of a 40 show tour held at prestigious venues around the country with over 400 schools and 22,000 young people participating in 2009. Zoie has also produced and worked on shows in Dubai, South Africa, Germany and Australia. All of these experiences have lead to a comprehensive understanding of the dance and arts industry both in the private and public sectors.
Fiona Smith
Principal Lecturer, Physical Education & Dance, Chelsea School, University of Brighton, East Sussex
Fiona Smith is currently Programme Leader for PE & Dance at the Chelsea School, University of Brighton, where she has been lecturing for the past 14 years. Before joining the university she worked as a Dance Artist in Education and Dance teacher at various secondary schools both in England and California. Fiona has led numerous in-service courses for both new and experienced teachers on many aspects of dance spanning KS3 to examination work and has a reputation for delivering creative ideas and processes. She has a particular interest in the teaching of dance composition and raising the profile and status of dance for boys. She is Director of the all-male Kick-Start Dance Company. Lucy is co-author of ‘A Practical Guide to Teaching Dance’, a Keystage 3 publication commissioned by the NDTA and AfPE.
Special Adviser: Mandy Quill
Representative to the NDTA Regional Representative Network
Mandy is a teacher of Physical Education. After training at Chelsea School of Human Movement and graduating with an honours degree in 1978, she has taught in several comprehensive schools before becoming second in department and in charge of girls at The Mountbatten School in Romsey Hampshire. This post she held for 16 years until she was appointed the Partnership Development Manager for the Hamble School Sport Partnership in 2003. She is now based at the Hamble Community Sports College in South Hampshire. Since taking up this role she has continued to develop her interest in Dance by becoming chairperson of DASH, ( the dance teachers’ association for Hampshire) as well as piloting the new Dance leaders award for Sports Leaders UK and being selected to be part of the lead practitioner programme for 2007/08.
Special Adviser: Ginny Brown
Dance Partnership and Access Programme Manager, The Royal Ballet School
Ginny trained at Elmhurst Ballet School, The Royal Academy of Dance (LRAD) and specialised in community dance at the Laban Centre. Ginny’s work has focused on the interface between the professional dance world and dance in education. She worked for the education departments of Rambert Dance Company, the Royal Opera House and English National Ballet – where she was Senior Dance Officer and then Acting Education Manager.
Ginny then focused on developing arts education in her local area working for the Kingston Music and Arts Service as Arts Co-ordinator and then Deputy Head of Service. During this time she also served as a Regional Representative for the National Dance Teachers’ Association (NDTA); set up a module in Ballet Company Education at University of Surrey, Roehampton and undertook dance education consultancy for Central School of Ballet and The Royal Ballet School.
Ginny joined The Royal Ballet School in 2005. Since then she has developed a national programme of primary and secondary projects and has established a Course in Ballet Education, in collaboration with Royal Opera House, to train teachers to work in this inspiring area.