Ally Robson is a Strategy Manager at global consulting company Accenture. His career has primarily focussed on supporting public sector organisations through service transformation and workforce utilisation initiatives. As a passionate supporter of the arts, Ally has joined the board at Dance City to help achieve it's vision for a thriving dance ecology in the region. Originally from Kent, Ally has lived in the North East since attending Newcastle University in 2000, where he studied for both an MA in Creative Writing and an Executive MBA.  As well as being a board member of Dance City, Ally is Vice-Chair of Convocation at Newcastle University. After moving around the region, Ally now lives in Northumberland with his wife Lucy and their young son Harry.

A Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Roshan Israni has over 27 years’ experience in Human Resources and Organisational Development in the public, not for profit and private sectors in UK and India. Born in India, Roshan is a Chemistry graduate and a MBA from Mumbai university and in 1995 moved to the UK  where she has held a number of senior management positions in local government, the NHS, the probation service and most recently in the higher education sector where she currently is the Deputy Chief Executive of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association. Her experience includes leading on employee relations matters, national pay bargaining, significant organisational cultural transformation and restructuring programmes. She is passionate about employee engagement and as Director of People Management and OD led the Northumbria Community Rehabilitation Company to achieve success as a top 10 employer of choice company and gain Investors in People gold and champion status.

Kiz Crosbie is a passionate advocate for using the arts to build personal connections and improve the lives and aspirations of individuals and communities. She was inspired by Dance City’s vision and ambition to lead the development of a dynamic dance ecology in the region and proud to join the Board to help the company achieve this. Kiz is the founder and Artistic Director of Mortal Fools, an award winning North-East theatre and creative learning company. She trained at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and has worked as a Director and Producer across the UK for companies including Royal Shakespeare Company, Live Theatre, Maverick Television and Shakespeare Schools Festival, specialising in work by and for children and young people. Her family roots are in the North East and having lived away for most of her life, Kiz returned to live in Northumberland in 2011 with her husband and daughter.

Geoff trained at the Laban Centre gaining a degree in Dance Theatre, and has since worked as a dancer, choreographer and educator. Performance credits include: Transitions Dance Company, David Massingham Dance, Second Nature, balletLORENT and TDI performance and Repertoire Company. Through a dance commission programme with both Transitions and TDI he has worked with choreographers Liv Lorent, Richard Alston, Aletta Collin, Rui Horta, Mark Murphy, Della Davidson, Charlotte Vincent, Colin Poole, Ben Wright and Vertigo Dance Company. He has also co-run his own project based dance company Jointworks, developing an interest in film and media work. Geoff has a MA in Dance Professional Practice from Teesside University.  

Cora is a recent graduate of Newcastle University with a BA History and Politics. She is originally from North Yorkshire but moved to Newcastle to study and has decided to stay in this wonderful city. Cora has enjoyed dance as a hobby from a young age and has practiced and competed with the Newcastle University Dance Club. Cora has a passion for writing and content creation and is looking forward to starting her professional career at Dance City.

Tessa Petrides is a commercial property lawyer with leading Northern firm, Ward Hadaway. Tessa works closely with her clients to understand their business objectives and to help them to achieve their aims with regards to their commercial property requirements, guiding them through the complexities of the legal system in a friendly and personable manner. The legal work Tessa undertakes has helped clients to open bars and restaurants, erect wind turbines, and acquire and sell a multitude of types of property from industrial warehouses to care homes. Tessa was primarily raised north of the border in Dumfries, then lived in Edinburgh for 10 years, during which time she qualified and practised as a solicitor in Scotland before gaining her dual qualification status to practise in England and Wales. She relocated to the North East in 2014 and now lives in Northumberland with her husband and young family. Throughout her childhood and adult life, Tessa has had a passion for dance as an art form, attending classes, participating in shows and enjoying the thrill of attending live performances as an audience member. Tessa whole-heartedly believes in the positive contribution that dance can make to the individual and to society, and is delighted to join the board of Dance City.

Hope is a Senior Creative Learning Manager for the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) based at the Sunderland Empire. Hope has over 8 years’ experience working in theatre-based learning participation, specialising in inclusivity and audience development. Hope has a great passion and investment in the local communities within the North East that is fuelled by an ethos that everyone deserves, and has the right, to access culture. This informs his commitment in supporting the development of Creative Learning and participation across the wider North East region. In addition, working on behalf of ATG to drive group-wide strategic initiatives including development; working closely with local and national funding bodies, as well as taking a leading role in ATG’s commitment to schools and audience development through its 38 UK theatres in partnership with producers such as National Theatre, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Hope studied Theatre Studies, specialising in Contemporary Dance at Lancaster University before moving back to Sunderland to develop his practice as a community dance and drama practitioner. During his time at ATG he has developed a passion for inclusivity gaining national interest as well as winning a number of local and national awards including the National Autism Professional Award in the alternative education category and more recently the Action for Children’s Arts Award for the impact their inclusive offer has on the lives of children & young people. Hope is a passionate advocate for young people and their entitlement to culture and performing arts, and serves as a Governor at Beacon of Light school.

Having worked in marketing and communications in film and TV, theatre and dance for six years in his native Newcastle, James moved to London and joined the charitable sector in 2011. With vast experience in brokering, developing, and delivering strategic and commercial relationships, James has worked as Head of Corporate Partnerships at British Heart Foundation, Alzheimer’s Society and Stroke Association. He is currently Head of Partnerships and Philanthropy at Independent Age where he oversees the Corporate Partnerships, Trusts and Foundations, and Major Donor functions. James has raised more than £35m for charity in the last ten years and has worked in partnership with such recognisable brands as HSBC, Tesco, Royal Mail, Legal and General, Iceland, Bayer Healthcare, and David Lloyd Leisure. James has a master’s degree in journalism and a degree in English and History. He is a trained Mental Health First Aider, a mentor, and a judge on the annual Corporate Engagement Awards.

Kenneth Tindall is a freelance choreographer and Artistic Director of Digital and Resident Choreographer for Northern Ballet. A former principal dancer, his first full length ballet 'Casanova' received much critical acclaim and standing ovations throughout its 2017 tour of the U.K, including a sell-out week at Sadler’s Wells. The popularity of the show led to its filming and broadcast on Sky Arts. With his first professional commission Kenneth won the Production Prize at the 26th International Choreographic Competition in Hanover. He has gone on to choreograph nationally and internationally, working with established artists and creatives such as Linder Sterling, Christopher Oram, Alexandra Harwood and Ian Kelly. He has been nominated for several high profile awards including Best Classical Choreographer and Emerging Artist at the National Dance Awards and became the recipient of the Outstanding Achievement in a new Dance Production at the Broadway World UK Awards 2017. Kenneth was nominated for the 'Best Classical Choreography' at the National Dance Awards for the second time in his career in 2018 and won the Audience Award at 2019 Genesis Choreographic competition for Milwaukee ballet. In 2020 he was a guest judge at English National Ballet’s Emerging dancer competition alongside fellow judges Tamara Rojo, Natalia Osipova, Edward Watson, Kerry Nicholls & Matthew Hart. Kenneth enjoys a continued relationship with the BBC working on their young dancer television series as judge, mentor and choreographer and also the BBC’s Dance Passions projects. Kenneth has a double nomination at this year Critics Circle National dance awards for ‘Best Classical Choreography’ for his full length ballet Geisha and his one act ballet The Shape of Sound. Kenneth was selected to take part in the 2014/15 Dance UK, Future Arts Cultural Leaders Mentoring programme and was a member of the Artistic and Steering Committee for the Leeds 2023 bid, towards European Capital of Culture. Whilst 2020 put a stop to his UK tour of Geisha it has seen his digital work receive international recognition with his multi award winning dance film EGO. Be it Choreographer, Director, Producer or Creative Director Kenneth now has a catalogue of over 30 works.

Charlotte is a specialist property litigation lawyer, heading the team at Muckle LLP: the proudly north east based commercial law firm. She has over 25 years of experience in her field and has been working with many of her clients for over 20 as a trusted advisor.  Her practice spans commercial, landlord and tenant lease renewals, rent reviews, dilapidations; residential ASB problems, access injunctions and possessions; long leasehold cladding remediation work, service charge disputes and management strategy for right to manage companies and enfranchisement; together with general land issues such as rights of way disputes, trespass and nuisance.

In addition to the technical legal work, Charlotte is part of the management team at Muckle LLP. She is jointly responsible with the managing partner for employee engagement and strategy at Muckle LLP. The wellbeing of Muckle’s people is very important to Charlotte and she is closely involved in trying to  make the Muckle employee experience a good one.

Much of Charlotte’s career to date has been working with the social housing sector and she has a keen interest in this area. Charlotte is Chair of Tyne Housing Association (https://www.tynehousing.org.uk/) , a Board member for Prosper (https://prosper.uk.com/)

and a founding Board member of WISH (northeast) https://www.wishgb.co.uk/our-regions/north-east all of which are organisations in and around the housing sector.

Outside of this world, Charlotte has always loved dance. She danced as a child and discovered Dance City as an adult, taking adult beginners lessons to see if any of those movements learned in childhood had been retained in muscle memory. Sadly, the answer was no but great fun was had in trying to capture them again!

Through that experience Charlotte believes that access to the arts is an enriching experience and one that should be available to all. The ambition of Dance City to ensure that this becomes possible was part of the attraction to the role of Trustee.

Pippa Fox is a Producer currently working at Northern Stage in Newcastle, the largest producing theatre in the North East. Growing up in Suffolk, Pippa was a keen dancer taking part in exams and competitions across the country before going on to study Dance & Professional Practice at the University of Bedfordshire. On graduating Pippa taught dance in school and community settings, before deciding to pursue a career in Arts Administration. An internship at the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds was the first step, and led to a role in the Programming team and the first opportunity to work as an Assistant Producer on a range of shows. In 2015 Pippa joined the internationally acclaimed physical theatre company Gecko as their Project & Participation Manager. During this time, she supported the creation and touring of Gecko’s productions, and led on the co-ordination of the company’s participation work; including schools, college and university workshops, teacher training, professional development residencies and international residencies. In 2019 Pippa relocated from Suffolk to Newcastle to take up the Producer role at Northern Stage. As part of the Artistic Planning team, she is responsible for leading on many of Northern Stage’s in house productions, and for programming visiting work into the theatre. Pippa is thrilled to join the Board of Directors at Dance City, and is looking forward to taking an active role in supporting and advocating for the dance sector in the North East.

Sarah Dewar is passionate about our amazing charity sector here in the North East and all of the brilliant people that work within it. As a Board Member of Dance City, Sarah wants bring her experience of employee engagement, culture and wellbeing to help people to thrive in the work that they do.

Sarah is a HR professional with over 15 years experience of working in the North East working currently at a national not for profit mental health organisation.

Sophie Douglas is a dance artist, practitioner and projects manager with interests in community dance, site-adaptive performance and somatic practices. Before joining Dance City, Sophie has taught extensively in educational and community settings across the SW, including leading the artistic direction of Coast Youth Dance Company between 2018-2021. Sophie’s passion for outreach and engagement has led her to work with a broad range of dance companies and organisations including Pavilion Dance South West, Arts University Bournemouth, Trinity Laban Conservatoire, Made By Katie Green, ZoieLogic Dance Theatre and Dorset Mind. Sophie’s research interests are centred around working in natural environments and investigating her movement practice through a lens of somatic enquiry.

Sarah is Chief People Officer at the national charity Mental Health Concern where she leads on people and cultural transformation and sits on the Executive team.  Prior to this Sarah has worked in both private healthcare and the not for profit sector in a number of HR leadership roles. Sarah is a qualified Coach and has a keen interest in colleague engagement and workforce culture having led on projects such as organisational values implementation, colleague wellbeing programmes, reward and recognition together with organisation design and large scale change programmes.  Sarah was born in Newcastle and having studied in Manchester now lives here with her two young children.  She enjoys going to the gym and long walks in the countryside and on the beach.

Jenny is a Chartered Accountant working for the Newcastle based law firm Womble Bond Dickinson where she is the Head of Business Planning and Analysis. Jenny recently moved back to the North East where she is originally from, after spending 10 years working for Goldman Sachs in New York. During that time, Jenny managed the financials for the Goldman Sachs Foundation and Goldman Sachs Gives, two large and complex charities fully funded by Goldman Sachs.   When Jenny moved back to the North East she was keen to use her experience to support a Newcastle based charity to help drive forward their mission and joined the Dance City Board. Jenny lives in Gosforth with her husband and two sons.

David had an extensive corporate career within large scale organisations delivering contracts and transformation to private and public sector clients. David now combines professional consultancy services with an expanding non exec portfolio. Throughout his life he has always maintained a strong interest in culture and in particular live theatre music. His other roles include Chair of music development organisation Generator. David himself was a musician growing up. David Haley commented: “Music and Dance are big passions in my life. We are very lucky to have a development organisation like Dance City in the region. It is an interesting organisation as it works in the background to support artists as well as directly deliver services directly to the public like performances or through learning and engagement programmes. I’m very much looking forward to supporting the team to develop the organisation.”

Catherine was CEO of Kielder Observatory for 4 years, successfully guiding the organisation through the pandemic and through a business planning process, creating a happy, vibrant, high-profile, and high-performing organisation poised for sustainable growth. Prior to that, Catherine was Director of the North East Centre of Excellence for Satellite Applications, building the fastest-growing space cluster in the UK. Catherine was instrumental in turning the North East Technology Park from "two buildings in a field" to a £100M pioneering science park, was Vice-Chair of the United Kingdom Science Park Association, a Board Director of the International Association of Science Parks (IASP), founded Women in IASP, and sat on the Women's Advisory Board for the North East Chamber of Commerce. Catherine is a highly experienced trustee and director, currently is director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, for iGiant, a Washington DC-based innovation accelerator, an evaluator for Strength in Places, Innovate UK's £300M innovation fund, and will be joining the Council of the British School at Rome in 2024. Catherine has long been associated with Dance City, from taking classes to supporting several of the North East's dance companies. 

Pippa Fox is a Producer and Project Manager working predominantly in theatre and dance. On graduating from the University of Bedfordshire with a degree in Dance & Professional practice, Pippa taught dance in school and community settings before deciding to pursue a career in Arts Administration. An internship at the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds led on to a role in the Programming team and the first opportunity to work as Assistant Producer.   In 2015 Pippa joined the internationally acclaimed physical theatre company Gecko as Project & Participation Manager. During this time, she supported the creation and national/international touring of Gecko’s productions and led on the coordination of the company’s participation work. In 2019 Pippa relocated to Newcastle to become the Producer at Northern Stage; responsible for line producing Northern Stage’s in house productions, and for programming visiting work into the theatre’s three stage spaces.   Currently, Pippa is Company Director & Creative Producer for tiny dragon Productions, an immersive theatre and production company based in Newcastle. Formed in 2021 alongside Mark Calvert & Matt Runham with an aim to deliver unique, innovative and high-quality immersive experiences on and off stage. Alongside their own projects, tiny dragon Productions provide consultancy work for a range of arts organisations and companies focussing on business development, producing, tour booking and programming.

Louise is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales with a variety of experience in financial leadership roles.  Louise is now developing a non-executive portfolio and is currently working with a number of non-profit organisations, particularly in the areas of sport, arts and culture with an interest in increasing social mobility through access and participation.  Louise is delighted to support Dance City to promote dance and the cultural and physical wellbeing benefits that this can bring to the North East community.

Anand Bhatt is a dance enthusiast and producer from Leicester . With an interest in all things Michael Jackson and Bollywood, he stumbled upon contemporary dance in 2007 when he was dancing in a Kathak show along with dancer Aakash Odedra. As Aakash and Anand found their creative talks and dreams aligned, the clearer it also became the Anand was not in fact a dancer. He started to help out Aakash with his shows, and ended up as his producer. Instantly falling in love with contemporary dance but not having seen much of it, Anand has remained focussed on gathering experience and skills by intensively supporting Aakash. Their first project ‘Rising’ featured commissions by Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Russell Maliphant. Aakash went on to be one of the most globally toured cotemporary dancers living in Britain in the 2010s. Anand toured into the UK the works of artist’s including Lali Ayguade, Marcos Morau and Aditi Mangaldas; and worked with Aakash on projects collaborating with Damien Jalet (Inked), Ars Electronica Futurelab & Lewis Major (Murmur) and Shubha Mudgal (Echoes). Anand’s vision is to work with dance as a language without words to build better understanding amongst communities and share culture across the world. Commercially Anand ran a studio space in Leicester, and his resident Bollywood dance school Desi Masti was a force for South Asian dance in the Midlands. In 2014, Anand closed Desi Masti (as Aakash’s work was getting too busy) and partnered with– ‘Shiamak’ the world leader in Bollywood Dance. Anand was artistic director of MJ Timeless, a summer residency show at Blackpool ‘s Globe Theatre which featured an international award winning cast and the show was ravely reviewed. At Dance City Anand became Artistic Director and Chief Executive in 2020. Anand hopes to be a servant of dance to the communities in the region. Outside of dance Anand is trying to learn Spanish (all help is appreciated), and is the most basic amateur gardener.

Sofie has worked in arts administration for the past 7 years - you might recognise their face from their previous role on the Dance City ticket office. They are responsible for supporting the day to day running of the CAT programme. They enjoy dancing in their kitchen and sometimes in non-professional dance projects. They care about inclusive, equitable art spaces and workplaces. When not at Dance City, they are community organising, gardening and rollerblading.

Ellie is a professional dance artist based in the North East. She is co-director of Pelican Theatre as well as being a freelance performer and dance teacher. Ellie started her dance career on the Lowry CAT scheme in Manchester before training at Trinity Laban and then moving to Newcastle to join The Collective company. She is passionate about working with children and young people and is keen to assist those interested in dance to find their own passion. Ellie enjoys meeting new people, being in the countryside and spending time with dogs!

5 Hannah Moreno graduated with a BA Hons in Dance Choreography from Northumbria University in 2009. She then went on to be a member of the graduate company MapDance at Chichester University graduating with a Post Graduate Diploma in Contemporary Dance in 2010. Alongside her role as CAT Manager, Hannah also co-produces a dance platform FRESH based at Dance City and other venues in the North as part of Moving Art Management with Rachel Jean Birch.  

Lissie Connor is a Producer, Coordinator and Dance facilitator based in the North east. With over 10 years experience, Lissie began her career as a performer after completing her training at Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Following a natural development into dance management, Lissie returned to her northern roots working with many exciting emerging artist in the North East. Specialising in Dance Theatre, and outdoor production Lissie has worked on major cultural events including Lumiere Durham, Freedom City & Juice Festival. Lissie also delivers Dance & Pilates, specialising in young people and 55+ age groups.

Jess Avery graduated with a BA (hons) in Fine Art at Sunderland University in 2019. Her time at university really helped to develop her creativity and be able to harness it and apply it to different areas of her life. Joining the Dance City team as a Technical Apprentice is her first step into the creative industries and she is excited to be surrounded by the creative atmosphere of Dance City. When not at Dance City, Jess can be found painting, playing rugby, or playing videogames.

Cheryl Baty is Dance City’s Dance Engagement Coordinator, responsible for connecting Schools, Children and Young People to artists, performances and opportunities. Cheryl works alongside partners to create bespoke projects and educational outreach programs allowing exciting and enriching experiences. With over 12 years’ experience in dance in education Cheryl started her career as a Secondary School teacher at Whickham School and Sports College and as the Dance Link Teacher for the Gateshead Schools Sports Partnership. As well as her role at Dance City, Cheryl is the Managing Director of her dance company Creative Dance North East.

Dr Lucía Piquero Álvarez is a researcher and choreographer. She has presented her choreographic work internationally, including several commissions and residencies (ŻfinMalta Dance Company, Spanish National Dance Company, Le Performance (France). She completed her PhD at Roehampton University in 2019 on the emotional import of contemporary theatre dance. She was a lecturer in dance at the University of Malta 2012-2022 and head of the dance department 2019-2022. She researches embodied cognition and the experience of emotion in dance, influenced by philosophy and psychology, and has presented research in conferences internationally, as well as directed several practice research projects.

Philippa is a HR Professional with over 7 years experience working in Arts and Culture, the majority of that time spent specifically in Performing Arts. Philippa is CIPD qualified in Human Resource Practice and has a Masters in Arts, Business and Creativity from Newcastle University. She is a passionate, creative individual and originally studied Printed Textiles and Surface Pattern Design at Leeds Arts University, graduating with a First Class BA (Hons) degree and spending some time working as a Freelance Designer. In her spare time Philippa still enjoys her creative illustration practice. Philippa is eager to continue to build her career within Arts and Culture; using her knowledge and experience to support and facilitate the work at Dance City. She enjoys classic, modern and contemporary theatre, going to see musicals and is enthusiastic to become better acquainted with different dance genres. Philippa plans to try out as many different classes as possible at Dance City and is particularly excited to try tap dance!

Alex Anslow worked at Dance City as Executive Assistant and Programme Coordinator prior to being appointed Producer in 2021. Alex’s role is to support, develop and implement high quality theatre programming opportunities for professional dance artists and other related forms for Dance City. Alex advocates for, supports and champions Dance and Dance Artists working and living in the North East of England. She supports and develops the professional artists support programme, including the performance programme in Dance City and beyond. Alongside working at Dance City Alex works as a freelance Event Manager at arts festivals across the region including Festival of Thrift and Lumiere Durham. Alex graduated from York University with a BA Hons in History of Art and is a Postgraduate of Northumbria University with a Masters in Cultural Event and Conference Management. alex.anslow@dancecity.co.uk

When Nick joined Dance City as Technical Manager in 2021, he brought nearly 30 years of knowledge and experience of working in the live arts as a technician, production manager, and lighting designer. In addition, as a lecturer in stage management and technical theatre, he helped many technicians successfully start their careers within the entertainment industry. Nick's main role at Dance City is to work with regional, national, and international artists to plan and facilitate the technical elements required for Dance City's performance programme.