top of page

Honorary Members

Previous Chairs of  DanceHE  - (formerly, Standing Conference of Dance Higher Education - SCODHE )

​

Vida Midgelow

Dance Artist/Academic, Vida L Midgelow is Professor of Dance and Choreographic Practices at Middlesex University, UK. She has over 20 years experience facilitating and lecturing. Her movement and video work has been shown internationally and recent essays include, Some Fleshy Thinking (2015) and Creative Articulation Process (CAP) (co-authored with Jane Bacon, 2014). She is currently editing the Oxford Handbook on Improvisation in Dance (OUP, forthcoming) and is the principal researcher for the Artistic Doctorates in Europe project. As Director of Research Degrees in the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries (Mdx) she specialises in the supervision of PaR doctorates. She also undertakes dramaturgical and consultancy roles beyond the University context. Extending these interests Midgelow co-edits, with Prof Jane Bacon, the hybrid peer-reviewed journal, Choreographic Practices (Intellect Press).

for more details: https://www.mdx.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-directory/profile/midgelow-vida

​

Jayne Stevens

Became a Emerita at De Montfort University in 2018 and Reader in Community Dance Dance Pedagogy. She was a Principal lecturer in Dance at De Montfort University. Her roles within the University have included Head of Dance (until 2016) and Head of Pedagogic Research in the Centre for Excellence in Performance Arts (2005-09). She has served as Chair (2007-10) and Vice-Chair (2004-07) of SCODHE [now DanceHE]. Jayne was the first recipient of a UK National Teaching Fellowship in Dance in 2000 and since 2005 has been a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her research focused on dance pedagogy, creative and choreographic practices, the history and practice of British community dance and employability and the creative industries. Before teaching full time at DMU she had worked as a leading independent dance artist in the East Midlands and as co-director of Glasshouses Dance Company funded by ACE . Jayne retired in 2018,  but continues her role as an Emerita Reader at DMU.  

http://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/academic-staff/art-design-humanities/jayne-stevens/jayne-stevens.aspx

​

Jo Butterworth

Jo Butterworth retired in 2017 having attained Professorship in Dance Studies at the University of Malta (www.um.edu.mt/performingarts). She was invited to the University of Malta in 2008 to do a consultancy on Dance study in the University, and wrote and validated both Bachelors and Masters programmes. From 2010 – 2015 she was Head of Dance Studies at UoM, and founding Director of the School of Performing Arts from 2012 – 2015. Jo continues to work with postgraduate students in the School. Formerly Head of Dance at Bretton Hall, and subsequently Senior Lecturer in Dance at the University of Leeds (1979-2005), she initiated and directed the first BA Hons Dance programme in the North of England, and also an MA in Performance Studies. From 2002-2010 she directed a part-time MA in Choreography at Fontys Professional University, Tilburg, Holland, and taught on part-time postgraduate courses at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA).

​

Jo’s education started at the Laban Art of Movement Studio; she read for a Masters at New York University and received her doctorate from the University of Kent in 2002. Research interests focus on dance making and its applications which led to the Arts Council-funded project The Greenhouse Effect: the art and science of nurturing dance makers (1997-1999) and the publication of Dance Makers Portfolio in 1998. In 2009 she published Contemporary Choreography: A Critical Reader for Routledge, co-edited with Liesbeth Wildschut, and more recently the single-authored Dance Studies the Basics (2012) also for Rutledge. Jo was Chair of Wayne McGregor | Random Dance Board for 12 years until 2013, and a trustee of Northern Ballet in Leeds, UK (2006-2016). She is now a trustee of Zfin Malta Dance Ensemble, the national dance company of Malta, and Chair of Opening Doors Association, Malta. She joined the Board of Dundee Rep Theatre, the home of Scottish Dance Theatre .

She published a second edition of Contemporary Choreography: A Critical Reader with Liesbeth Wildschut, a chapter for Oxford University Press The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Dance, and a chapter on Interdisciplinarity in the Performing Arts for the University of Malta Press. She retired in 2017.

​

Prof. Paul Kleiman PhD PFHEA FRSA 2015-present

Paul was a Senior Consultant (Higher Education) at Ciel Associates, Visiting Professor in Performing Arts at Middlesex University, and a Principal Fellow of the HEA. He has been at the forefront of enhancing and supporting learning and teaching in higher education through his ten years as Deputy Director of PALATINE, the UK’s Subject Centre for Dance, Drama and Music and, from 2011-2014, as the Higher Education Academy’s UK Lead for Dance, Drama and Music.

Paul trained as a theatre designer and worked – as a designer, director, performer and writer – in political and community theatre and TIE. He ‘stumbled’ into teaching in further and higher education, and was one of the founding tutors of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA). He has a national and international reputation as a consultant, facilitator, evaluator and speaker, and his work and research – particularly in the fields of creativity, chaos and assessment in higher education – is published and widely cited in books and journals. In 2014 he was a member of the Quality Assurance Agency’s Review Panel for the Subject Benchmarks for Dance, Drama and Performance, and he advised the Dept. for Education on the reform of ‘A’ levels in dance, drama and music. In 2015 he researched and wrote the major report for GuildHE on the importance of institutional diversity in UK higher education and the value and impact of the smaller universities and small, specialist institutions.

To escape from the above, he retreats to the old narrowboat he and his partner (+ obligatory dog) restored, and watches the world float by.

​

People Dancing – The Foundation for Community Dance 2014-present

The Foundation for Community Dance creates and develops opportunities for people to experience dance in all its diversity. Our vision is of a world where dance is part of everyone’s life and makes a positive difference, and our mission is to make engagement with dance important and relevant to individuals, communities and society. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to take part in dance in a way that’s right for them. As well as creating new opportunities, we enable life-long engagement in dance and place inclusion, equality and diversity at the heart of all our work.

​

OneDance UK (Formerly DanceUK )2014-present

www.onedanceuk.org

One Dance UK is the industry body formed in April 2016 bringing four key dance organisations together: Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD), Dance UK, National Dance Teachers Association (NDTA) and Youth Dance England (YDE).

This initiative was the result of a three-year commission ( Arts Council England) to create a consortium bringing the four leading dance organisations together in a unified “go-to” industry body, recognising the industry demand for radical transformation of its workforce and talent support.

One Dance UK combines more than 100 years of expertise in a simplified, strengthened and specialist body nurturing and developing talent and delivering excellence in:

  • education

  • youth dance

  • dance of the African diaspora

  • performance

  • health and well-being

  • management

  • leadership and career development

One Dance UK directly benefits in excess of 40,000 people working in the UK dance workforce, it benefits children dancing in and outside school, and it indirectly impacts on the millions of people who participate in dance and watch performances.

Independent Dance 2013-present

Independent Dance (ID) is an artist-led organisation providing a responsive framework to support, sustain and stimulate dance artists in their ongoing development as professionals.

It provides a specialist and coherent programme offering opportunities to learn, deepen enquiry, share practice and exchange ideas as part of an interdependent international community.

The classes and workshops at the core of the programme, led by internationally renowned artists, place a particular focus on movement exploration as a source for performance, improvisation and composition.

bottom of page