What We're Up To

We are delighted to have been shortlisted for the Rix & Kay Solicitors LLP Inclusion and Diversity Award, in the Sussex Sport and Physical Activity Awards 2024. We'll be attending an awards evening at Sussex County Cricket Club on 28th November, when the winners of each category will be announced.

We feel honoured to be listed alongside some incredible organisations and look forward to meeting all the other finalists.

Posted October 2024

This term Natasha is delivering Professional development sessions for Diploma in Dance Education students at Chichester College and for The Step into Dance team at The Royal Academy of Dancing. She is also mentoring a student in their role as teaching assistant at The Place.

We love sharing techniques for inclusive practice through our mentoring and consultancy work.

Posted October 2024

We are pleased to announce that the Parable family has expanded! We have seven new team members coming on board to help us deliver our projects.

Our team now consists of Artistic Director Natasha (FT), General Manager Millie (PT) and project delivery by 14 Associate Artists, 7 Dance Artists and 1 Access Support Worker.

We have a steering committee at Parable, comprised of 7 dance artists with disabilities or chronic health conditions and of our 24 strong team, 10 people identify as disabled. It is important to us that we are an organisation with, not just for people with disabilities.

Posted October 2024

Thanks to support from Arts Council England, We are delighted to unveil the Inclusive Dance Directory (inclusivedancedirectory.com), a national platform designed to unite disabled and non-disabled dance artists and companies like never before. This new resource will serve as a central hub for sharing opportunities, resources, and biographies, and will keep members connected with a regular fortnightly newsletter.

During the pandemic, we saw the power of community when we brought together the inclusive dance sector through the creation of our resource film ‘Inclusive Practice is Good Practice’. The positive response was overwhelming, and it became clear that we needed to create something permanent to keep this community connected. The directory was born from this idea, and the feedback has been phenomenal. It’s great to see how this platform is already making a difference.

The directory is a gift to the entire dance community. Whether you’re a student diving into research, a participant searching for a class, a dancer hunting for the next work opportunity, or an enthusiast eager to catch the latest show—the directory is for you. It’s for anyone who is passionate about dance and dedicated to equity.

Posted September 2024

We are thrilled that monthly ballet classes are starting in Brighton at The Dance Space, as part of our All In! partnership project with National Youth Ballet and supported by South East Dance.

There are beginners and improvers classes open to all. We're particularly proud of the fact that our dance leaders will be teaching aspects of the beginners sessions.

The first class kicks off with a special visiting teacher - the very amazing Suzie Birchwood!

We're thrilled that we have got to this exciting point, where a legacy class is in place to continue to nurture our local ballet talent.

Posted October 2024

Parable is 5 years old!

Natasha and Erica launched Parable on Friday 13^th September 2019 – unlucky for some but not for us!

Natasha and Erica jointly ran Parable for the first two years and in 2021 Natasha became sole Artistic Director of Parable Dance UK and Erica launched our sister company Parable Dance New York.

So much has happened at Parable Dance UK in the past 5 years including:

·      793 dance classes for 2384 people in the SEND community and 750 people in their care networks

·      195 training, mentoring and networking sessions for 1705 dance artists

·      We have worked with 183 partners, appeared in 41 articles/interviews, given 18 performances and received 5 awards

·      Creation of a mentoring programme, 2 networks, a resource film, a dance film and a national inclusive dance directory

·      Partnerships and projects with South East Dance, National Youth Ballet and Brighton & Hove Council

We’re excited to see where the next 5 years takes us!...

Posted September 2024

Back in June Natasha was interviewed by Petra Sittig for podcast ‘The Artists Voice’. Petra asked Natasha about her career and Parable Dance projects. Click the link to watch the full episode on YouTube or you can listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Posted September 2024

Our dancers have been busy performing this Summer.

• In June our adult dancers performed on stage at The Level in Brighton in the ‘Take Part Festival’, run by Brighton and Hove City Council.
• Our youth dancers performed at The Dance Space in July as part of ‘Our City Dances’ – a family festival day run by South East Dance.
• We held three end of course ‘sharings’ of work for friends and family in the theatre at The Dance Space, following the end of our two Summer schools and three day intensive with NYB.
• Dancers Max, Isaac and Grace are performing on the main stage at Sadler’s Wells on 8^th September as part of National Youth Ballet’s ‘Evolving Visions’ programme of new exciting work.

Posted September 2024

Our team have loved getting out into the community again this term to deliver workshops and training in and around Sussex and as far as Islington and Margate… and we have more new projects over the Summer holidays. This Summer we have worked with:

Richard Cloudesley School, Islington - All day workshops every Friday (Georgia has now been teaching there weekly for 2 years!)

Mid Sussex Mencap

Amaze – SEND holiday clubs & Family Fun days

Chailey Heritage Foundation

Woodlands Meed School

Inclusive Sport

Zetetick Housing - Dance party

We are now busy planning workshops for the Autumn term. Get in touch if you’d like to work with us.

Posted July 2024

This August is extra special because we have not one, not two… but THREE Summer courses running at The Dance Space in Brighton!

As a Brighton & Hove Council SEND holiday club provider, we will be running two courses of 4 days each. These are for young people with SEND living in Brighton and Hove aged 12-25.

We are also working with our partners National Youth Ballet and South East Dance, to run three days of inclusive ballet as part of our All In! collaboration. Youth dancers will take ballet class together each morning and in the afternoons a smaller group will recreate our version of Romeo and Juliet, ready to perform at Sadler’s Wells in the NYB gala event!

We’re delighted that all three courses are being hosted by The Dance Space in their amazing Creation space (theatre). We can’t wait!

Posted July 2024

We received THREE amazing offers of funding support this month for our classes! Huge thanks to…

• The Gosling Foundation for a grant which supports our youth classes for a term a year for the next three years. This will really help us make a case for match funding from other sources.
• Bedhampton Charitable Trust for a grant which will be put towards our youth classes for next year.
• Windlesham School in Brighton for choosing us as their charitable organisation to fundraise for. They raised over £500 and held a special assembly in our honour, with a video message from Anton Du Beke wishing us luck!

There is still a shortfall to meet each year and we’ll be working hard behind the scenes to secure more funding to ensure classes can continue long into the future! If you’d like to support our fundraising efforts please get in touch!

Posted July 2024

National Learning Disability & Autism Awards and National Diversity Awards...

We are thrilled to be finalists for the Sporting Chance Award at the 2024 National Learning Disability and Autism Awards. The awards ceremony will take place in Birmingham in June.

We are also delighted to have been nominated for the Community Organisation Award for Disability at the National Diversity Awards 2024. We're so grateful for the votes for this award which have been pouring in from Parable friends and colleagues.

Watch this space!

Posted May 2024

We are excited to have started working with our new mentoring cohort. The programme is running for a third year, online from April-July 2024 with 12 wonderful dance artists, with and without disabilities, from around England. The mentees are keen to develop their skills within inclusive dance teaching as well as their business skills and networks.

Posted May 2024

We had a fantastic time at our Easter school! Thank you to Brighton & Hove City Council for making us one of your 7 SEND holiday club providers and South East Dance for hosting us in the beautiful Creation Space. We had a brilliant 3 days being creative with a sharing for friends and family on the final day.

Thank you to our wonderful volunteers: Trainee Dance Artist Lily and youth volunteers Olivia, Poppy and Zach.

If you would like to join us for our Summer or October courses, read more!

Posted April 2024

We are delighted to share a new short film about our Artistic Director and Co-Founder Natasha. Huge thanks to Matt at Disruptivmedia for telling her story so beautifully, highlighting the person and passion behind our UK work.

Disruptivmedia were a named partner in our recent Arts Council England project grant. They worked with us to support our company development and reach. The film will be used as part of our case for support going forward. Please share with anyone who may be interested in our work or who might like to get involved. We’re always open to new collaborations and conversations.

We’d also like to thank those featured in the film; our wonderful youth and adult dancers, our partner South East Dance, St Nicholas School Canterbury, Grace Thompson and Canterbury Christ Church University. 

Posted March 2024

On Friday 22nd March 30 of our youth and adult group dancers joined forces to perform an epic 70's disco medley at The Brighton Dome as part of 'Let's Dance 2024'. 

Our dancers performed to a packed out theatre and the audience went wild in support when they saw us appear in our sequins and psychedelic patterns to a range of well known 70's hits! Our dancers pulled out all the stops and performed with energy and big smiles. We are so proud of them all for being such pros and have had wonderful feedback from people who were in the audience. 

After the show our youngest dancer (aged 10) said this using his communication tools: 'Dance more theatre show so hot I like dance show so surprise celebration festival so wonderful bright light'.

We can't wait for next year!

Posted March 2024

We are thrilled to announce that our weekly youth and adult classes in The Dance Space have been funded for a whole year by The National Lottery! 

This funding enables us to secure the classes from April 2024 to March 2025 and also to bring former volunteer Holly in as an official member of the team in the role of access support.

Our classes are full with waiting lists and we are so pleased that we can secure this important weekly opportunity for the community that have become so important to us.

Posted March 2024

She did it! Natasha completed the Brighton Half Marathon and we are very proud of her! All her sponsorship money (currently £1170) will go towards running our weekly classes for children and adults with disabilities. If you haven't already (big thank you to those who have!), follow the link to share or if you can spare some pennies, sponsor her for her efforts. Thank you! 🌟

Posted March 2024

We are excited to announce we are now a Brighton & Hove City Council SEN Holiday Activity Provider! 🌟

These sessions are for young people aged 12-25 with a focus on those with SEND. Save the following dates if you're interested (all from 10am to 3pm at The Dance Space in Circus Street, Brighton)...

2nd-4th April
30th July- 2nd August
19th-22nd August
28th-30th October

Bookings are open via the link

Posted March 2024

We're ending 2023 with the exciting news that Brighton & Hove Council have awarded us with Communities fund grant aid. Their support partially funds our classes next term and we'll be asking friends and family to dig deep to support our further fundraising efforts in the new year!

An important part of ensuring the quality of our work includes time for planning projects and communicating with families. This is in addition to a delivery team consisting of a lead teacher, assistant teacher and access support worker, and a number of volunteers. Our delivery model enables us to push the boundaries of what is possible in our classes. We are thrilled that the council have chosen to support this work for Jan-March 2024 and we look forward to maintaining a relationship with them over the coming years.

Posted Dec 2023 

On Saturday 9th December both our adult and youth groups performed on the stage at The Brighton Centre for Dance Active. This annual event is organised by Brighton and Hove City Council and brings together community dance groups from across the city. 

This was the first time we brought our groups together to dance in the same event and it was a huge hit! Follow the link to watch the adult group's dance piece on our YouTube channel.

Posted Dec 2023

"Parable Dance in Brighton is breaking barriers and transforming the landscape for inclusive dance and performance"....

We are grateful to Active Sussex for their in depth feature about Parable, which includes thoughts from our dancers. Active Sussex supported us in gaining the initial funding we needed to get our youth and adult classes off the ground and they have always been keen advocates of our work. The article they have shared highlights our work to people across Sussex who might be interested in finding out more. 

Posted Dec 2023

Natasha is delighted to be joining the steering group for the Critical Dance Pedagogy Network, funded by The Arts and Humanities Research Council and led by Professor Angela Pickard of Canterbury Christ Church University.
The work of the network aligns with our aims at Parable Dance - to raise awareness of socially embedded assumptions that produce unjust educational outcomes. We are looking forward to leading sessions and having some important conversations at the symposium events over the next 18 months.
Why not join us at a symposium event?! Get in touch to find out more.

Posted Nov 2023

We are thrilled to have been shortlisted for the Rix & Kay Solicitors LLP Inclusion & Diversity Award at the Sussex Sport and physical activity awards 2023. The awards are one of the most prestigious events in the Sussex sporting calendar, celebrating the hard work, dedication and successes of individuals and community groups both on and off of the field.

Natasha will attend an awards event at Sussex Cricket Ground on 30th November ... watch this space!

Posted Nov 2023

Our team have loved getting out into the community again this term to deliver workshops and training:

Richard Cloudesley School, Islington - All day workshops every Friday (Georgia has now been teaching there weekly for 1.5 years!)

Amaze - Compass card family fun day

Mid Sussex Mencap - sessions with East Grinstead and Haywards Heath groups

ExtraTime - family Fun Day

Zetetick Housing - Dance party

Brighton & Hove Council - HAF/SEND Family day

We are now busy planning workshops into the new year!

Posted Nov 2023

We are looking forward to working with AED again later this month. We'll be working with experienced and newly recruited adjudicators to discuss inclusive language, especially in relation to feeding back to young dancers taking part in their regional and national festivals. AED are dedicated to increasing accessibility in their festivals and conversations like this play a crucial role in this important shift. 

Posted Nov 2023

It's great to see community dance schools keen to champion inclusion. In October Natasha delivered an online session for The Karen Liddle School of Dance in Hartlepool and in January she will be spending a day with teachers at Prima Stage School in Maidstone. Both were keen for their teams to gain a deeper understanding of inclusion in order to be able to offer inclusive classes in their communities. 

Posted Nov 2023

Watch this space for introductions to the running team! 

Natasha and a team of Parable friends are busy training for the Brighton half marathon which takes place on Sunday 25th February 2024. The team will be collectively raising funds for our weekly youth and adult classes, setting the aim of raising £5000. We'll be sharing our fundraising page later in the year.

Posted October 2023 

We have been incredibly fortunate that Millie Kingsnorth has been on board team Parable since pretty much the beginning. Starting as a volunteer and progressing to Arts Administrator. Millie has proven herself to be an integral part of Parable and we'd be lost without her. Her role and responsibilities have grown and we are pleased to announce that she is now stepping up as General Manager.

With our growth in projects we have also found the need to seek fundraising support which comes in the form of the wonderful Abigail Allt. Abigail has a rich history in fundraising for the arts, including for our partners at South East Dance. Abigail has come on board for an initial short term contract to help us to secure much needed funds to keep our projects driving forward.

Posted October 2023

As part of our partnership with National Youth Ballet for our All In! project, we are excited to be partnering with the ISTD and Joe Powell-Main to lead an inclusive ballet CPD session later this month. We're thrilled that there has been such a big uptake for our professional development, enabling us to pass our learning on to teachers around England.

Posted October 2023

Parable Dance and NYB are delighted to be presenting excerpts from the All In! performance at the Empower In Motion Fundraising Gala at Sadler's Wells on the 7th February 2024. The evening will also feature NYB Ambassador Joe Powell-Main, dancers from English National Ballet and The Royal Ballet. 

Throughout the show, the audience will be introduced to the numerous organisations that work tirelessly to support inclusive dance across Britain. Representatives from these organisations will share their stories and initiatives, shedding light on the transformative impact of their work.

All proceeds raised on the night will be donated to Children Today Charitable Trust as part of their 30th anniversary celebrations. 

Posted September 2023

We spent the last week of August in the beautiful Jamie Watton Creative Space at South East Dance where dancers from NYB and Parable Dance joined forces to create an inclusive ballet company. They performed their own adaptation of Romeo and Juliet,
choreographed by NYB Beyond Ballet® choreographers Ross Black and Hannah George. Ross and Hannah were mentored throughout the process by Natasha (Parable), Jo Meredith (NYB) and dancer Joe Powell-Main. 

We can't wait to share the film of the performance and also a wonderful short documentary of the project... watch this space! 

Posted September 2023

We were excited to meet with our new steering committee this month to talk about our website and social media messaging and to focus on ideas for the future. The steering committee was formed in order to ensure we are hearing and representing the voices of dance artists who identify as having a disability or long term health condition. 

We had great discussions which generated so many ideas for us to work through! 

Special thanks to; Peter, Helen, Katie, Kelsie, Emma, Paul and Becki for their fantastic ideas and feedback.

Posted July 2023

Parable have teamed up with National Youth Ballet (NYB) to create and deliver inclusive ballet professional development (CPD) for teachers. The two sessions, which take place in August will be held at Elmhurst Ballet School and South East Dance. We will be rolling this CPD out in more locations in the Autumn.

Posted July 2023

Our team have loved getting out into the community again this term to deliver workshops and training:

Richard Cloudesley School, Islington - All day workshops every Friday

Brunswick Primary School, Brighton - weekly one hour class 

South East Dance - Our City Dances workshop

Amaze - Compass card family fun day & Face 2 Face family fun day

Carousel - Summer arts explorer workshops

We're delighted to have been asked to return to Richard Cloudesley School every Friday for another whole year and have lots of great workshops lined up for next term including with a new housing association and with Mencap. We will also be delivering CPD for The ISTD in partnership with NYB. Busy busy busy!

Posted July 2023

We are excited to be premiering our new dance film 'Sister' on The Parable Dance YouTube channel: 4pm on Friday 12^th May (and available thereafter).

‘Sister’ is a Parable Dance UK film Choreographed & performed by Georgia Poole and Lauren Payne and made possible thanks to Royal & Derngate Generate Artist support & public funding by The National Lottery through Arts Council England.

'Sister' looks at the supportive and loving relationship between 2 sisters… “now we dance as two”.

Posted May 2023

We've been busy delivering workshops and training across the South East this term and our team is loving getting into the community to meet so many wonderful dancers. This term we have taught for:

Extratime, Brighton - family fun days

Richard Cloudesley School, Islington - All day workshops every Friday

Woodlane School, London - Day of workshops and a performance of our duet 'Sisters'

St Johns School, Brighton - two afternoon workshops

Mid Sussex Mencap, Burgess Hill & East Grinstead - evening dance sessions

Brunswick Primary School, Brighton - weekly one hour class for the term

Canterbury Christ Church University - professional development days for year 2 dance education students

Posted April 2023

We started the mentoring programme with our wonderful new cohort of dancers/teachers in February. We'll be getting together on Zoom on Monday evenings until June and covering a range of topics including Makaton signing, dance for Parkinson's, dancers mental health, business skills, inclusive dance teaching skills and much more. 

Each person taking park will also receive one to one mentoring from the Parable team and will be encouraged to set themselves challenges and targets for their career.

We're only one session in and we can already tell that this is going to be a great new mini inclusive dance community! 

Posted March 2023

We kicked off the first NEID meeting of 2023 with the wonderful Jo Meredith, Creative Director of National Youth Ballet, who spoke to the group about the NYB and Parable Dance inclusive ballet project 'Applied Ballet, All In'.

In the March meeting we will be welcoming disabled dancer, model and activist; Kate Stanforth, in May and July the Parable team will be leading inclusive dance discussions and in September we welcome Co Artistic Director of Stopgap; Laura Jones.

Visit the 'what we offer' page for more information.

Posted February 2023

Posted Feb 2023

We were awarded an artist support grant by Royal and Derngate Generate to create a performance duet. Georgia and Lauren have been working hard on this for months and the finished piece called 'sister' is now ready for booking at events.

In order for their wonderful choreography to reach a wider audience, we decided to make it into a film to share with festivals as well as online. We are beyond grateful to Charles Mansfield-Osborne at Megapixel Movie who is supporting our work by providing his services in kind. He spend a weekend filming the duet and will edit it into a short film ... we can't wait to share it with you soon!

Posted February 2023

This month we were delighted to be asked to deliver an inclusive dance professional development session for dance teachers working on the CAT scheme and youth classes at the Place. 

Some of the 33 teachers who took part have got in touch to join our other networks and programmes which is great - we love that our work connects people and starts important conversations about inclusion.

Posted Jan 2023

We’re delivering a professional development session this month for the All England Dance adjudicators. They're looking to expand their regional and national festivals to address access and ensure opportunities are open to all young people. It’s great to see leading dance organisations like AED (who are about to celebrate 100 years) addressing inclusion. We will be continuing the conversation with them beyond the training so watch this space.

Posted November 2022 

We are thrilled to announce that Natasha won the National Lifetime Achievement Award at the She Inspires Awards! 

In addition, Lauren was shortlisted at the same awards event for the National Cultural Champion Award. Natasha, Lauren and their families attended the awards evening virtually on 24th November.

We were also honoured to be shortlisted at The Sussex Business Award for the Community hero award. Natasha attended the awards evening at The Grand Hotel in Brighton on 1st December. We were extra delighted to be shortlisted alongside Best of British Events who sponsored our t-shirts and give us business mentoring and we're thrilled for them that they won the category.

It has been wonderful being part of both awards events and celebrating the great work happening around the UK.

Posted December 2022

We were thrilled to be recipients of a Generate Artist Support Award from Royal & Derngate Theatre, Northampton. The funds have enabled us to create a performance duet, choreographed and performed by two of our team members; one with a learning disability and one who is non disabled. We are excited that the duet, which will be about female empowerment, will be premiered at Wild Fest in Stanmer Park, Brighton this month. We’re hugely grateful to Shakespeare in Italy for the opportunity to be part of the programme - Find out more through the link and catch us on stage at 11am!

The duet is available to book for events, please get in touch if you're interested in discussing a booking. 

Posted Oct 2022

We were thrilled to be invited to attend two prestigious awards ceremonies in June and July 2022, as we were shortlisted for three awards.

The Autism Hero Awards: Natasha for 'Lifetime Achievement'.

The Learning Disability & Autism Awards: Natasha for 'Outstanding contribution' and Parable for 'Sporting Chance'.

We didn't win but we felt like winners being included alongside some incredible people and organisations.

Posted July 2022

Natasha Britton as Great Briton of the week!

Natasha was asked to visit the news room at national news channel GB News this month, where she was featured as Briton of the week and asked about her career and the work of Parable Dance. The interview features footage from our weekly adult group and Carousel Dance Party warm ups.

Posted May 2022

Natasha had an amazing time working with 10 SEN schools from around Sussex to create a closing ceremony dance for the Sussex Parallel Youth Games. She led a warm up for all 300 children then worked with groups from 6 of the schools to make a dance for the closing ceremony. Huge thanks to Active Sussex for bringing us on board to be part of such a special day.

Posted May 2022

We are delighted to be working long term with both ExtraTime and the Richard Cloudesley School. 

We delivered a number of holiday workshops for Extratime over Easter and are looking forward to returning to dance with children in May half term and the Summer break. We are also going to be leading dance workshops as part of their new family fun days on Saturdays throughout the year. 

Georgia has been loving her Tuesdays at Richard Cloudesley School and so have the children there. So much so that they have asked us to continue to deliver a day a week until July 2023! 

We are so happy to be working with organisations whose values closely align with our own and who place high importance on the value of dance!

Posted May 2022

Georgia is having a great time working with pupils at Richard Cloudesley School in Islington. She is there dancing with them every Tuesday and has been full of praise for how creative and open the children and staff have been so far, only 2 weeks into the project. We look forward to seeing the amazing moves they create over the coming weeks!

Posted May 2022

On 6th May Natasha is looking forward to teaching in Oslo, Norway for the Senter for Dansepraksis - the national governing organisation for dance. Natasha will work with dancers and teachers. There will be a screening of 'Inclusive Practice is Good Practice', a panel discussion and a professional development workshop covering inclusive dance techniques. 

Posted May 2022

Parable Dance UK are delighted to be one of three partner companies working with South East Dance. The three companies, which all celebrate diversity, will deliver workshops and classes in the new dance space. Classes will begin prior to the official opening of the space, in the test period beginning in April. We are delighted to be working with and supported by such a prestigious organisation.

(Posted March 2022)

We are delighted to be launching Parable Dance New York! 

Parable Dance provide inclusive dance workshops and weekly classes for people with disabilities in the South East of England and training worldwide. Parable Dance, based in Brighton, will now be known as Parable Dance UK, with the newly launched company named Parable Dance NY.

Going forward Natasha will lead on UK activity and Erica on US projects. Natasha and Erica have a combined 34 years-experience creating and delivering inclusive dance projects and designing training for those wishing to work in this field. In the two and a half years since Parable first launched, they have delivered training and connected people all over the UK through their bespoke projects such as; a mentoring programme, tour of universities and their inclusive dance networking groups. Expanding across the pond was their aim from the very start. They are delighted to take their methodologies to dance students with disabilities in New York and to students and teachers all over the US. Check out our NY website by switching .co.uk for .com

(Posted March 2022)

On 24th March Natasha attended an awards presentation at The Palace of Westminster and a second presentation at Church House to receive her British Citizens Award for services to the arts. Natasha is now invited to use the post nominals BCAa. This prestigious award recognises the work that Natasha has undertaken over the 22 years she has been working in inclusive dance. Her nominees put together a collection of letters and video messages from past and present students and colleagues to form her nomination.

(Posted March 2022)

We are thrilled to welcome our two new patrons: Kay Ashton MBE and Sofia Oxenham. As patrons Kay and Sofia will champion our work and inclusion in the arts. 

Kay Ashton MBE, is a podcast, vlog creator talking about all things disability and also works day to day for a large media organisations consulting on disability.

Sofia Oxenham is an actor who graduated from RADA in 2017 and has since acted in a variety of roles for film and TV, including Poldark and Cursed.

We're so grateful for their support and are excited to be working with them.

(Posted February 2022)

We were invited by Carousel to take over their radio show for an episode. Parable Dance Artists Joe, Lauren, Hannah and Megan had a great time being the radio hosts; introducing music, chatting about health and wellbeing and of course covering all things inclusive dance!

(Posted February 2022)

Parable Dance Artistic Director Natasha is being honoured with a British Citizens Award at The Palace of Westminster in March in recognition of her services to the arts. Natasha will receive a medal of honour and be invited to use the post nominals BCAa as a legacy of her achievement. 28 people will be awarded a BCA at the event in March, often referred to as ‘the peoples honours’. We look forward to sharing pictures with you after the event!

(Posted January 2022)

Our work is being supported by The Royal and Derngate, Northampton. Parable Dance has been selected as one of 10 Generate Associate Artists who R&D will support for the next 18 months. Natasha and Erica will attend monthly meetings to network with the other artists and will receive bespoke support from the amazing R&D team to develop Parable's work.

(Posted December 2021)

We have been working on an Arts Council funded project with DanceSyndrome called Connect. Dancers from DanceSyndrome have had workshops with Erica over Zoom to explore their choreographic methods and connection through dance. They will be performing their work in February. Alongside this work, Natasha has been project evaluator, delving into DanceSyndrome's creative ethos and successful ideas for connection in dance to take forward into the future. The findings of the project will also be shared publicly in February. 

We'd like to thank the amazing dancers and team at DanceSyndrome for asking us to be part of such a great project and for being so welcoming!

(Posted January 2022)

We have had a great time delivering panel events and professional development sessions online and in person for universities and organisations including: Canterbury Christ Church, Winchester University, The ISTD, University of East London, Edge Hill University, University of Central Lancashire, The RAD, Kingston University, University of Lincoln, University of Suffolk. 

This project was supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. It has enabled us to meet lots of emerging dance artists and introduce them to a network of other inclusive dance practitioners and companies. A huge thank you to the panel members that we have worked with so far: Rachael Lines, Kate Stanforth, Corali, Helen Mason, Patrick McGeough, Adam Benjamin, DanceSyndrome, Kimberley Harvey, Annie Waller, Paul Davidson Natt, Caroline Lofthouse and Ella Fleetwood.

(Posted Jan 2022)

We are excited to announce that we will be running a 5 month mentoring programme for dancers/dance teachers with and without disabilities. We are offering 12 FREE places to train with us in fortnightly online sessions which will cover a range of inclusive dance topics. This is a brand new bespoke programme which will be developed to suit the needs of the cohort. Applications are open and we'd love to hear from you if you're interested. 

(Posted Jan 2022)

Parable Dance is thrilled to announce that we are the winners of She Inspires Awards 2021 National Culture Champion Award. We are so grateful for the support of our artists, dancers, and community!

(Posted December 2021)

Natasha has been shortlisted for the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Autism Hero Awards. The awards ceremony will be held in a hotel in Chelsea in March 2022 (delayed from Nov 2021) where the winners of the 12 awards categories will be announced. We're looking forward to meeting all the other finalists and hearing their stories.

(Posted November 2021)

Annie and our team of dance artists will be delivering fun dance workshops to 12 schools and organisations around Sussex in the lead up to Christmas, to spread the word about our new weekly classes.

The Brighton based classes (youth 10-18 yrs and adults 19 yrs +) will launch in January in partnership with South East Dance and Carousel. For more information and to book your place click on ‘what we offer’ and scroll down to ‘weekly classes’. We’d love to see you there!

Thanks to Active Sussex and Sports England for supporting us to get these started!

(Posted Sept 2021)

We’re excited to be kicking off our virtual visits to 12 universities and organisations around the UK, delivering professional development, streaming our film and panel discussions. The panels will feature the Parable Dance Artistic Directors alongside two guest inclusive dance artists. We’re looking forward to the first few events on our schedule at The University of East London, The ISTD and Kingston University and our guests at these include Sarah and DJ from Corali and Adam Benjamin. As always we’re thrilled to be working alongside such incredible artists.

(Posted Sept 2021)

This week we started working with pupils at Brunswick Primary School in Hove. Natasha will be visiting to deliver weekly dance classes across all year groups for the whole academic year, leading to dance films and mini sharings of work as each group celebrates their achievements.

(Posted Sept 2021)

We’ve been working with the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD), a global organisation who provide quality dance training across a diverse range of genres. Parable Dance will be delivering a second professional development session for ISTD teachers in October, looking at practical tips for translations/adaptations of technique. In addition, Natasha and Erica are excited to be supporting the team at the ISTD to address access and inclusion in a bespoke piece of work with their lead lecturers later in the year.

(Posted Sept 2021)

We are finalists for two She Inspires Awards; Culture Champion and Women in social enterprise. We feel honoured to have been shortlisted for such prestigious awards and will be attending the glamorous awards ceremony in November when the winners will be announced … watch this space!

(Posted Sept 2021)

We were selected by South East Dance to deliver a joint project with Carousel as part of ‘Our City Dances 2021 Festival’. Our project was a live inclusive dance party for people of all ages, where Annie and Joe led routines to cheesy pop tracks, written and recorded by learning disabled bands. You can still join in the fun by watching again on our YouTube channel.

(Posted Sept 2021)

Are you interested in inclusive dance but not sure where to start? Do you need support and signposting to opportunities? Do you want to connect with others interested in this area of work? Join the Network for Emerging Inclusive Dancers (NEID). It is FREE to join, and includes presentations from established inclusive dance artists from around the UK. NEID is best suited for dancers in England, but we welcome those from throughout the UK. NEID was made possible using public funding by Arts Council England.

Catch Natasha and Erica on the podcast Love, Life & disABILITY with Kay Ashton MBE. The episode is available on YouTube (Link below), Spotify, Apple, and Audible.

(Posted June 2021)

We are thrilled to have secured £10,000 from The Maria Bjornson Memorial Fund which (alongside the £10,000 we secured from The Backstage Trust) will be for an exciting new education project supporting the next generation of inclusive dance artists... more soon!

If you're an emerging dance artist/ new graduate we'd love to hear from you so that we can add you to our list of contacts to tell about this work.

(Posted May 2021)

We were delighted to be asked to speak at the 11 Million Reasons to Dance Network on 13th April 2021. The network is hosted by People Dancing and is for anyone who currently works or aims to work with access and inclusion embedded into their dance practice.

We spoke at the event about the film resource 'Inclusive Practice is Good Practice'; about how people could make the most of the film and what we'd learnt from the process. If you're not already a member, you can find out more and join through the link.

(Posted April 2021)

Following the release of our resource film 'Inclusive Practice is Good Practice' we were delighted to be asked for interviews by BBC Radio Sussex & Surrey, Brighton Radio Reverb and Latest TV. 

These interviews gave us a chance to talk about the film but also about future projects, the wider world of inclusive dance and fair employment for dance artists with disabilities ... Follow the link to our YouTube channel and select the 'News & Interviews' playlist.

(Posted April 2021)

Following the success of our film resource 'Inclusive Practice is Good Practice', we and many of the other artists in the film wanted to stay connected. We have decided to host a monthly 'inclusive cuppa catchup' as an informal space to chat, share opportunities and feel connected.

We are aware that there are so many more experienced inclusive dance practitioners out there who we couldn't feature in the film and we'd love to connect with you. If you're experienced in this area of work and would like to join our community we'd love to hear from you. Please email natasha@parabledance.co.uk to be added to the list.

For those newer to inclusive practice there will be a group for you coming soon too... watch this space!

(Posted April 2021)

We are delighted to have been awarded £10,000 by The Backstage Trust to develop an exciting new project which will expand inclusive dance training opportunities UK wide... watch this space for more info!

(Posted April 2021)

We have been invited to be guest speakers for a webinar by The Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD). 

The session on Monday 24th May at 4.30pm is available for free to ISTD members and for £15 to non members. 

This session will guide you to ensuring accessibility in dance classes. We will provide top tips  around communication, touch, props, access, adapting movement, performance and progression, as well as there being a chance to ask questions and discuss ideas.

Follow the link to book.

(Posted April 2021)

We are delighted to have been awarded a donation of £3000 from The Chalk Cliff Trust! This funding will go towards the development of our work supporting emerging inclusive dance artists. We can't wait to get started on the project.

(Posted March 2021)

Our film 'Inclusive Practice Is Good Practice' featured on BBC South Today News on 24th February 2021. The two minute feature highlighted the contributions from 7 of the dancers who feature in our film. It also included an interview with Paul Davidson, who both speaks and dances in the film. Paul makes a poignant comment in his interview about dancing for love and joy and not letting disability define you.

(Posted February 2021)

Parable Dance are delighted to have been asked to be part of a panel event for South East Dance on 30th March 2021, appearing alongside dancer Laura Dajao (LauraDDances) and James Greenhalgh and Laura Jones from Stopgap Dance Company. This will be an online discussion about making your work accessible and is a free event aimed at dance graduates and emerging dance artists.

(Posted February 2021)

We’re delighted that Natasha will be the inclusivity expert on the judging panel for the South East Dance U.Dance selection process for the sixth consecutive year. The panel will shortlist groups from the South East region in March 2021, all hoping to be featured in the online festival in April and for a place in the National U.Dance festival. 

(Posted February 2021)

The Royal & Derngate (Northampton) host The Generate Festival. As part of this they are running 'Genfest Movement' on 20th March. The day is dedicated to supporting the work and development of professional and emerging artists.

There will be workshops, Q&A, CPD and interviews throughout the day, including with Parable: a CPD session, interview, streaming of our resource film and a panel event. 

We're delighted to be programmed alongside wonderful artists such as Sir Richard Alston and Diverse City and to be embarking on an exciting new relationship with the wonderful Royal and Derngate team.

(Posted Feb 2021)

Our fun online inclusive dance warm ups and club night in partnership with Carousel have proven popular and have been featured in 5 local newspapers! We're really grateful for the features by:

Brighton & Hove Idependent

Brighton Magazine

GScene

Crawley Observer

West Sussex County Times

(Posted Dec 2020)

We are thrilled to announce that we are being supported using public funding by The National Lottery through Arts Council England. The funding we have received is for an exciting nationwide inclusive dance film project. We are hugely grateful to be able to work with 45 inclusive dance artists and organisations around the country. Thank you to Arts Council England, and to our partnering organisations and supporters: South East Dance, One Dance UK,  Disability Arts Online, and Unlimited. Watch this space for more announcements about the project and our collaborators!

We were asked by Carousel to collaborate with them to produce an online version of their inclusive Blue Camel Club night. Their DJs picked 6 cheesy tunes and we choreographed accessible routines to teach to the BCC party goers.

This project presented the opportunity for us to pay dancers with learning disabilities for the first time as members of the team. Natasha, Associate Artist Annie and Dancers Joe and Lauren spent a fun day socially distance filming the instructions and routines. The six 20 minute segments are being aired as 'warm ups' every Monday night in the lead up to the Live Dance Party on Dec 14th 2020 when we will be leading 2 of the dances live. 

We're excited to be delivering online zoom sessions in collaboration with South East Dance, which address inclusion for both online and in person teaching. 

For more information and to book:

Inclusion & access for online dance teaching: Weds 5th August @ 10am

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/inclusive-dance-for-online-teaching-tickets-112220522604

Inclusion and access for in person dance teaching: Fri 11th Sept @ 10am

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/inclusive-dance-for-face-to-face-teaching-tickets-112224089272

We are delighted to have been nominated for The 'Entrepreneur of Excellence Award' in The National Diversity Awards. Thank you to everyone who voted for us.

Natasha has also been nominated for the second year running for the Mentor of the Year Award' in The Inclusive Companies Awards. 

Check out "Dance and Disability: A Parable of Progress" written by Imogen Hunte, featuring Parable Dance with interviews by Natasha Britton and Kimberley Harvey! Illustrations by Niamh McBride.

Natasha has been asked to bring her inclusive dance expertise as a judge for a new online dance competition. The RAD's Step Into Dance have launched 'Step on Trend'. Young people aged 11-25 from London and Essex are being asked to submit original dance moves that could be the next trending move like the Floss or the Dab. The competition runs throughout June and July and we're excited to be involved.

We've been busy reaching out to previous clients as well as making new connections, to publicise our offer of inclusive dance training online. We now offer two shortened professional development sessions via zoom. One addressing face to face inclusive dance teaching and another covering techniques for working inclusively when teaching online. We are also offering bespoke online mentoring sessions.

We have delivered several exciting projects so far:

We successfully delivered a one hour training session to a group of 68 dance teachers from the national franchise babyballet, who took their work online during lockdown.

We created a short instructional film for The RAD (Step into Dance), advising how families can support a child with additional needs taking part in their online classes.

We delivered training to a team of 7 teachers from Imagination Arts to add to their inclusive dance knowledge, ready for when they return to face to face teaching.

There are more projects in the pipeline... Watch this space! 

Join us for fun, 15 minute online, inclusive dance classes!

Fun 15: Families

Fun 15: Care homes and assisted/residential living

Natasha has really enjoyed being a mentor for the RAD Step Into Dance programme this month working with one of their wonderful teachers and a group of students in South London. She will be taking on a 'Partnership Support' role with 6 more teachers throughout 2020!

Get in touch for bespoke inclusive dance mentoring opportunities with us.

We are thrilled to have returned to deliver workshops for Mencap in Merton, Burgess Hill, and East Grinstead groups. We have various workshops scheduled throughout 2020. Keep an eye out for dates as they approach!

We had a great time working with students at Hill Park School & candidates from Team Domenica in Brighton (October & November 2019) on behalf of Katie Dale-Everett Dance.

Parable Dance is in the press! We have a feature in Wellspring Newsletter. Click the read more button below and scroll to page 14 to read all about us!

Erica is an editor for The Dancer-Citizen, an online, open access journal exploring the work of socially engaged dance artists. See her Letter from the Editor and the journal's Issue 9: dancercitizen.org/issue-9

In January we will be working with Canterbury Christ Church University's Dance Education degree students. We will be exploring methods of inclusive practice and supporting the students' work at a local special school.

Feeling proud- Natasha has been nominated for the Inclusive Companies ‘Mentor of the Year’ Award 2019. 

Erica and Natasha are honoured to have both been nominated for the One Dance UK ‘Inspirational Community Dance Practitioner Award’

We're so excited to be up and running! Be sure to follow us on social media!

We had great fun delivering a training day to the freelance team of Step Into Dance teachers at The RAD on 11th September. The team deliver workshops in schools in London & Essex, funded by The Jack Petchey Foundation. One Step Into Dance freelancer commented, “I think this was the best SEND training we’ve had so far”

We’re delighted to be working with South East Dance, Natasha was on the panel for their event on 12th September: ‘Artist conversations; Access, Studios and the Dance Space’. 

We’re excited that Natasha will be the inclusivity expert on the judging panel for the South East Dance U.Dance event for the fifth consecutive year. The panel will shortlist groups in November 2019 and those selected will perform in the platform at The Brook Theatre in Chatham in March 2020, all hoping for a place in the National U.Dance festival.