Local Councils (UK)
Local councils/authorities usually provide plenty of services and information for families with disabled children (e.g. support groups), or for professionals working with disabled children (e.g. safeguarding). To find a local council's website in a given area, the UK Government website provides a post code / local council finder.
National Disability and Mental Health Organisations (UK)
Downs Syndrome Association
The Down’s Syndrome Association (DSA) is the only charity in the UK dealing with all aspects of Down’s syndrome. Its aim is to help people with Down’s syndrome live full and rewarding lives.
Mencap
Mencap’s mission is to transform society’s attitudes to learning disability and improve the quality of life of people with a learning disability and their families.
Mind
Mind provides advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. They campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding.
National Autistic Society
The National Autistic Society is the UK's largest provider of specialist autism services.
National Deaf Children’s Society
The National Deaf Children’s Society is the UK’s leading charity for deaf children.
Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)
RNIB is one of the UK’s leading sight loss charities and the largest community of blind and partially sighted people.
Scope
Scope is the disability equality charity in England and Wales. They provide practical information and emotional support and campaign to create a fairer society.
Information, courses, guidance and training offered by dance organisations (UK)
ActOne ArtsBase is a charity providing inclusive dance and performance training for disabled and non-disabled people. It provides weekly dance sessions, a trainee programme for aspiring disabled dance professionals, inclusive nightclubs, holiday projects and touring performance companies. Main projects are held in Ware, Watford and Hatfield, but they also offer services across Hertfordshire and London.
AMICI Dance Theatre Company is a unique dance theatre company integrating able-bodied and disabled artists and performers. Founded by Wolfgang Stange in 1980, its productions and workshops have had a major impact world-wide, challenging conventional attitudes about disability and the arts. Based in London.
Resources: ‘The magic of Amici’ Resource Pack - A written practical guide about Amici Dance Theatre Company and their working methods with a foreword by Clement Crisp OBE, anecdotes from Wolfgang Stange and chapters including: The structure of an Amici session, use of music, use of props, words and visual images, from workshop to stage, improvisation and the Amici "Magic". The DVD is a special film celebrating 30 years of Amici, narrated by Sir Ben Kingsley, it shows Amici's amazing history of productions, compiling images from over 250 hours of rarely seen archive footage, including recent interviews with Wolfgang Stange. It also gives a unique insight into the methods that Amici employ in their creation processes and guidelines to workshop practices and works as an accompaniment to the written practical guide.
Carousel is a learning disability led organisation working at a strategic level in the arts, media and education sectors to support the equality of opportunity for learning disabled people in the creative industries. Based in Brighton.
Resources: ‘Nothing about me, without me’ - A disability equality education teaching and learning resource for PSHE education developed and written in partnership with St Luke’s Primary School. Includes lesson plans, assembly ideas and biographies.
Corali is a leading organisation involved in dance created by artists with a learning disability. Based in London. They offer classes and workshop for people with learning disabilities and a youth dance company (Kick Up).
Candoco Dance Company is a professional dance company comprising disabled and non-disabled dancers. They offer a learning programme that includes: International Learning: delivers projects in many countries from Armenia, Ukraine to Palestine. Workshops: for schools, colleges and other education groups delivered by Candoco dancers and artists. Candoco Youth Dance Company: performance company for young disabled and nondisabled dancers working with different professional choreographers towards performances. Training courses for teachers: intensive summer schools.
Resources: Student Resource Pack - explains about the company and its work.
Dance Unstuck is a research and development programme which explores a teaching approach and infrastructure through which dance classes can become more universally accessible to all. Initial research has focused on the ballet genre.
Resources: Teaching resources – barre, centre and travelling exercises which reference professional company class material and the RAD Grade 2 syllabus. Teaching Notes and videos available.
Disability Arts Online is an organisation led by disabled people, set up to advance disability arts and culture through the pages of our journal. It gives disabled artists a platform to blog and share thoughts and images describing artistic practice, projects and just the daily stuff of finding inspiration to be creative.
Diverse futures highlights opportunities for young people in the UK who are disabled. An inclusive place where you can explore careers and pathways in the performing arts.
Information about courses, companies and opportunities, get inspiration from stories from professional artists who are disabled. Find out more about some of the people and institutions blazing a trail to open up higher education in the performing arts to talented disabled young people.
Resources: Map of the UK, signposting training and courses
icandance was established in September 2006 by Founder and Principal Juliet Diener with the vision to make dance accessible for all. Believing in the power of dance and its ability to support well-being icandance’s mission is to nurture creativity, learning and wellbeing through dance and movement.
Jabadao - National Centre for Movement Play
Jabadao offers training, project delivery and resources for teachers working with children and young people with special needs.
Resources: Their online shop has a range of props and resources for sale.
LINKED is a collaboration between four dance organisations – Candoco Dance Company, Greenwich Dance, Magpie Dance and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, providing support for disabled children, young people and their families in South East London to enjoy dance.
Resources: Dedicated Practitioner Support section with useful web links, videos (Videos of interviews with practitioners: What I Wish I had Known! Insights from Inclusive Dance Artists.) and other resources (e.g. listings of organisations and initiatives focused on inclusive dance.)
Magpie Dance is the UK’s leading dance charity for people with learning disabilities. We believe that a learning disability should not be a barrier to personal and artistic success. Through dance, our participants gain life, social and communication skills with added health and wellbeing benefits.
Resources: Magpie Dance offers a range of inclusive training opportunities for teachers, fitness instructors and dance professionals. Workshops offered: Inclusive Dance CPD, Mentoring, Inclusive Dance Practice Training Programme, Inclusive exercise class CPD, Inclusive Event Organisation CPD/ mentoring, Dementia and Dance CPD.
North East Inclusive Dance Network
The North East Inclusive Dance Network is currently made up of a group of artists and organisations committed to the development of inclusive dance practice. The network is an open forum allowing any individual or organisation to join and contribute to the aims of the network.
Resources: List of organisations who are members are on the web site. There is also a page with Useful Links & Documents – including Arts Council guidance documents, links to other organisations delivering the practice and guidelines for venue managers to make venues more accessible etc.
Disability Confident Committed and the national support organisation for dance, One Dance UK lead the way to a stronger, more vibrant, and more diverse dance sector, seeking to create an inclusive dance world full of equal opportunities for all. They are the creators of the Considering Difference - Making Dance Accessible Project, a resource for those who work in, manage, or facilitate practice within dance spaces and venues. The project aims to bring awareness to access barriers in dance spaces, and suggests actions that promote independence and inclusion.
One Dance UK also work with stakeholders on research projects that prioritise access to dance, such as their work with Rambert School - Neurodiversity in the Studio.
They are also the subject association for dance representing the interests of dance in the state school sector. The organisation runs national programmes to increase and widen participation and improve progression routes for children and young people in dance, regardless of their backgrounds.
They have a range of teaching resources available on-line – some that can be accessed freely and others that are available to members.
One Dance UK welcomes queries and questions from the sector about access and inclusion, and can be reached at accessandinclusion@onedanceuk.org, or for general enquiries info@onedanceuk.org.
Read on:
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at One Dance UK
- Considering Difference - Making Dance Accessible
- Neurodiversity in the Studio
- U.Dance National Festival
- U.Dance resources
- Dyslexia in Dance article
- Inclusive and Adaptive Fitness article
- Post Concussion Syndrome (PCS) article
Para Dance UK is the national governing body for Para Dance Sport in the UK. Its aim is to develop and promote dance as a sport and an inclusive leisure activity across the country for those who would otherwise be excluded.
Resources: They are a membership organisation that offer membership benefits, training, a directory of dance groups and instructors, competitions leading to national and international championships. They run training courses in Inclusive Dance Training, Debutante Dance Sport and train Instructors.
Once you complete your course, your first year of affiliation with Para Dance UK is free. Find out more.
People Dancing is the UK development organisation and membership body for those involved in creating opportunities for people to experience and participate in dance. Their membership reaches more than 4,500 dance professionals worldwide. They have more than 30 years’ experience of working to give everyone the opportunity to enjoy dance. They are inspired by a firm belief that everyone has a right to experience dance.
Resources: Their internationally toured 11 Million Reasons to Dance, a photography exhibition and short film programme featuring 20 commissioned images of iconic dance moments from film, all reimagined by Deaf, sight impaired and disabled dancers, is an excellent resource for teachers challenging notions of who can dance and what kinds of dance. On their web site there are also many resources available for teachers covering a variety of topics to enhance teaching with differently abled people.
Knowledgebank is free to access online. Membership fees vary.
RADiate provides subsidised dance classes to children on the autism spectrum, including children with moderate to severe and complex learning difficulties, behavioural and emotional difficulties, those on the Child Protection register, and those who are non-verbal.
Classes: delivered by a small team of highly-experienced teachers on a weekly basis at primary schools in London.
Stopgap Dance Company makes contemporary dance work that integrates disabled and non-disabled dancers. Alongside the professional performances and classes, the company runs a youth dance education programme and community dance workshops. They also produce resource packs.
Resources:
- The Inclusive Dance: a guide to Stopgap Dance Company’s responsive teaching practice – Education Pack and CD provides dance facilitators with practical guidance for delivering dance workshops that are inclusive for disabled and non-disabled people. This pack will guide you through the company’s responsive approach step-by-step from how to prepare for workshops through to detailed descriptions and explanations of each example task. Further guidance and practical experience can be gained through workshops offered by the company.
- Syllabus for disabled children and young people: Stopgap has also developed a talent development syllabus for disabled children and young people – IRIS. It is an inclusive dance syllabus that gives teachers a framework to develop the disabled dancers of tomorrow. IRIS is divided into four levels: Include, Respond, Integrate and Specialise, each having its own set exercises, guidelines and assessments. IRIS aims to give disabled children and young people the same level of structure, balance and rigour of dance education as their non-disabled peers and provide the opportunity to accumulate skills and experiences necessary for the professional industry. The company offer teacher training courses in the IRIS syllabus.
Touchdown Dance is a company that creates performances and workshops for visually impaired and sighted people. They have worked worldwide for over thirty years, bringing together people of all ages and abilities.
Resources: Their education pack is a living handbook they use with students and teachers alike. It as a free e-book to help stimulate discussion among practitioners.
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is the UK’s only conservatoire of music and contemporary dance. Dance Ability are fun, physical sessions where children and their siblings can dance together. In a safe and fully inclusive environment, children are given the freedom to experience, explore and create movement together. Under the guidance of specialist dance artist, and support artists. Dance Ability is open to children with any physical and/or learning disability or sensory impairment. Wheelchair users are welcome.
Resources: Journey into the Laban building PDF
Classes: Weekly movement, play and creative dance sessions for children with disabilities and their siblings. Resource provided on website to prepare for the class
Unlimited is an arts commissioning programme that enables new work by disabled artists to reach UK and international audiences. Unlimited supports ambitious, creative projects by outstanding disabled artists and companies. The projects include theatre, dance, music, literature, performance, painting, sculpture, public artworks, photography, digital artworks, installations, films and more. Unlimited wants to change perceptions of disabled people by commissioning disabled artists in the UK and internationally to make new, ground-breaking and high quality work. They also do this by building a community of Unlimited Allies who help them embed the work of disabled artists in the mainstream cultural sector and improve access for artists and audiences.
Resources: Resources on Marketing, Access, Funding, Professional development and Working internationally’ for artists, cultural workers, creatives and producers provided in blog format.
YDance (Scottish Youth Dance) is the national dance organisation for children and young people in Scotland, based in Glasgow. They offer a range of classes and projects run with different partners across the country.
Projects: Since 2015, YDance has run Horizons – an inclusive youth dance group for ages 12 – 19 based in Glasgow.
