Meet our Advisory Board

Antonia Grove began her career in Rambert Dance company and went on to dance with some of the country’s most celebrated companies and choreographers. A hugely talented and multi-faceted performer she has been nominated three times  for the Critics Circle National Dance Awards as best female dancer (modern) and for a Time Out Live Award. She founded the dance theatre company Probe in 2004 and has since produced and performed five touring productions.

Stuart trained at The Northern School of Contemporary Dance (BA degree) and London School for Contemporary Dance, where he studied for his Masters degree. Stuarts self -development training has been varied being, part of the One Dance UK mentorship programme. In 2011, as well as being awarded the Lisa Ullmann fund to travel to New York to train with Susan Klein. In 2015 Stuart received support from Dancers’ Career Development to train as a Reiki Therapist, beginning Stuart’s journey into mental and emotional health safety. The Dancers’ Career Development have since awarded Stuart further support (2020) for training as a Human Givens psychotherapist, which Stuart uses as a framework and reference for his own artistic practices and teaching.

Stuarts teaching has spread across 22 years nationally and internationally in all areas of education and community as well as a vast amount of experience with, Centre for advanced training schemes all over the UK. Stuart was a full -time member of the teaching teams at Trinity Laban and Dance East. Stuart has also taught extensively across the UK as a guest teacher at Universities and Conservatoires such as The London School for contemporary dance, The northern school for contemporary dance and most recently Stuart collaborated with The Rambert school for Ballet and contemporary dance where he researched with 2^nd year students throughout 2019 (Safe guarding the mental health of the artist in the creative process).

Over the last 20 years Stuart performance career has been expensive nationally and internationally indoors and outdoors. Stuart has co-created seminal works, in leading UK companies, such as, Motionhouse dance theatre, Protein Dance, Barebones, Wired aerial theatre, Panta Rei dance theatre (Oslo, Norway). Stuarts career also includes collaborations with directors such as, Rui Horta, Ben Duke (Lost Dog), Antiona Grove, Pippa Duke, Helen Baggest (Gecko physical theatre) Helen Blackburn, Kenneth Tharp, Rhiannon Faith, Sharon Watson, Henri Ougike, Mike Ashcroft, Liam Steel and Kerry Nichols (mentoring programme 2018 & coaching circle 2020).

As a solo artist, 2019 marked a profound year where after 3 years of support from Dance East and Arts Council England Stuart toured his first full length piece of work. ROCKBOTTOM touring nationally through out 2019.

2020 has also seen continued support from The Place where Stuart’s research into further work has been accepted into their Choreodrome programme, a research residency for established artists to explore new artistic territory, with additional support from the Wellcome Trust.

Stuart is passionate about bringing his varied experiences to the studio in a driven and playful way.

Hugh Jones grew up in Liverpool and spent a considerable amount of his early years following his sister from White Lodge to the delights of summer season variety in Margate, Bridlington, Weston-Super-Mare and winters in panto. His first personal experience of ‘contemporary dance’ was going to see Ballet Rambert’s Cruel Garden on his own in his early teens.

At the not so tender age of 18, Hugh found himself in the heart of the early punk and new wave scene, with a slight detour into fringe theatre with Ken Campbell. Hugh moved to London where he staged managed a huge number of alternative music shows, cabaret, club nights, fashion and performing arts events including stints at the Camden Palace, Limelight, and the iconic Charing Cross club Heaven. He went on to help found the birthplace of Goth, The Batcave, for reasons he is still explaining.

Hugh then moved on to the road as production and later tour manager for bands such as Soft Cell, The Associates and Bronski Beat. After several more years freelancing in management roles at a range of indoor and outdoor arts and commercial events, Hugh gradually evolved his specialities into an events safety and compliance consultancy. After studying for an MBA, Hugh moved into general consultancy including strategy, marketing, systems, development and HR.

When the University of Brighton advertised for someone to run their graduation ceremonies and other events, Hugh joined them in 2007 and remains in post today.

Throughout his life, Hugh has been a strong supporter of dance, primarily contemporary, attending hundreds of shows across the UK and supporting local dance projects whenever he can. Hugh was delighted to be invited to join the board, and hopes his years of eclectic experience will offer a strong contribution to support dance in the area.

Jodie graduated from Bird College with Distinction and won the Dancing Times Choreography Award. She enjoyed a diverse performing career across many genres appearing in a commissioned work for Dance Umbrella to open the new British Library and travelling worldwide on luxury cruise liners as well as many pantomime and summer seasons both in the UK and Europe.

At The BRIT School she teaches a range of techniques and writes, choreographs and directs performance work. She has a breadth of knowledge and experience including technical advancement, artistic development, performance projects and developing and nurturing Industry links. Jodie has successfully initiated and led some exciting multi arts projects for example The BRIT Awards and with Kings College London in Zimbabwe.

Alongside BRIT School she has a portfolio of freelance engagements teaching and mentoring under the banner of the ISTD and choreographs for various corporate events, flash mobs and pantomimes. She has been part of the R & D for the new ISTD Contemporary dance syllabus and enjoys annual trips to NYC to develop her knowledge and skill set.

Jodie holds BA (Hons.) from Christchurch Canterbury University, QTS and Fellowship status with the ISTD. She was selected to benefit from The One Dance UK Teacher mentoring programme and is an Adjudicator member of The British and International Federation of Festivals and All England Dance. Jodie has been a keynote speaker for the FA Talent ID Conference and is developing her practice with a Masters Degree exploring creative practice and motivational climates to enhance training young performers.

www.jodieclarkltd.com

Kasia Truefitt is delighted to be joining Sussex Dance Network as a member of the Advisory Board. Kasia believes in the work Sussex Dance Network are doing to connect and support independent dance artists and is looking forward to being involved with future projects and events using her expertise within dance in education and community settings.

Kasia began her dance training in Ballet, Musical Theatre and Contemporary Dance from a young age but found a true love for Choreography and teaching whilst studying Contemporary Dance at The University of Chichester leading her to pursue a Masters of the Arts in Choreography from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in 2015.

After graduating, Kasia became the Participation Officer at the Blue Elephant Theatre in South London, a member of the Youth Advisory Group for Siobhan Davies Dance and worked as a freelance dance artist including choreographing internationally for Upstage Productions and East 15 BA Acting and Community Theatre, all alongside co-founding a dance theatre company Truefitt Collective. Truefitt Collective was established with a mission to promote healthy minds and bodies through the creative arts and aims to make dance accessible to as many communities of people as possible.

In February 2019 Kasia trained as a facilitator in Dancing Mindfulness and qualified as an Expressive Arts Consultant with The Institute for Creative Mindfulness. She continues to provide Dance and Mindfulness workshops to families, primary schools and freelance dance artists to support wellbeing and mental health. Kasia’s experience and love for the industry has enabled her to work actively within the creative arts as an advocate for providing artistic opportunities to wider communities.

Alex is the treasurer of the Advisory Board, as well as Sussex Dance Network’s Wellbeing Lead. We care about the welfare of our team and everyone we work with. If you have any specific wellbeing concerns or discussions points, please contact Alex here any time.