July, 2019 | FRONTLINEdance

Come and “See Us” This Summer!

Posted on 29th July 201929th July 2019 by frontline-admin

Our dancers at FRONTLINEdance have been working with our Artistic Director Rachael, and our local disabled community, on our new Dance Hub Birmingham commissioned work. We’ve spent time consulting and dancing at New Friars FE College, the Grocott Centre, Haywood Hospital, VI Hub, and with our own Aiming High, Moving Together and Breakthrou’dance groups. We’ve captured lots of movement, words, insights, suggestions and ideas and are busy turning it all into dance.

The new work “Seeing Me” will be performed as part of Appetite’s The Big Feast taking place on Saturday 24th August. Please come along and join in with the dancers as they start their 10-mile journey across the city, starting in Tunstall at 11am and finishing in the city centre on Piccadilly at 3:30pm. (Times to be confirmed) We’ll be hopping on and off the bus at various stops thanks to First Group, and will be joined by some very special guests along the way!

David Jowett

Posted on 18th July 201921st July 2019 by frontline-admin

David started Breakthrou’ in 2005. He is now part of the aDvANCE group and has been part of a number of performances with the group. He has also worked on developing his skills as a workshop assistant and leader, and has assisted our Artistic Director in a variety of workshops over the years

David also has two work placements that he goes to every week. He works at a veterinary practice, and at Olton Abbey, where he works in the kitchen and helps with activities

David’s latest role with FRONTLINEdance is as an emerging dance artist – part of a new commission received from Dance Hub Birmingham. He feels that this is a good opportunity to continue to develop his dancing and work alongside new people. He would also like to work on his own choreography

In his spare time Dave is a huge football fan and loves both playing himself and watching his favourite team, Leicester, play

OPPORTUNITY – FRONTLINEdance OPEN COMMISSION for FRONTLINE Arts Festival (FAF) October 2019

Posted on 16th July 201916th July 2019 by frontline-admin

FRONTLINEdance is seeking to commission a visually impaired disabled artist of any art form, to co-create a new work or develop an existing work with our local community. The final piece whether its performance, sound-based or visual, will be presented at the first FRONTLINE Arts Festival, Stoke-on-Trent in October 2019.

Deadline for applications: Friday 9^th August at 4pm

Fee: £3,000 inclusive of VAT and all expenses.

Who: The commission is open to those who self-identify as visually impaired

When: 1^st September to October 2019

Where: FRONTLINE Arts Festival Stoke-on-Trent (venue tbc as dependant on art form / product)

What: The commissioned artist will co-create a new work, or develop an existing work, with our local community. The final piece, whether its performance, sound-based or visual, will be showcased in October at the FRONTLINE Arts Festival. There is no theme but the piece must be suitable for both children and adults, co-created with our local community, and be ready to be showcased in October 2019. The exact date will be discussed and agreed with the successful recipient. FRONTLINEdance will work with the artist to identify a group of local people, and will help to facilitate how and where you will work with them.

Background:

FRONTLINE Arts Festival (FAF) is a pioneering disability arts event, aimed at the community of Stoke-on-Trent & beyond. Featuring an inclusive programme of professional, high-quality, artistic work created by, & for disabled people. FAF will celebrate the artistic excellence of disabled artists, increase visibility, & provide an opportunity for professional development. The month long festival includes 3 arts commissions, performances, installations, will host inclusive workshops, talks, & discussions – engaging the community & inspiring the next generation of new & emerging disabled artists. The festival seeks to remove any barriers to participation, whilst educating programmers & curators about accessibility & inclusivity.

HOW TO APPLY

Please respond to the following questions, and then send as a pdf or via video link, along with at least one example of any previous work, and a completed equal opportunities monitoring form to: hello@frontlinedance.co.uk by 4pm Friday 9^th August 2019.

Questions:

Who are you and why are you applying for the commission?
Your idea, clearly stating if it’s new or if you will be developing an existing piece of work. Please note that if you are developing existing work, please send images, sound recording or footage of it along with your proposal.
If relevant, who will perform your work?
Please tell us a little about your experience and previous work. Include places and dates of where your work has been showcased.
Why this opportunity is beneficial to you at this moment in particular.

Please provide an income and expenditure list of how you will spend the £3,000, and a timeline.

For your information, the panel will look for work that:

demonstrates accessibility, artistic integrity and quality,
is interesting for both arts and non-art audiences,
clearly demonstrates quality of ideas for community participation; co-creating, collaboration, consultation, workshops, performing in.

We will consider the concept, theme and nature of the work, and will look at how the application provides a realistic time scale and budget.

The panel will consist of members of FRONTLINEdance and our FRONTLINE Arts Festival steering group.

The successful recipient will be notified on Friday 16^th August 2019

If you have any queries regarding the brief, your eligibility for this opportunity, or access related queries please contact hello@frontlinedance.co.uk. If you require FRONTLINEdance to make any reasonable adjustments to the proposal process, please do get in touch to discuss. We are happy to make any reasonable adjustments as required.

We need a Project Assistant!

Posted on 14th July 201929th July 2019 by frontline-admin

Fixed Term Project Assistant – FRONTLINE Arts Festival

37.5 hours per week x 10 weeks at £8.21 (living wage), total contract £3,079 (£16,000 pro rata)

We are seeking to recruit a Fixed-term Project Assistant to support FRONTLINE Arts Festival (FAF) our exciting new venture. It is for a contract period of 10 weeks, starting 4th September through to 13^th November 2019 – or sooner if part-time into full time by 4^th September.

(Download Job Description & Person Specification)

You will work closely with the Project Manager (PM), Artistic Director (AD), and the rest of the team (including freelance posts), to help successfully deliver the FRONTLINE Arts Festival (FAF) running the 1^st October – 1^st November 2019. It is a mixed and varied role, with some level of autonomy and responsibility, and a requirement to work flexibly as part of the team.

FRONTLINEdance has a small yet dedicated team of employees and freelance staff. It’s led by a voluntary board of directors and supported by additional volunteers. Based in Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire, FRONTLINEdance breaks down barriers to engagement in dance through participation and performance, believing it plays a positive role in integration and community cohesion. You will be contributing to the fulfilment of our vision and mission (https://frontlinedance.co.uk/about-us/).

This is an exciting project for FRONTLINEdance as we deliver an ambitious month long festival and we hope to find someone who will relish the opportunity to be a part of this busy yet small company.

FRONTLINEdance is an equal opportunities employer and actively encourages applications from disabled people. Any disabled applicant who meets the criteria of the person specification will be invited to interview. We are particularly looking to provide an opportunity for someone in the local area who may wish to work with the company in another capacity in the future or specialise in disability arts project management. This is a great opportunity for someone starting out in their career, or experienced looking to re-enter or specialise in this area of work.

We are open to suggestions for a flexible working arrangement and happy for the post to start earlier as long as the post is full-time from 4^th September – 1^st November to cover the intensive build up and delivery of the festival and leaves time to support wrap up in early November. The post will require evening and weekend working at times especially during the festival.

The contract is for a PAYE role but happy to receive proposals for freelance contracts within the total fixed fee.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Claire Marshall, Project Manager claire@frontlinedance.co.uk

HOW TO APPLY

The deadline for applications is 4pm on Monday 5^th August.

Interviews will be held at our office in Stoke-on-Trent 12^th August – please indicate in your covering letter if this date is unsuitable.

Please complete the application form and the equal opportunities monitoring form

Please send BOTH your completed application form and the equal opportunities monitoring form by 4pm on Monday 5th August 2019 by e-mail to: hello@frontlinedance.co.uk

Matt Byatt

Posted on 12th July 201911th September 2024 by frontline-admin

Matt describes himself as a disabled Performer who has hidden disabilities, who has been interested in the performing arts from a young age. He studied Performing Arts at SOT College, gaining a BTEC National Diploma, then at Stafford College gaining a HND in Performing Arts and Theatre. Matt has danced with and is still a member of FRONTLINEdance’s Breakthrou’dance, which he joined in 2002 at the age of 19. Over the years he has been involved as a community performer in the companies professional productions including ‘IGNITE’, ‘A game of Two Arfs’, and ‘Seeing Me’ where he was also an emerging dance artist. ‘Seeing Me’ gave Matt the opportunity to observe how Rachael makes work and how the dancers and community co-create the work. He enjoyed and learnt a great deal dancing alongside the new performance team, experiencing dancing outdoors in lots of different locations, and the time to focus on his own choreographic ideas and methods.

Matt has enjoyed developing his dance and choreography skills in our Breakthrou’ aDvANCE group, focusing particularly on his own dance technique and workshop leading/assisting skills, and volunteering for a range of FRONTLINEdance participatory programmes. The latter resulted in permitted work employment with FRONTLINEdance as a Support Worker for our Transcend Programme from January 2020 to the present, and a sessional support worker.

Matt has been a valuable, significant and important volunteer in our community participation classes for disabled children and adults for a number of years. Matt also sat on FRONTLINEdance board to feedback participants experiences of our participatory programme and ensure the participants voices were heard.

When Matt isn’t dancing, he volunteers at Masque Theatre Company and works as a simulated patient at University Hospital of North Midlands, with Keele University. Here he uses ‘role play’ as a patient with a learning disability to help the medical students know what is important and to help them build rapport, trust and how to approach someone with learning difficulties. Matt is also a member of Reach Advocacy, supported by Assist -Community Research work. This has seen him completing various tasks; research with Staffs University, a radio presenter of Six Town Radios, and an events/festival based evaluator. Volunteering for Reach ensures that his voice, and other disabled people’s voices are heard in Stoke-on-Trent.

Kayleigh Price

Posted on 11th July 20194th December 2023 by frontline-admin

Originally from Manchester, Kayleigh trained at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and Verve ’14. Being a freelance dance artist Kayleigh has worked with many people such as Marvel Productions, FRONTLINEdance, ACE Dance and Music, Southpaw Dance Company, Chhaya Collective, Watkins Dance Company, and Tino Sighal, to name a few. She is the choreographer and Artistic Director of Company K, making autobiographical work using her own experiences as a neurodiverse woman to demonstrate shared commonalities with her works; ‘The Left one out’, ‘Familiar’, ‘ROOM’ in collaboration with Company Nil and ‘Postcards from Bed’ in collaboration with writer Charlie Thorpe. Company K aims to continually create a safe practice and space for all creatives working on any project.

Kayleigh is also a guest lecturer and has taught across the UK, credits include, London Studio Centre, The Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds Beckett University, Swindon Dance and teaches professional classes for companies such as; Company Chameleon, Watkins Dance Company, VERVE, The Place, RCDC, Company Nil to name a few.

Kayleigh joined FRONTLINEdance team of self-employed dance artists, as a lead performer for its Birmingham Dance Hub commission, ‘Seeing Me’ in May 2019, where she enjoyed working and collaborating with new artists and communities that she hasn’t worked with before. She created a new work on our #FAF2019 residency participants at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, and delivered online summer dance sessions for our community groups during lockdown