Category: Team

Originally from Suffolk, Charlotte is a freelance dance artist based in Leeds, blending performing, teaching, creating and writing into her practice. She regularly teaches from children to adults as well as directs her own dance theatre company ACCA and edits a digital magazine, Artychoke. You can find her on Instagram here: @charr_arnold / @accacollab / @artychokezine and visit her website here: www.charlottearnold.co.uk

Katie is passionate about dance being for everyone and joined FRONTLINEdance in 2021. She has loved performing ‘The Explorers’, ‘Holding On’ and teaching on the Advanced Training Programme. From January 2025, Katie is joining FRONTLINEdance’s hospital facilitation team, making, performing and facilitating dance work in hospitals. 

Katie is based in Birmingham. Since graduating from Trinity Laban with a First-Class degree in 2013 she has had the pleasure of working with companies such as: Turned on its Head, Made by Katie Green, Springs Dance Company, Sonia Sabri, Highly Sprung, Beyond Words Dance and as a Featured Dancer in the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony choreographed by Corey Baker. 

Katie performs and facilitates dance in a range of settings and regularly performs in hospitals with Eek & Wild, a company she co-founded. 

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. 

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

Rosemary has worked as an accountant since leaving university but has specialised in the medical profession for the last 20 years, opening her own company in 2009. She now has clients throughout the UK and is the only person who gives directions by GP surgeries rather than pubs.

In her spare time she enjoys walking and cycling, but her favourite pastime is looking after her two granddaughters. That is the perfect excuse to be as silly as she wants.

Rosemary was first introduced to Frontline by her stepdaughter, who has Down’s Syndrome, and who attends Thursday’s Breakthrou’ classes as a highlight of her week and especially working on the performances. It has been a delight to become more involved and she looks forward to her weeks when she watches the classes and marvels at the way the groups work together bringing them out with so much confidence.

Mike King co-founded FRONTLINEdance alongside Rachael. He started dancing in the Yorkshire Dales back in the early 80’s but chose a career as an Outdoor Pursuits instructor and cave explorer. A climbing accident meant a big change. Now a wheelchair user, Mike re-evaluated his values and priorities. After a year of doing this, Mike attended a summer school with Candoco in which he loved, and shortly afterwards secured a Grant from Arts Council England for work shadowing the company. He later joined Candoco’s education team as an assistant.

During the summer residency Mike also met Rachael and shortly afterwards FRONTLINEdance began. During this time, Mike also enrolled on a PGCE at Aberystwyth to start a teaching career.

He later worked as a performer with Blue Eyed Soul on Frankenstein, directed by Liam Steel (formally DV8), Ariel projects with the Flying Piglets in New Zealand, an inclusive performance project with Scottish Dance Theatre, directed a show for Half Moon Young People’s Theatre and created a duet with Michal Popper.

Graeae Theatre in conjunction with London Metropolitan University offered Mike a place on their Missing Piece Project – an acting course with a mini- tour at the end. This led to a TIE piece with Graeae around East-End of London Schools. When that tour finished he combined working as a drama teacher in a secondary school and work with FRONTLINEdance.

Mike is currently a full time Drama teacher in a mainstream State Secondary in Kent delivering GCSE and A Level. When not working, Mike can usually be found on, in, or around water; Canoeing /Fishing / Swimming / Sailing.

Mike believes that FRONTLINEdance gave him the foundation – confidence / knowledge/ professional work ethic /artistic integrity to allow him to re-invent myself (find his true calling as a teacher).

In 2001, Rachael set up FRONTLINEdance with Michael King and has since created, devised, fund-raised and delivered many projects and performance work, successfully gaining support from a range of funding bodies since. She has choreographed; collaborated with musicians/film makers/fine artists; performed nationally; taught; created education packs; devised and managed many projects and tours. Rachael continues to manage and lead FRONTLINEdance, both artistically and strategically.

Rachael was introduced to Contemporary dance at the age of 16 by dance lecturers Dee De Wet and Sylvia Farrier, and loved it! She then completed a degree in Dance whilst training at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds (1998). Here she focused on training as a professional dancer and dance for special educational needs gaining a distinction in this area. Rachael also holds a post graduate certificate in ‘dance artist in education’ and has taken part in a Dance for Parkinson training course created by Dance Umbrella and lead by Marc Morris Dance (USA).

Rachael has worked as both a dancer and choreographer, specialising in integrated dance and dance and disability nationally as both a freelance dance artist and for FRONTLINEdance. She has worked for a number of national organisations and agencies, working with all ages and abilities from nursery aged children to professional dancers to older people, and a short stint as a part-time associate lecturer in dance at MMU Cheshire.

Rachael is driven by the people she works with, her son (learning disability, scoliosis and a heart condition) and managing three different health conditions. This has enriched the work she devises for FRONTLINEdance and has informed its current Artistic practice and direction. She is driven to change negative preconceptions of disability, provide opportunities, working in community and health settings, whilst being able to use her love of the art and creativity of contemporary dance to do so.

Junction 15 are an Emmy award winning video production company with experienced and talented filmmakers who produce creative, fresh and broadcast quality films. Based in the Midlands

Greg Hall is a composer, sound designer, musician and performer.

Theatre credits include Beauty & The Beast (NIE), I Will Be Everything (NIE), Cupboard Of Surprises (The National Theatre), Peter Pan (The Northcott Theatre).

Elegy For A Lady (The Salisbury Playhouse), My Brother, My Sister and Me (Polka Theatre), Paper Aeroplane (Lots Of Odds/Half Moon Theatre), Whispering Willows (Wassail Theatre) and Luna (Theatre Iolo/Theatre Hullabaloo).

Film and TV credits include Shane Meadow’s ‘Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee’ (Warp Films), and numerous worldwide placements on TV as part of music production company Monotwin.

Greg is a member of Minima, one of Europe’s leading silent film accompaniment bands and has also worked as an ethnomusicologist for the British Library in South Africa and Palestine.

Greg has worked with FRONTLINEdance since 2008, training as a professional dancer and dance for special educational needs gaining a distinction in this area.