Programme Manager, Centre for Advanced Training

Louise O’Hanlon

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0121 689 1096

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louise.o'hanlon@dancexchange.org.uk

I joined DanceXchange in March 2008, having spent 6 years as the Head of Education at mac, Midlands Arts Centre. I have always been passionate about creating opportunities for people to get involved in the arts, not just as audience members but as a way of exploring their own creativity and development. Part of my role in the Education Department was to oversee a large number of dance courses for adults and young people, so when the opportunity to manage the development of the Centre for Advanced Training for Contemporary and South Asian Dance arose at DanceXchange I was delighted to join the team.

My role has changed as the project has taken shape, much of my time was initially spent on the development of the course structure and the identities of each training strand. The Contemporary strand focuses upon the west midlands for its students and the South Asian strand focuses upon the dances styles of Kathak and Bharatanatyam and is a national scheme. We have a strong partnership with sampad, South Asian Arts working with us on the development of the South Asian strand of training. Their director, Piali Ray, has been a  supporter of the centres development  . In January 2009 we welcomed our first intake of students. Our pilot year ran for 2 terms and finished with a Summer Intensive and a fabulous performance in The Patrick Centre, I was so proud to see our students performing to a delighted audience. We are now well into our first full academic year, and we have welcomed a new intake of students to the CAT. The project continues to be very demanding but we have a great team of Subject Leaders, Guest Tutors and Teaching Assistants to help deliver a training course that engages, challenges and enriches the young students involved in it.