Operational Team and Board of Trustees
Helen Linsell
Artistic Director
Since completing her Postgraduate Diploma in Community Dance at Laban in 2001, Helen has worked extensively as a Community Dance Practitioner. Her roles have included Youth Dance Practitioner for South East National Dance Agency, Dance Development Officer for Crawley Borough Council and Education and Community Dance Practitioner for Laban. In 2007, Helen joined Dance United, working at The Academy in Bradford with young offenders and women in prison.
She became Academy Director in 2008 and Artistic Director when the Academy evolved into Dance United Yorkshire in 2011, continuing to specialise in social inclusion. Helen has directed independent projects in South Africa, Namibia and Jamaica as well as facilitating for organisations across Yorkshire. She also continues to deliver behaviour management training, mentoring and artist development and works as an assessor for Trinity College London. Helen published her ‘Behaviour Management and Communication in Practice’ in 2012 and completed an MA in ‘Psychodynamic Approaches to Working with Adolescents’ in 2017.
Duncan Bedson
Executive Director
With a BA Honours Degree in History and a background in customer service and facility management, Duncan was recruited by Dance United in 2006 to manage their Academy facility in Bradford. His portfolio rapidly expanded to encompass many of the other organisational and support responsibilities associated with Dance United’s unique provisioning.
In 2011 Duncan was tasked, along with 2 other members of the management team (including Helen Linsell), to found Dance United Yorkshire.
Appointed General Manager and Executive Director, Duncan has overall accountability for the non-artistic side of the company. His wide-ranging role includes financial management, recruitment and referral coordination, project management, safeguarding lead and line management responsibility for the admin and support team.
Abbie Padgett
Projects Manager
Abbie graduated from York St John University in 2019 after studying Dance BA (Hons). Whilst at university she volunteered as a placement student with Dance United Yorkshire and has been working on DUY’s projects ever since.
In September 2020 the charity was delighted to appoint Abbie to a full-time role, working alongside the General Manager to maintain the efficiency and effectiveness of DUY’s demanding company administration, social media reach and project management requirements. Abbie’s passion is supporting young people in creating positive changes to their lives, as well as enabling them to push themselves beyond their limits and unlock their often-unrecognised potential.
Abbie is proud to say that she is born and bred in Bradford, and equally proud to be a huge supporter of Bradford City Football Club.
Romina Thornton
Senior Dance Programmes Manager
Romina graduated with a BA Honours Degree in Dance and Communication Arts from York St John University in 2003. Since then, Romina has worked as a Dance Artist delivering sessions in both education and community settings across the North West and Yorkshire. She became Youth Dance Project Manager for Can’t Dance Can, later taking on the role of Artistic Director for the charity in 2014.
Romina returned to university to study for a Post Graduate Certificate in Education to further develop her practice and support her teaching. She joined Dance United Yorkshire in 2019 and is integral to the team as Dance Programmes Manager for the organisation. Romina loves supporting young people in their dance journeys and in enabling them to recognise their own potential role within the arts.
Ren Melling
Dance Programmes Manager
Ren graduated from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in 2019 with a BA (Hons) in Dance Performance and Teaching. Ren originates from Bradford and after living in Preston for 3 years, she returned to Bradford for a work placement at Dance United Yorkshire on an intensive project collaboration with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures. In September 2019, Ren joined the DUY team as a Trainee Dance Artist attached to our four-year Resi/Dance programme, funded by the Paul Hamlin Foundation.
She was promoted to Lead Dance Artist in 2020 and has since delivered our dance methodology across a variety of community groups, reaching ages 0-80 years old. Most recently, Ren created Bradford Youth Dance Company after a series of outreach workshops to secondary schools across the city. Ren has an incredible passion for creating inclusive, high quality, integrated community dance companies.
Ann-Marie Teed
Trustee - Chair (since January 2023)
Ann-Marie is the HR Director for Factory International and has worked at a senior level in both HR Operations and change management programmes for over 20 years.
She has led HR teams at board level within the private sector and has extensive experience of delivering change initiatives through large, complex transition and transformation programmes within both the private and the public sectors.
Before joining Factory International she focused her skills, experience and expertise to support a broad range of SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) and third sector organisations in the North of England, including those engaged in the arts, culture and music
Nikki Crane
Trustee
Nikki trained in dance and has over thirty years’ experience working in the arts, first as a practitioner and then in strategy and funding. Whilst at Arts Council England she led the development of the Arts Council’s first national strategies for Arts and Criminal Justice and Arts and Health. As Head of Arts Strategy at Guy's & St Thomas' Charity she managed an £8 million portfolio of arts and health programmes.
Currently, Nikki is King's College London’s lead for arts and health and wellbeing. This role includes supporting the development and delivery of 'SHAPER' (Scaling-up Health-Arts Programmes: Implementation and Effectiveness Research). This is the world’s largest study into the impact of arts on physical and mental health, and is supported by a £2m award from Wellcome Trust. Nikki is also a consultant on Scottish Ballet’s Dance Health programme and is a member of the advisory committee for the National Centre for Creative Health.
Blair Davies
Trustee
Blair was a Chief Superintendent with the UK Police and for over 30 years served in various operational, investigative and command roles. For 3 years he was a Director of the National Police College in Bramshill, training senior police officers from the UK and abroad in strategic command and leadership skills. After retiring from the police he was engaged by HM Government for 12 years in Africa, leading democratic policing reform projects in Ethiopia, Botswana and Nigeria.
Whilst in Ethiopia he became involved with the Adugna Dance Company, a collective of street children who were to subsequently inspire Andrew Coggins and others to create Dance United in London. Blair joined the board of Dance United in 2007, and became a founding director of Dance United Yorkshire in 2011. He was chair of DUY from 2014 to 2023 and is passionate about DUY’s transformative role in addressing social justice issues of equality, inclusivity and realisation of human potential.
Stephanie Derrick
Trustee
Stephanie worked in and around Hull as a freelance Dance Artist when she came across Dance United Yorkshire. She felt a strong connection between her own goals as an artist and DUY’s model of practice. After working on intensive projects with the team, Stephanie was employed by DUY as their Programmes Manager for several years.
The impact of her exposure to DUY’s work in prison settings and the 5-week intensive projects with young people set Stephanie off on a new career pathway, specifically within children’s social care. She now works in early intervention and safeguarding for challenging young people and families and feels her new role has been deeply informed by her experience with DUY. Being a trustee on the DUY board is a way of staying connected with the company and their exceptional programmes, as Stephanie knows first-hand the transformational change that their work can bring to people’s lives.
Gemma Pearson
Trustee
Gemma is a resident of Bradford and been associated with DUY since 2016, when two of her children became involved with DUY’s intergenerational piece Doodles and Daydreams. Gemma subsequently joined the Bradford Women’s Company and participated in the making of Here I Am, the DUY film that has since featured at various film festivals. Her children are members of the Holme Wood RESI/DANCE project.
Gemma currently works as a Mental Health Peer Support Worker, using her lived experience of mental illness to support those in mental health crisis. She has undertaken a wide range of healthcare studies including conflict resolution, safeguarding and preventing radicalisation. Gemma is currently attending a degree course in Occupational Therapy at the University of Bradford, to better understand the application of meaningful activities as a tool for recovery.
Julia White
Trustee
Julia is an experienced marketing and communications professional based in the North of England, working across the arts and charity sectors. She is currently Head of Communications at HOME in Manchester and was previously the Marketing & Communications Manager for Yorkshire Dance and the award winning, international touring theatre company Forced Entertainment. Julia has also been engaged on freelance projects facilitating the work of emerging artists and theatre practitioners in the region.
Julia’s primary skills lie in social media marketing, digital communications, media campaign planning and audience development. As a creative marketer she is passionate about widening participation in the arts and shares with the DUY Board a strong commitment to equality, diversity and inclusivity.
Shazad Ali
Trustee
Shazad Ali works at Co-op Grange Academy in BD5 as the Lead of Alternative Provisions. Shazad has ten years of experience supporting young people in a school setting, community engagement and youth work.
His last employment was at Bradford Academy for six years. The roles he undertook whilst there were pastoral support worker, a lead practitioner for behaviour, lead for on-site and offsite alternative provisions and staff governor.
Shazad has a 2:1 BA honours in Criminology.
Shazad is also a treasure at Manningham Allstars FC and a board member at EdClass Alternative Provisions. He has had strong relationships and connections with businesses such as CEO, MDs in Bradford, and sorry ring areas.
Shazad has had a 5-year working relationship with DUY during his time at Bradford Academy, referring students to DUY’s intensive projects.
Joss Arnott
Trustee
Founding Joss Arnott Dance in 2010, Joss is an internationally award-winning choreographer based in the North of England who has been continuously supported and commissioned by leading UK dance agencies, venues and funding organisations.
Joss is in demand as a choreographer and has been commissioned to create work for professional dance companies, including Rambert and leading dance conservatoires. His artistic vision is fuelled by creating a portfolio of work for a diverse range of audiences which are at the heart of everything he produces, including indoor, outdoor and family-orientated productions.
With a commitment and passion for talent development, Joss has previously been a Focus Group Artist for Sadler’s Well’s National Youth Dance Company, BBC Young Dancer consultant and has worked with and produced multiple works for the National Centre for Advanced Training Schemes.
Andrew Coggins
Honorary President
Andrew’s early career was in theatre production and large-scale music-theatre performance. He went on to study for a degree in Politics and Philosophy at York University and, after graduating, became one of the earliest independent producers of the Channel 4 era. Much of his programming involved co-productions with the BBC, including documentaries from within communist Poland.
A feature-length BBC documentary in Ethiopia served to highlight the plight of street children and his response was to help establish Adugna, a five-year intensive contemporary dance training programme for eighteen former street and working children. The success of the project led to the creation of the original, award-winning Dance United company – the precursor to Dance United Yorkshire. In 2011, Andrew was awarded an MBE for services to contemporary dance and disadvantaged young people.