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. 

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

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.

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.

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 recently completed, with first class honours, a degree course in Occupational Therapy at the University of Bradford.

Mohammed Saeed

Trustee

Saeed is an emerging dance artist with a deep passion for movement and storytelling. He began his dance journey in 2017 when he joined a Dance United Yorkshire project, having never danced before. Since then, he has dedicated himself to the art form, developing his skills and carving out exciting opportunities in the dance world.

Saeed’s commitment and talent earned him a place at the prestigious New Adventures Cygnet School, where he trained with leading industry professionals. He has since worked on several collaborative projects between DUY and New Adventures, gaining valuable experience in performance and creative processes.

His time with DUY has also taken him beyond the UK, including his participation in Dream Dare Do, an international exchange with a dance company in Aruba. Now studying for his undergraduate degree in Dance at Leeds Beckett University, Saeed is keen to use his lived experience to inspire and support others.

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.