BULIDING A SUSTAINABLE CAREER IN DANCE.
YOU’VE TRAINED IN DANCE. WHAT COMES NEXT?
Moving from training into a professional career can feel like a big leap.
You may have spent years developing your skills as a dancer, but building a working life in the industry brings a whole new set of questions.
How do you navigate freelance life? Where do you find opportunities and funding? How do you build a professional profile, make connections and develop a career that is sustainable over the long term?
Building a Sustainable Career in Dance is a practical Continuing Professional Development (CPD) day designed to help you explore those questions and take your next steps with greater confidence.
Through a series of practical sessions and professional insight, you’ll explore the realities of working in dance, from the essentials of freelance practice to developing your creative career, finding funding and building professional networks.
WHO IS IT FOR?
The day is for:
❋ recent graduates from university, conservatoire or vocational dance training
❋ early-career dance artists
❋ students preparing to enter the professional dance sector
❋ dancers looking to return to or further develop a career in dance
You don’t need to have your career mapped out. The day is particularly designed for people who are ready to move forward but may be unsure about where to start or what their next step should be.
WHAT WILL YOU EXPLORE?
Freelance essentials
Understand some of the practical foundations of working as a freelance dance artist, including DBS checks, first aid, safeguarding and appropriate insurance.
Building a sustainable career
Consider the different shapes a career in dance can take, including portfolio and interdisciplinary careers.
Explore professional presence and digital profiles, documentation, websites, showreels, biographies and professional communication, alongside wellbeing, managing workload and sustaining a healthy long-term creative practice.
Connecting locally
Discover how local cultural networks can support your career and explore opportunities for connection, collaboration and engagement within Swindon’s arts and cultural sector.
Developing your creative practice
Explore working and teaching across different settings, how approaches and expectations can change between environments, and how this can become part of a developing professional career.
Funding, collaboration and professional networks
Develop your understanding of funding and fundraising, project planning, applications and proposals, collaboration and professional networking.
Explore where opportunities are shared, how relationships develop across the sector and how professional networks can support your creative practice.
WHAT WILL YOU TAKE AWAY?
The aim of the day is to leave you with practical knowledge, greater confidence and a clearer understanding of the different routes available to you.
You’ll also receive a resource pack to take away and have opportunities throughout the day to meet and connect with other artists and professionals.
Come away with practical knowledge, useful connections and a clearer idea of what comes next.
Event details
Date: Saturday 24 October 2026
Time: 10.00 - 4.30
Location: Swindon Dance
Cost: £55 incl. resource pack.
YOUR DAY AT A GLANCE.
Start the day with introductions and practical guidance on the essentials of working as a freelance dance artist, including DBS, First Aid, safeguarding and insurance.
Presented by:
Katie Purcell - Head of Activities at Swindon Dance
Sarah Fletcher - Head of Education & Development at Swindon Dance
10.00 - 11.15 Welcome & Building Essentials for Freelance Dance Artists
Explore teaching in different settings and how to adapt your approach, language and delivery for educational, community and professional environments.
Presented by:
Helen Ganberg - Independent Artist
11.15 - 12.30 Creative Practice Lab
12.30 - 1.30 Lunch & Networking
Time to refuel, meet other participants and make new connections.
Explore different career pathways, portfolio careers, professional presence, wellbeing and ways to build a creative career that can develop and last.
Presented by:
Adrienne Hart - Neon Dance
1.30 - 2.45 Building a Sustainable Career in Dance
2.45 - 3.00 Break
3.00 - 4.15 Funding, Collaboration & Professional Networks
Build confidence around funding applications, project planning, collaboration and developing professional relationships across the dance sector.
Presented by:
Richard Chappell - Richard Chappell Dance.
4.15 - 4.30 The New Teachers Roadmap & Resources
Finish the day with practical guidance for moving from training into paid teaching, plus resources to support your next steps.
Presented by:
Charley Logan - Independent Artist & Swindon Dance Alumna
More On Our Guest Speakers
Speaker 1
Helen Ganberg
Independent ArtistLong standing teacher with Swindon Dance & Independent Artist
Speaker 2
Adrienne Hart
Adrienne Hart (she/her) graduated from London Contemporary Dance School in 2002 and now work internationally as a choreographer and as Artistic Director of Neon Dance. She has worked in Russia, Belgium, Norway, France, Germany, Kosovo, Japan, USA, and extensively in the UK. Her work has been commissioned and supported by Arts Council England, British Council, Creative England, Sadler's Wells, The Place, Modern Art Oxford, Glastonbury Festival, Reversible Destiny Foundation, The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, South West Creative Technology Network, Pavilion Dance South West and Art Front Gallery amongst others.
Neon Dance
Richard Chappell is an internationally renowned choreographer. Since 2013, Richard has lead his own ensemble Richard Chappell Dance as a platform for his choreographic research and critically acclaimed performance work.
Based between Wales and the South West of England, Richard is currently a commissioned artist for Swindon Dance and Associate Artist at Exeter Northcott.
As a guest choreographer, Richard has created work for renowned dance companies and theatres, including the Royal Opera House, Stuttgart Ballet, National Dance Company Wales, BalletWorks, English National Ballet, Belfast Ensemble, Transitions Dance Company and Frontier Danceland (Singapore).
Richard works regularly with young people through organisations such as One Dance UK, National Youth Ballet and the Centre of Advanced Training programmes at Dance City, Swindon Dance and DanceXchange.
Richard Chappell DanceSpeaker 3
Richard Chappell
Charley Logan is a Berlin-based yoga teacher and facilitator, teaching across studios, events and retreats. Her approach is shaped by her training and background in contemporary dance, and her work sits between embodied yoga, somatic inquiry and nervous system awareness.
She has taught across a range of spaces and communities in London and Berlin, and alongside studio classes offers private sessions, mentoring, workshops and retreats.
Independent Artist & SD AlumnaSpeaker 4
Charley Logan