The Team
Our team has developed from a professional friendship, built on a strong belief that dance in education can make a difference in schools. We only work with other dance specialists who have an experienced dance in education background and love what they do as this is vital when working with teachers and children.
Katie Vernon-Smith
Katie is a Dance Education Specialist with 10 years experience in performing arts. She trained in contemporary dance and ballet at The Laban Centre (now Trinity Laban) to degree level and qualified with a BA (Hons) in Dance Theatre.
She continued her training by studying for her PGCE (Secondary) at Brighton University and completed her teacher training at a performing arts college in Kent. Since then, she has worked for several arts organisations including Woking Dance Festival, The Place and the Royal Opera House.
Following, ROH, Katie worked as Programme Manager for the Richard Alston Dance Company (RADC) developing resources and organising educational workshops across the country in coordination with the RADC company on tour, as well as co-running the Classes and Courses programme at The Place.
Alison Swann
Alison Swann is a Dance in Education Specialist with 30 years experience. She trained at Laban (now Trinity Laban) in Contemporary Technique and Movement Analysis.
She took her Cert.Ed at Goldsmiths College London University and has worked in schools and with education authorities across London. Her professional work has included: dancing for the London Film School, working with choreographer Caroline Lange and artist Kate Denton, and as a guest speaker at Laban focusing on GCSE Dance.
She has run a successful primary boy’s dance group, and was part of the team working with schools in Camden to create a live performance for the Arrivals Festival at St Pancras International. Alison has worked with the University of Greenwich and Blackheath Conservatoire to develop and teach a performing arts module to teacher training students.
She has worked with The Place and Laban delivering CPD in both primary and secondary phases, and on the Learn Physical Interactive programme for The Place.
