artists in residence
Read about the amazing artists that work at Coppderdot
Rachel Canavan
Rachel Canavan is a Choreographer and Physiotherapist (MSC). She works with clients to optimise performance. She specialises in dance practice to train the body to meet the demands of the discipline. She has worked at Dance East Centre of Advanced Training for over thirteen years drawing from physiotherapy and dance science in her practice to support, fitness for performance and injury prevention for dancerss professional careers. Rachel runs her Physiotherapy practice from Copperdot and has worked as a Physiotherapist specialising in Clinical Pilates for rehabilitation for over thirteen years.
Rachel works within the community and established Dance And Parkinson’s Norwich in 2011, having won a scholarship to New York to train with the Mark Morris Company. Using her physiotherapy practice and dance training Rachel works to improve the lives of individuals with neurological challenges to, target mobility, strength and optimise function.
Her choreographic work has been supported by D&AD New Blood, New Territories Elevator, Arts Council England, Start East and Physio First. She has a first-class degree in Dance and Visual Art from Brighton, a distinction in Dance from year one on the degree at LIPA and a Professional Development Diploma from the Brighton Film School. Her latest choreographic work, a dance film, SALT was presented at the Short and Sweet Festival in London in 2019.
Rachel is the Founder/Owner & Artistic Director at copperdot and is leading the collaborations that are emerging.
Katy Dunne
Katy works as a Dance Movement Psychotherapist and Community Dance Artist. Her work is hugely rewarding, it has taken her to many different settings and enabled her to work alongside many on their creative and therapeutic journeys.
Dance Movement Psychotherapy provides a creative means for clients to explore and address difficulties, symptoms and psychological problems. It is a relational process that doesn’t rely on talking about problems as the only way of finding solutions. Katy practices DMP with children and adults with a wide range of needs.
Katy is based iat Copperdot and is registered with The Association of Dance Movement Psychotherapy. She regularly takes part take in professional development and has further qualifications in Authentic movement and SMART moves, The Body Mind Approach, practices that she brings to her work to create a person centered and trauma informed approach.
Katy has a BA honours degree in dance with drama from the university of Winchester and MA in Dance Movement Psychotherapy from the University of Derby.
Steph Townsend
Steph Townsend graduated from Coventry University in 2012, gaining a First Class Honours degree in Dance Making and Performance. She began working professionally in 2012 and has worked internationally with companies such as Earth-bound, Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theatre, KeiraDance and Flux Dance.
Steph is also a trained Yoga Instructor and Aerialist who enjoys experimenting with how these disciplines can be used to positively impact mental health and wellbeing. Steph launched her own company, Yodanga Arts, in 2016 where for 4.5 years she created opportunities for people of all ages to experience various forms of Aerial Arts & Yoga.
Recently, Steph’s interests have shifted. With help from a Developing Your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England, she is at the beginning of developing her practice to create a new offering that combines her passion for Dance, Aerial Arts & Well-being.
Steph is also incredibly interested in connecting freelance artists/makers and creating opportunities for the local dance community to come together, share experiences and perform. This led to the Dancers Connect Network being born in November 2020 that she co-founded with Emma Zangs. Dancers Connect are now resident and are working together with Copperdot to support the local dance community. @movement_connects
Image by Rachel Canavan 2022
Dr Elsa Urmston
Dr Elsa Urmston MSc PGCAP FHEA
Elsa is an independent dance educator and researcher based in the UK, having worked in the arts and especially dance for the last 30 years or so. Her interests span performance and training, vocational education and pedagogy, community practice, dance science and the impact of arts participation on people’s lives. The themes of professional practice, and the interplay of pedagogical encounters on participants’ experiences are common threads sewn into her work. Elsa has recently completed her PhD in Education at the University of Exeter, exploring the implications of periodisation on dance education, pedagogy, and practice.
Elsa works as a teacher/lecturer in Higher Education (HE), currently on a freelance basis with London Contemporary Dance School and Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. She also consults on educational change, developing curricula with a number of institutions and organisations. She has written several dance HE degree programmes, and recently supported London Contemporary Dance School’s adoption of periodisation as part of their curriculum development. She continues to advise on the embedding of dance science education throughout their offer, whilst also contributing to longitudinal research focussing on students’ health and wellbeing, and facilitating the teachers’ learning exchange programme at the School.
Much of Elsa’s work is also as an evaluator, exploring dance participation and its impact on people’s lives from social, psychological and health perspectives with companies such as Made by Katie Green, English National Ballet and Dance Umbrella. She is also a mentor for early-and mid-career dance artists, particularly those for whom teaching and dance education are part of their wider portfolio of work.
Elsa has held a number of leadership positions including as Dance Educators’ Committee Chair at the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science; Expert Panel Member for One Dance UK’s Children and Young People’s programmes; and External Examiner of a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes both in the UK and internationally. Now, Elsa is Vice Chair and trustee of the Essex-based Dance Network Association.
Gaelin Little
Gaelin facilitates creative, fun and expansive experiences using dance as a medium for a fine tuning of the senses, turning them toward a renewed discovery of ourselves and the world around us.
Gaelin is a creative co-director of dance quartet Eleven Farrer House and Compass Dance Company. Gaelin trained as dancer at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and has an MA in Creative practice. She has a diploma in Integrative Bodywork and Movement Therapy (IBMT) and is an ISMETA registered Somatic Movement Therapist (RSMT) and Dance Educator (RSDE).
Laura McGill & Sarah Lewis
Glass House Dance
Glass House Dance was set up by Sarah Lewis and Laura McGill to take contemporary dance into the heart of the community. They create essentially human, touching dance pieces with wide appeal for performance in public spaces. Glass House will be hosting, their famous Dance Jams at Copperdot every two weeks in the autumn..
