Alan Lyddiard is on a mission to create, with others, extraordinary performances and build long-lasting relationships with older people, locally, nationally, and internationally.

He retired in 2014 at the age of 65 and went to live in Spain. He was bored after two weeks and decided to set up The Performance Ensemble, a company of older artists, with founding chair, Mandy Stewart. He settled in Leeds and started working at Leeds Playhouse with their older person project, Heydays.
Since then, the company has gone from strength to strength. They are now the first permanent ensemble of older artists regularly funded by Arts Council England.

Alan will be working with people from Nottingham on nottdance as Place, an afternoon of nottdance past, present and future, woven together through exhibition, live performance and conversation.

2025festival.nottdance.com/event/nottdance-as-place/

For more information on their work, visit theperformanceensemble.com

Lucy Suggate is a dance artist based in Yorkshire, working in performance, making, education, dramaturgy, and mentoring. Her work highlights how movement – dance – choreography can respond to the ongoing age of crisis and prolonged uncertainty by focusing on embodied practices and the physical and perceptual shifts that occur when engaged in long-term moving and thinking.

Visit lucysuggate.com

Visit nottdance Festival

Visit Fabric Dance

Music by Tom Harris listeningspace.xyz/

Edited by Steve Woodward at podcastingeditor.com

Fabric is an Arts Council England, National Portfolio Organisation.

Cool Company is a dance improvisation ensemble for people aged 55 and over, based in Nottingham Contemporary. Referencing current exhibitions, they explore and develop relationships between visual arts and movement. Key to these workshops is the integration of social and creative elements, which empower the work of the group. Workshops are facilitated by Deane McQueen, professional choreographer, director and Backlit Gallery Studio artist.

Lucy Suggate is working with Cool Company during nottdance 2025 to present Tender Stones. For more information and tickets, visit the festival website.

Visit Cool Company Dance and Movement Workshops at Nottingham Contemporary

The Houdini club (Deane McQueen)

the houdini club has a membership of one, created and donated by french surrealist Allain Prillard who recognised them in a past life. the houdini club is a neon sign active when lit. the houdini club thinks, collaborates, makes, shares, exits, panics, disappears and returns. Escapes completed, yet to be achieved. Recorded details in misplaced notebooks never found. No archive. No social media. Present. Live. the houdini club is about connections and relationships, severing, rupturing and sometime continuity. The artist does not wish be seen, not recognised. Absent.

Lucy Suggate is a dance artist based in Yorkshire, working in performance, making, education, dramaturgy, and mentoring. Her work highlights how movement – dance – choreography can respond to the ongoing age of crisis and prolonged uncertainty by focusing on embodied practices and the physical and perceptual shifts that occur when engaged in long-term moving and thinking.

Visit lucysuggate.com

Visit nottdance Festival

Visit Fabric Dance

Music by Tom Harris listeningspace.xyz/

Edited by Steve Woodward at podcastingeditor.com

Fabric is an Arts Council England, National Portfolio Organisation.

Welcome to dance moves people, a podcast from Fabric.

Fabric is a strategic dance development organisation based in the Midlands, UK, with sites in the cities of Birmingham and Nottingham.

In these conversations, we invite artists, partners, collaborators, and friends to share their stories about Fabric, the sector, and what dance choreography and art mean to them, ultimately revealing the social value of dance.

Please like and subscribe on your usual podcast platform.

Visit nottdance Festival

Visit Fabric Dance

Music by Tom Harris listeningspace.xyz

Edited by Steve Woodward at podcastingeditor.com

Fabric is an Arts Council England, National Portfolio Organisation.

This is the second episode in a series of one-hour ‘In Conversation with’ zoom sessions, inviting Critical Mass leads and organisers to share the story of their role in the project, how the experience has influenced/changed their practice and 3 key learning points they want to share with dance professionals interested in working inclusively.

This episode includes Rachel Liggitt who was the Inclusion Champion on Critical Mass 2022.

Learn more about the Dance Leaders Group here
Learn more about Critical Mass here

This the first episode in a series of one-hour ‘In Conversation with’ zoom sessions, inviting Critical Mass leads and organisers to share the story of their role in the project, how the experience has influenced/changed their practice and 3 key learning points they want to share with dance professionals interested in working inclusively.

This episode includes Zoie Golding MBE who was the Lead Artist on Critical Mass 2022.

Learn more about the Dance Leaders Group here
Learn more about Critical Mass here

In Episode 3 Shane speaks with Brazilian-born Theatre Director, Ramiro Silveira about his physical-theatre practises, the relevance of physicality in drama and plays and Brazil’s place on the global stage.

This is part of Shane's curated Dance Insights Online programme, Shane Shambhu brings a series of short conversations expanding our understanding of dance, theatre and culture.

In Episode 2 Shane speaks with Kristine Landon-Smith about her approach to intra-cultural creating and its importance, development of physical actions and abstraction in theatre contexts and why there is a lack of female directors and choreographers.

This is part of Shane's curated Dance Insights Online programme, Shane Shambhu brings a series of short conversations expanding our understanding of dance, theatre and culture.