MeshDance

MeshDancer @emilygracekent will be performing her latest solo, Sometimes I’m Quiet, at the Women of West Yorkshire Festival tomorrow! @westyorkshire_ca 🗓️Fri 1st Aug from 12 - 3pm (Emily is performing outside at 12.50) 📍Darley Street Market, Bradford, Free and open to all! #WOWYFestival 📷 Ant Robling 2025. Image Description: Emily is a young white woman with Down Syndrome. Emily has her dark hair pulled up into two buns on the top of her head and is wearing a black vest and hot pink wide leg trousers. She is standing next to a vintage looking black shell suitcase as she wearily removes her black leather jacket, which she has just pulled off her shoulders. The light behind her glows a warm sunset orange.

Good luck to MeshDancer and @mtgstudios Performance Academy student @francishenry940 for tonight! Francis is performing with @nydcompany in Gravity, choreographed by Guest Artistic Directors @boyblue_uk at @sadlerswells ! 📷: A video still of Francis in @dittotimesthree made in collaboration with @alabamathirteen . Videography by @michael_godsall . Francis, a young white man with Down syndrome stands centre stage in front of rippling white curtains. He’s surrounded by three other female dancers, two of them shine torch light onto him. Shadows fall on the curtain behind. Francis stands still looking directly at the camera.

MeshDancer Emily has been chosen to perform at Expressions at @SABurtonTheatre tomorrow evening! We’ve been quietly working on this solo since the Spring, with Emily creating a beautiful piece that talks about her identity and finding her voice. We’ve found @mtgstudios and @yorkstjohn ’s doodle books which explore identity, voice and representation in the arts absolutely invaluable. If you work with learning disabled and/or autistic creative people, then you really need to see these books! When you can make a piece about anything; where do you start? Well, we started with these books and they were so important in helping Emily find her message. An additional huge thanks to our friends @mtgstudios and @northern_school for the use of their beautiful studios for our rehearsals. For more info on Expressions, see the link in our bio! Image Descriptions: Image 1: A black and white landscape shot of Emily. Emily is a white woman with Down syndrome. She wears glasses and has her dark hair pulled back. It is a close up of her face; she is hailing her right arm, her hand is out of shot. Photo by Adam Perry. Image 2: A selfie of Emily and Karen; with the doodle books out on the floor in front of us; ready to be explored! They are both smiling at the camera!

Sending all our love and good dancey vibes to MeshDancer @francishenry940 as he embarks on the rest of the @nydcompany tour! You can catch this fab bunch of young dancers tomorrow at @fal_almata and at @sadlers_wells on Saturday 13th July! Then they’re off to… @boldtendencies @danceeast @latitudefest @curve_leicester We can’t wait to come and see you perform again soon @francishenry940 , we are so proud and excited for you!

In 2010, MeshDance was created as a response to the lack of inclusive dance opportunities available for young people with learning disabilities and/or autism based in Leeds. Our journey has taken us down so many interesting and exciting paths and our passion to amplify the voices and visibility of our dancers has never wavered. Fast forward 14 (!) years and we are so excited to share that this Saturday, MeshDancer Francis, who has been a company member from the very start is performing in @nydcompany ’s premiere of Wall at Leeds Playhouse! @nydcompany are one of the most supportive and inclusive companies that we’ve had the pleasure to work with. They are a forced to be reckoned with in their commitment to inspiring and championing the next generation of dancers. We are so excited to see Francis performing alongside the rest of the super talented cohort in Wall, choreographed by @dohertyoona . Ticket link in our bio! Image description: 📷1: a black and white still of Francis face, centred in the screen. Francis is a white male dancer with Down Syndrome. He is wearing a black t-shirt with ruffled black hair and has a stubbly goatee beard. His facial expression is neutral. Still from @dittotimesthree filmed by @michaelgodsall @alabamathirteen , supported by @leedsinspired . 📷2: a colour photo of Francis performing at FRESH 2017. Francis is standing up and reaching his arms above his head. He is smiling and looking out at the audience. The other company dancers are sitting on the floor, watching him dance and smiling. Photo by Brian Slater 2017. 📷3: a very baby Francis pictured during one of his first MeshDance sessions at around age 11. He is in a traditional dance studio and is crouched down with his arms and legs folded. Next to him is Lauren, She is also crouched with one leg extended to the side reaching her arms out and smiling at Francis.

A huge thanks to @nscdlearning for inviting us to perform at their Community Dance Platform last night! We loved performing our new work, DITTO (@dittotimesthree ) made in collaboration with @alabamathirteen . It was a pleasure to share the stage with all the other wonderful groups! As always within our work at MeshDance, the voice of dancers with learning disabilities and/or autism is paramount. So we’d love to take this opportunity to celebrate MeshDance artist @emilygracekent and youth company member Abi Sheridan for their choreographic work on DITTO. And of course, a huge congratulations to our dancers for their gorgeous creativity and performances. If you’d like to see the film version of DITTO, made in collaboration with @michaelgodsall , we’re very excited to share that it has been selected for @yorkshiredancepictures FRESH Digital Stage on Fri 14th and Sat 15th April! Images: 1. Credit - @_niamhdonnelly . In this black and white image, you can see a dancer from the shoulder down, sat on the floor side on to the camera. Behind them are the bent knees of another dancer, their right hand almost touching the seated dancer’s elbow. The pine floor is shiny and you can see the ballet barres in the background. 2. A screen shot of the @nscdlearning programme, showing the blurb and credits for DITTO. Check out @dittotimesthree for more info. 3. A photo from side of stage with lights flaring. Two dancers can be seen - the dancer closest to the camera is dressed in black, moving her arms in a windmill like fashion. 4. Another side of stage shot, taken from upstage right, looking towards downstage left. 2 dancers sat back to back, slide together down towards the floor. Again the lights are flaring and dancers can be seen waiting in the wings for their next entrance.

On this very happy World Down Syndrome Day, we’d love to spend a little time shouting about MeshDance artist @emilygracekent_ Emily assists our youth dance company sessions and has choreographed a brand new (gorgeous) duet as part of our collaboration with @alabamathirteen for @dittotimesthree . Emily’s passion is meeting and working with lots of different people, and showing how beautiful our diversity can be through movement. DITTO launches tomorrow night at @the_tetley from 5.30-8pm and includes photography, film and live performance. We’d love to see you there! Image Description: Emily is a white woman with Down Syndrome. She is wearing a black hoodie, with a red tshirt under, glasses and has her hair slicked up into a bear bun. She stands side on to the camera, with her right elbow pointing out to the side and her left hand over her waist. She is looking over her right elbow, as if demonstrating to a dancer out of shot. Other dancers appear blurry in her background, mid movement.

Had a peaceful afternoon last week checking out the Leeds Artists Show 2023 at @leedsartgallery . Especially enjoyed seeing the excellent work of our @dittotimesthree collaborator @alabamathirteen . Feeling inspired by all of the varied and intriguing art works on display, thinking about new approaches and stimulus for our own work. Also sharing some glimpses of pieces that caught our eye by @jioniwarner_ and @mohammad.barrangi . Image Description: Image 1 and 2: The Outpouring I and II (diptych) 2021 by @alabamathirteen 2 framed pieces of cotton thread on cross stitch fabric. Both pieces consist of delicate, yet tightly packed stitches. The first piece is mostly made up of sunrise pinks, reds and purples. The second piece features more cooler blue and purple tones. Image 3: a close up snapshot of image 1, showing the density and texture of the red and pink stitches. Image 4: A section of @jioniwarner_ ’s Blue Magic 2002. Screen print and acrylic on canvas. The canvas is a replica of the artists grandmother’s 1960s mustard and white striped wallpaper with floral patterns. In our snap shot, you see the bottom of a vibrant Blue Magic pot of hair conditioner and some hair ties in jewel colours that instantly took us back to primary school! Image 5: A close up of @mohammad.barrangi ’s work (didn’t make a note of the title!). On a blue background, a hippo drawn from a multitude of black squiggly lines, relaxes in the bath, watched on by a little similarly sketched dog!

In rehearsals today for @dittotimesthree . Youth dance company member Abi is choreographing a brand new piece, based on one of @alabamathirteen ’s soundscapes. In the images, Abi sits with her dancers and shares her ideas. We see two close ups of a score that Abi has drawn to pull out different sounds within the soundscape. You might not be able to tell from the wiggly lines and the dots and dashes, but the soundscape has led us towards Greek mythology! Now we’re going to get creating! Thanks to @mtgstudios for the space. Kindly supported by @leedsinspired .

Having a great first intensive choreography day for our new work @dittotimesthree , kindly supported by @leedsinspired . We’re taking the soundscapes made by @alabamathirteen and responding to them in our choreography. First up is a duet choreographed by @emilygracekent_ . We can’t wait to perform these pieces @nscdlearning Community Dance Platform on Saturday 25th March! Thanks to @mtgstudios for the beautiful space to rehearse in. Image Description: 1. Emily and Louise sit back to back, leaning to one side, pressing their hands into the floor. They look at their hands as they lean. 2. An image of 6 dancers, set up in pairs, trying out different ways of making contact. 2 pairs are back to back and one pair lie on the floor, front to back, mid roll. Ellie is at the back supporting Kaitlin and Lauren. 3. Melissa and Tess lie on the floor laughing as they experiment with rolling on the floor together.

We’re really excited to announce that we’re currently collaborating with @alabamathirteen on a brand new piece of work called DITTO. More info to come in 2023! With kind support from @leedsinspired Image description: 1. A video where the camera has been placed on the floor, and dancers swirl, twist and twirl their arms and hands in the space above. Sometimes smiling faces also appear. 2. 9 dancers in different positions have formed a line. Some are sitting, some are lying and some are standing. They are all close together but not touching and their shapes fit together in an almost jigsaw like tableau. The camera is low down and looks up at the dancers on the glossy wooden floor. 3. Ellie sits on the floor and Roisin, leaning forwards, reaches her arms out as if touching the space around Ellie’s head. They are close but not quite touching. The picture is taken from above, almost like a bird’s eye view.

Our Friday evening classes are back! We’ve got some exciting news about an upcoming collaboration to share with you soon too! In the ‘bird’s eye view images above,’ you can see Melissa and Roisin playing our ‘negative space’ game. Roisin is on all fours, just over Melissa, who is lying on her back and pointing underneath Roisin with her right hand. Swipe across for an outtake where they have burst into laughter as they begin to move away from each other. Thanks to @northern_school @nscdlearning for the beautiful venue as always!