2024: Year Round-Up

Guiding us into this exciting new chapter are Co-Artistic Directors Raquel Meseguer-Zafe and Dominic Mitchell, alongside newly appointed Executive Director, Melanie Precious, and a talented, new, production team. Together, they began to shape the future of our programme, propelling Candoco into a bold new era.

Photo credit: Roswitha Chesher

Under their leadership, we started to further centring lived experiences, prioritising the commissioning of disabled artists, and enriching our contemporary dance practice by recognising and incorporating diverse styles and cultural heritages. We’ve also focused on creating rest-friendly and liberatory spaces – offering a space where diverse narratives and lived experiences can thrive. These new commitments embrace intersectionality and challenge us to continually reimagine our approach to accessibility throughout our creative process and teaching practices.

Photo credit: Hugo Glendinning

Unfortunately, every high comes with its challenges. Early this year, we mourned the loss of our beloved former dancer Mickaella Dantas. Processing this profound loss took us time. To honour Micka’s legacy, we collaborated with filmmaker Dorothy Allen Pickard to edit a special interview, celebrating the incredible talent and spirit of Mickaella, who left an indelible mark on Candoco’s journey.

Photo credit: Rachel Cherry

Despite the challenges, 2024 brought incredible achievements. Here are just a few of the milestones that defined this transformative year:

• A new commission: In 2024, we launched our first auditions under the new artistic direction, generating overwhelming interest and attracting exceptional talent. We then selected our new company dancers, who will bring our new Commission by Dan Daw Creative Projects (DDCP) to life on tour in 2025. ‘Over and Over (and over again)’ marks the first new work under our new leadership’s vision. Rehearsals began in November, with the premiere and tour scheduled for Spring 2025.
  

• Sustainable touring practices: Guided by feedback from previous touring experiences, we shifted our touring approach, prioritising mid-scale tours to create a more sustainable and accessible model.

• Securing funding: Alongside ongoing support from Arts Council England, we secured funding through the Disability Justice Fund, a fund by Trust for London in partnership with City Bridge, Garfield Weston Foundation, and Cockayne Grants for the Arts – held at the London Community Foundation. We also received the generous support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, providing vital funding for the creation of our new commission.

• Community engagement: With support from Southwark Council’s Cultural Celebrations Fund, we continued delivering our annual Day of Dance in collaboration, further strengthening our bond with the local community of Peckham and South London.

• Online adult class: We introduced a new model for our online adult classes, researching ways to improve our access provision and exploring new teaching practices. This included the unique opportunity to learn directly from our Co-Artistic Directors while also exploring the creative practices of our Candoco Teaching Artists.

• Improved access standards: Our new Head of Programme focused on building long-term partnerships and enhancing access provision for our touring activities.

• Board recruitment: Five new Board Members, including a Treasurer, joined us this year, bringing lived experience and new expertise into our company and reinforcing our commitment to increasing disabled representation across leadership.

• Allyship: We continued our support as an ally in the inclusive dance sector by launching The Working Group, alongside Corali, People Dancing, Stopgap Dance Company, and TIN Arts, serving as co-collaborators in a shared enquiry aimed at increasing and sustaining the presence and representation by disabled people in the dance workforce and its leadership. We supported the recruitment for a new research programme titled ‘Barriers to Progression and Employment in Dance for Disabled People’. Together, we then appointed a research team of experienced researchers with lived experience who will lead this fundamental enquiry.
  We also co-hosted the online premiere of a new dance film by K. Bailed (Kat Hawkins), exploring disabled autonomy, fear, joy and connection.

• Artists development: We listened to our Candoco Teaching Artists experiences (CTAs) and began enhancing the CTA programme to foster more artist development opportunities. We also launched The Candoco Dance Artist scheme offering small bursaries to performers, artists, and facilitators who have worked with us in the last couple of years, supporting their work and creative practice. Candoco Dance Artists also gain access to our new open practice sessions – providing an open, non-led space to explore, create, and learn together in a welcoming environment, using peer-to-peer feedback in support of each other’s creative practice.

• Learning residencies: We participated in four residencies, including international teacher training in Norway and Hong Kong, as well as youth-focused residencies in the USA and UK. These opportunities, led by our Co-Artistic Director Dominic Mitchell and Candoco Teaching Artists (Kitty Fedorec, Paulina Porwollik, Corinne Meredith and Ted Wilkinson) enriched our Learning and Participation strand which allowed us to introduce some of Candoco’s learning principles and informed decisions about how to enhance our learning offer of the new year.

• A new vision: Led by our Executive Director and artistic leadership, we held company-wide meetings to refine our vision, mission, and values set to launch at the beginning of 2025. These refreshed principles will guide us into 2025 and beyond.

And these are just a few highlights!

This year has been a time of incredible change, moving us forward while honouring our past. None of this would have been possible without the dedication and support of our artists, funders, staff, Board members (past and present), audiences, partners, and collaborators. To all who have joined us on this journey, we thank you – you are the heart of what we do.

As the holiday season begins, we wish you a warm and restful Christmas. With excitement, we look to 2025, ready for the new possibilities and joy it will bring.

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