Cheshire Dance

Step Into Capoeira (Autumn Term)
2025-09-01 10:00 - 11:00 UTC | Theatre Porto, Whitby Hall, Ellesmere Port, CH65 6QY
Capoeira for home education!
A session from Cheshire Dance for all primary schools ages who learn outside of mainstream education.
Capoeira sessions that explore the Brazilian artform that mixes martial arts with dance, acrobatics and music.
Pay per session (£5 only).
No sign up fees or contracts; all abilities welcome.
Term Time only, Mondays 10-11am at Theatre Porto in Ellesmere Port.
For more info, contact Cheshire Dance on 01606 861770 or email: classes@cheshiredance.org.

Live Well Dance Hazelmere (Autumn Term)
2025-09-02 11:30 - 12:30 | Hazelmere, Hambleton Way, Winsford, CW7 1TL, United Kingdom
Live Well Dance – Hazelmere
Join us at Hazelmere, Winsford!
Dance & movement classes for ages 50+. Join us to have fun, get active and meet others with an hour of moving and dancing for health and falls prevention. No experience needed!
No need to book, just show up- come along and join the fun!
Pay £3 or £5 on the day!
Tuesdays, 11:30am-12:30pm, 2nd September- 16th December (no session 28th October).
Hazelmere, Hambleton Way, Winsford, CW7 1TL

Please get in touch if any questions, call 01606 861770 or email us at classes@cheshiredance.org.

Keep on Dancing at Storyhouse (Autumn Term)
2025-09-08 14:00 - 15:00 | Storyhouse, Hunter St, Chester, CH1 2AR, United Kingdom
Cheshire Dance in partnership with Storyhouse brings you Keep on Dancing – a weekly dance session as part of Storyhouse Elders, a series of events celebrating ageing creatively.
This new community will give you a special opportunity to work with us to learn, rehearse and collaborate. PLUS, there’ll be some great performance opportunities too.
In the weekly sessions you will be inspired by events, activities and shows happening in the wider Storyhouse programme and will become immersed in the Storyhouse community.
The sessions take place in ‘The Studio’ by Storyhouse on Northgate Street every Monday from 2-3pm.
No need to book, just come along and join the fun!
Pay £6 or £8 per class. Card and cash payments accepted.

For more information or to chat with us about these sessions, drop us an email at: classes@cheshiredance.org

Move & Connect Chester (Autumn Term)
2025-09-09 09:30 - 11:00 | Storyhouse, Hunter St, Chester, CH1 2AR, United Kingdom
Chester Community Class
Open Level Contemporary Dance Classes in Chester. Everyone welcome, classes are accessible to all level, abilities and experiences.
Ranging from guided improvisation to more formal dance exercises, we awaken our bodies to find ease and flow, to listen to sensations within and to play with the physical possibilities and personal expressions that arise.
Classes will be led by experienced Chester based professional dance artists with a focus on making these sessions fun, inclusive and accessible for all.
Please come and join us and bring a friend – alternate Tuesdays at Storyhouse (Studio).
All sessions are from 9.30 am – 11.00 am.
Cost: £3/£5/£8 depending on your individual circumstances- cash or card accepted on the day!

If you enjoy moving and connecting with others, then this class is for you!
For more information, contact Bettina Carpi at: bettinacarpi@hotmail.com.

The Spotlight Project (Autumn Term)
2025-09-09 19:00 - 20:30 | New Images Youth Centre, Nixon Drive, Winsford, CW7 2HG, United Kingdom
Calling all Young People in Winsford aged 11-18!
Join us for The Spotlight Project – fun, friendly and active sessions to get you moving.
Take part in dance & movement workshops every Tuesday evening, 7pm-8:30pm, 9th September – 16th December (no session 28th October).
The Spotlight Project is the chance to try something new, meet new people, get active and have fun. Beginners welcome, this group is for all abilities and high school ages- no booking needed.
All sessions are FREE! What’s more, there’ll be snacks, time for chats and the opportunity to do something different on a Tuesday night at New Images, Winsford Youth & Community Forum.
For any questions or queries, pop over a message to classes@cheshiredance.org.

(Click to enlarge or download)

Disability Youth Dance (Autumn Term)
2025-09-11 17:00 - 18:00 | Parade Enterprise Centre, 51 The Parade, Blacon, Chester, CH1 5HW, United Kingdom
Disability Youth Dance with Cheshire Dance!
Creative, inclusive dance sessions for learning disabled children and young people.
For ages 6+, £5 a session. Cash or card accepted in session.
Come along, have fun and make friends – everyone is welcome!
Thursday evenings from 5-6pm (Term Time only) at The Parade Enterprise Centre, Blacon, Chester CH1 5HW.

Jack Evans film screening at Cine Window Winsford
2025-09-13 11:00 - 12:00 | Cine Window Winsford, Crosshatch Studios, CW7 1AS, United Kingdom
A unique double film screening will take place on Saturday 13 September at Cine Window, Winsford, bringing together dance, digital art, and personal storytelling.
The event begins at 11am, with the first screening at 11:15am. Refreshments will be available from the nearby Crosshatch Gallery.
The two films are creative dance and digital explorations from a collaboration of Jack Evans, professional dancer and choreographer and the Cine Window Team, commissioned by Cine Window.
The first short film, ‘Glitch in the Mask’’, is a behind the scenes look at the digital process of creating a dance and digital work for live stage called Life Behind the Mask. Choreographed by Jack Evans, Life Behind the Mask is a duet work that fuses live performance with the digital world. It explores Jack’s identity as an Autistic dancer and how he experiences the world. The piece looks at the idea of Masking – a strategy where autistic individuals suppress or conceal their natural autistic behaviours and traits to appear more neurotypical and blend into social situations. This film is an insight into the processes that Jack and digital artist Chris Oakley and programmer Mike Sharps of Cine Window Winsford went through to create the live show ‘Controlling the Mask’.
‘Controlling the Mask’ is a digital artwork created by digital artist Chris Oakley and programmer Mike Sharps of Cine Window Winsford during their collaboration with dancer Jack Evans. Utilising bespoke software libraries tailored the demands of the evolving dance, the piece has been created using 3D scanning to image the dancers as a ‘point cloud’, rendering the figures in real time as matrix of points in space.’
Jack Evans is on the Talent Development North programme at Cheshire Dance. Talent Development North (TDN) supports disabled dance artists across the North of England with a focus on those who are learning disabled or autistic (18+). Led by TIN Arts in partnership with Yorkshire Dance and Cheshire Dance, TDN seeks to enable disabled dance artists to create exciting new work whilst gaining industry insight to build connections and explore professional pathways within the dance sector.
This screening is a free event but please RSVP to emma@cheshiredance.org for numbers.

Explore Brazil with the NEXUS Programme
2025-09-15 10:00 - 16:00 | Parade Enterprise Centre, 51 The Parade, Blacon, Chester, CH1 5HW, United Kingdom
Explore Brazil with the NEXUS Programme this Autumn!
Through various workshops and activities, NEXUS creates the space for young people to connect with themselves, their ideas and with others, through dance in Chester and the surrounding area.
Using Capoeira, Afro-Brazilian Dance, Art, Music and Storytelling – explore Brazilian culture in this two day workshop.
This workshop if for home educated children and young people ages 7+.

Theatre Porto, Ellesmere Port
15th and 16th September
10am – 4pm
£20 for both days. The workshops have been kindly subsidised through funding from the Westminster Foundation.

Book your place here!
For any questions or queries, please email emma@cheshiredance.org.

Dance and PMLD Practice Sharing Network Meeting
2025-10-22 12:30 - 14:00
Our next Dance and PMLD Practice Sharing Network Meeting will take place online on Thursday 23rd October 2025 from 12:30pm to 2pm
We’re delighted to welcome Rebecca Swift from Entelechy Arts as our guest speaker for this meeting.
For over 30 years Entelechy Arts has been running, ‘Ambient Jam‘ – a unique dance improvisation programme arising from long term collaborations with adults and young people who have profound and multiple disabilities. Ambient Jam improvisation sessions bring together members and volunteers with a team of dance artists, musicians and sculptors. Together they explore movement and music with tactile sculpture twice a week at The Albany in Deptford. Rebecca will introduce us to Ambient Jam and then Ruth and Jane will share their recent experiences of facilitating ‘Wanna Dance? Jams’.
We will then open up the conversation between us to further explore this rich, yet often hidden, work.
Rebecca, Ruth and Jane will bring questions about the work and processes and we really look forward to hearing your thoughts, responses and questions too.
The Dance and PMLD Practice Sharing Network is a group of artists, practitioners and other professionals from across the UK and internationally who come together to explore, question and develop our dance practice with people with PMLD.
We warmly invite new practitioners to join the group to share knowledge, practice, questions and challenges of dancing with people with PMLD.
If you would like to join us for this next meeting please visit our Network page and click ‘Join the Network’ to send us an email.
We look forward to gathering with you online on 23rd October!

Dance Able Winsford (2026)
2026-01-06 17:30 - 18:30 | Cheshire Dance: Winsford Library, Winsford Library, High Street, Winsford, CW72AS, United Kingdom
Dance sessions at Winsford Library for young people with learning disabilities age 11+, exploring dance, choreography, improvisation and creation!
Come and join us, Wednesdays, 5:30-6:30pm from January 6th 2026.
Everyone welcome- pay £3, £5 or £8 on the day. No need to book!
For any questions or a friendly chat, email lesya@cheshiredance.org.

Anonymous Boys Dance Class (Cheshire Dance's NEXUS Programme)
2026-01-08 18:00 - 19:30 | Blacon Enterprise Centre, 14 The Parade, Blacon, Chester, CH15HN
A brand new class for boys and young males ages 13 to 18 years old.
This class will begin in January 2026 at the Blacon Enterprise Centre, Blacon.
Thursdays 6pm till 7:30pm and is FREE.
Email emma@cheshiredance.org for more information!
Visit the NEXUS website here for more information on the whole programme, proudly funded by The Westminster Foundation.

Safeguarding in Dance Training
2026-01-17 09:45 - 16:00 | University of Chester, Kingsway Campus, Chester, CH2 2LB
Do you work in dance with young people or adults with additional needs?
Whether you’re a dance teacher, artist, workshop leader, facilitator or project manager – safeguarding is your responsibility, and keeping yourself and your participants safe is your duty.
Our Safeguarding Training Workshop is designed to help you understand and feel comfortable and confident about the role of safeguarding in your work.
In the training you will learn how to recognise and respond to safeguarding issues, and record and report on safeguarding, so you can provide a safe environment, which promotes the health and well-being of participants and ensures a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone.
We will look at working with children and ‘adults at risk’ in various dance contexts – from performance, to class, to project organisation. This will include areas such as awareness, touch and safe practice. The course will help individuals understand how to deal with any circumstances that put themselves or participants at risk.
The training covers a wide range of subjects within safeguarding and includes:

Introduction to safeguarding.
The role of safeguarding in your work.
Good practice guidelines for practitioners/organisations.
What to include in your safeguarding policy.
Changes and updates to safeguarding policies and child licensing regulations.
Internet and Social Media safety.
Facilitation of Touch/Non-verbal negotiation of touch.
DBS/Chaperoning.

Led by Jane McLean, Creative Director at Cheshire Dance, the workshop is an essential CPD opportunity to help you feel empowered and incorporate best safeguarding practice into your work.
Safeguarding Training for the Dance Sector 2026- Info & Booking:

Saturday 17th January 2026
9:45am to 4pm
University of Chester Creative Campus, Kingsway, Chester, CH2 2LB

Tickets:

If you are employed by an organisation, the cost is £50
If you are a freelance artist working in dance, the workshop is £25
Free for Cheshire Dance onboarded freelancers and University of Chester Dance student – please enter your special code/password during the booking process
