On behalf of Brum Pro Class, Autin Dance Theatre received funding support from Dance Hub Birmingham’s Investment Programme, a 5-month sector development programme to build a robust inclusive and empowered dance leadership in Birmingham and the West Midlands.

The project’s focus was to support the up-skilling of the professional dance community to meet access needs for dance artists with visible and invisible disabilities and create a genuine and impactful step-change.

Development opportunities were created for deaf, disabled, and non-disabled artists to explore how dance classes (and people’s creative practices in other settings) could be developed to be more inclusive for people with access needs. A range of experts and local freelance dance artists were invited to share their experiences, learn from each other, and have open conversations about inclusive practice in professional dance class settings.

We would like to give a huge thanks to everyone who contributed to this important inquiry, the learning is hugely valuable, and we have some actionable steps to take forward into the future and share with our community and the wider sector.

We believe that this is a step change for the regional dance sector and recognise that access and inclusion will always be an ongoing process for Brum Pro Class, however, we have some clear actions that we can begin now and future ambitions that we would like to work on with additional capacity and investment.  You can find out more here

The Steering Group is committed to making these changes happen and is currently in the process of applying for more funding.