Brighton and Hove’s first ever building designed especially for dance, The Dance Space, which opened in July and is run by South East Dance, has announced its first resident company will be Second Hand Dance, headed by artist and choreographer Rosie Heafford.
Disabled-led Second Hand Dance creates sensory dance experiences, live and digital, locally, nationally and internationally from their base in Surrey. Recently, Second Hand Dance Film's Night Tree Films featured on Sadler's Wells Digital Stage over the Christmas season 2021/22 and the company toured the UK in spring with We Touch, We Play, We Dance.
South East Dance’s Artistic Director Cath James said, “we were keen to develop our relationship with Second Hand Dance as our first Resident Company, because their work for children really resonates with our growing focus on early years audiences, supported by our Little Big Dance programme. And it’s vital that we support female, disabled-led companies like this one to thrive in a sector that continues to be very male-dominated.”
Heafford added, “I’m thrilled! This is a chance to deepen our relationship and create space to explore questions around making and touring work for young audiences and being a disabled-led company. Second Hand Dance has been supported by South East Dance since we first started in 2013 across a variety of projects, professional development and business development opportunities. Their advice and encouragement across the years has been deeply valued.”