Lois Taylor has pursued her desire to share and engage with others through dance, in a variety of professional contexts.  After training in dance at the Hammond school and Laban Centre she spent 6 years as a performer and workshop facilitator for Ludus Dance Company and Footloose Dance company who both brought dance to new and marginalised communities.

 

Inspired by this work and the desire to find her own artistic choreographic voice, she co-founded Attik Dance in 1990.  Originally based in Cornwall the company developed performance and workshop programmes for local rural audiences and national touring.  Attik became a regularly funded client of The Arts Council of England and Plymouth City council and a registered charity. 

 

As artistic director of this company for 19 years, Lois developed their reputation by delivering high quality performance and education that led the way in building bridges between the arts and other sectors of education, health and social development. The company also hosted many dancers on vocational training opportunities. 

 

Role Artistic Director

 

• To create and hold the artistic vision for the company.

• To collaborate with artists and educators to deliver the vision. 

• To work with creative, funding and activity partners to develop the possibilities.  

• Line manager for our Education and Community Specialist and Business Manager

 

Other duties:

Planning Fundraising Management Working to budget

Networking

Partnership building

Evaluation Reporting 

 

Lois left Attik to develop her freelance career and continue her pursuit of new methods of engagement through dance with a wider community.  She founded and produced the Vital Spark community arts project for three years in Liskeard, Cornwall, bringing art forms and community and professional artists together alongside local venues to share ideas, creativity and enrich their local community.

 

She has a strong commitment to the development and support of other dance artists and has provided artist mentoring through a range of initiatives including the TRI mentoring Scheme in partnership with Pavillion Dance.

 

Lois has a long history of creative workshop facilitation. She has taught extensively to the professional sector and all ages and abilities, from babies to the very elderly.  She works with organisations to develop their education programme for dance and runs a wide range of training events for teachers.  She collaborates with schools and colleges to develop creative topic based projects delivering academic, creative and social agendas.

 

First and foremost a dancer, Lois has always put the body and creativity at the heart of her approach and she has worked as a performer in many original works including Angela Praed’s all night performance duet The Bed and  Saffy Setohy’s work Unexpected Animal and Kindling, a performance work made with her son.

 

She is currently Dance Lecturer for Falmouth University, Associate Artist for Dance Republic 2, community dance facilitator and creative advisor to the Joi De Vivre project – a European partnership exploring the potential for dance and older people.

 

loistaylor.co.uk