Course leader and mentors

Alison Beckett

DDTAL (CYP) course leader

Alison Beckett is a consultant in vocational and educational dance at all levels. Her early training was in classical ballet, Cecchetti and Vaganova methods and she taught in the private sector over a number of years, including working in partnership with Leonie Urdang. Alison studied for a first degree in Education and continued to gain a Masters at the University of Leeds. She has also worked with Nadine Senior MBE at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance where she was Vice Principal (Academic) for 17 years.

Alison has considerable experience in diverse areas of dance practice and dance teaching, including a particular interest in working in dance with people with disabilities. She was an inspector for QAA for HE dance courses and most recently she has headed up the development of teaching qualifications at the British Ballet Organisation. Furthermore, Alison acts as a consultant for many dance organisations including Swindon Dance and Trinity College London.

Karen Knox

Current DDTAL (CYP) mentor

Karen has 10 years of experience as a community dance artist working with children and young people. Her specialism is in delivering urban dance styles and she has worked with many different groups of young people from educational, community and custodial settings with Artworks, Creative Partnerships (Bradford) and Dance Action Zone Leeds (DAZL) and more. In 2009, Karen founded KLiK Community Arts and works to deliver her own multi-disciplinary arts projects with young people across Yorkshire. Karen is committed to promoting quality delivering that is safe, contemporary, educational and fun.

Helen Linsell

Current DDTAL (CYP) mentor

After graduating with a postgraduate Diploma in Community Dance from Laban, Helen Linsell has devoted her career to delivering dance activity to people of all ages and abilities in a wide variety of contexts. Her focus is on facilitating dance within informal settings, such as working with young offenders and young people excluded from school. Helen has worked with a number of London Borough Councils, South East Dance (National Agency) and delivers creative sessions as part of Yorkshire Young Dancers CAT scheme at Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Whilst working as a practitioner, she has also delivered INSET sessions and Professional Artist Training in association with both Laban and Dance United.

Zoe Parker

Current DDTAL (CYP) mentor

Zoe has been working as a freelance practitioner for 17 years and within that time she has undertaken a wide range of work with children and young people, including work with homeless children, children with disability and children with mental health issues. She has also worked in Further Education over a period of 13 years for both Thomas Danby College and Leeds College of Music, where she undertook roles of lecturer, personal tutor, choreographer, director and course leader for Entry Level and Level 2 & 3 courses.Furthermore, Zoe has worked for Edexcel as an external examiner in dance and she has also worked on a range of projects for Cape UK, Artforms, Spark (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Northern Ballet Theatre and Bretton University.