Wendy Timmons advocates for dance nationally and internationally both as the Convenor for the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland Board of Trustees and the Health and Wellbeing Trustee at Dance Base, Scotland’s national centre for dance. She also serves on Board of Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland (TRACS) and the Editorial Board for Research in Dance Education Journal. Wendy is a Senior Lecturer in Dance Science and Education at Moray House School of Education and Sport, the University of Edinburgh.

With over forty years of experience working with dance artists and teachers, she completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh and continues her research in dance medicine and science seeking to enable dancers to realise their full potential. More about her work in this area can be found here.

In addition, Timmons plays an active role as a curator, working to reimagine and produce dance works that motivate the artists involved and their audiences. More about this curatorial work can be found at https://linktr.ee/wtimmons

Image by Bluesky Photography 

Eleanor is a dance artist and teacher in both Highland and Step Dance.

She is an associate member of the British Association of Teachers of Dancing with a Masters in Arts and Cultural Management. With close connections to the Hebrides and Northern Isles, Eleanor taught Highland Dance in the Western Isles for a number of years before leaving to travel abroad.

Eleanor now works in arts marketing for a community arts and heritage venue in Argyll and plans to continue her practice as a teaching artist in the near future.

Eleanor on Facebook

Kalubi was born and raised in Belgium. She started her training in traditional Luba dance and singing (from the Democratic Republic of the Congo) at age 3 years. She graduated High School with Baccalaureate in Dance and in 2005 started training in hip-hop and founded the hip-hop company “Born2Move”.  She has a BA (Hons) in Contemporary Dance performance, and an MSc in Dance Science and Education from the University of Edinburgh.

Kalubi is also the founder and director of Seven Artist Management – an agency that aims to bring diversity to the Scottish performing art scene.

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Colin has been involved in many forms of dance from an early age, including ballet, Eastern European folk dance, Greek dance, Renaissance dance, Scottish country and ceilidh dancing, along with Irish step and set dancing. He now both plays in and calls for a ceilidh band. Currently, he is also the treasurer of the Edinburgh International Folk Dance Group (EIFDG).

Colin has an extensive experience of administration and management over many years, including as a supervisor of the manufacturing side of RM Cameron and the former Sons Stationers.

Image courtesy of Colin MacLennan

Iliyana is a curator of contemporary and traditional performing arts, as well as visual arts and crafts. Her interests include arts and activism, artist’s moving image culture, women artists practices, intangible cultural heritage and literature in translation.

Most recently Iliyana held curatorships at Peace & Justice (Scotland) (2020-22); Perth Theatre and Concert Hall where she founded the Threshold artspace (2005–20) commissioning and acquiring 350 works by over 150 artists, as well as at Screen.dance – Scotland’s festival of dance on screen (2016-21), Sofia’s ARC Projects (2007-10), Edinburgh’s Stills (2001-03) and Liverpool’s Foundation for Art & Creative Technology (1996-01).

Iliyana holds a MPhil in Curating Contemporary Art from Liverpool John Moores University and a MLitt in English and American Studies with History and Theory of Culture from the University of Sofia. As a writer, speaker and literary translator, Iliyana has contributed to a wide range of conferences, publications and books.

iliyananedkova.wordpress.com

Image by Alister Lownie

From the age of 14 years Bernie has played the accordion, and now leads a small ceilidh band. He also teaches ceilidh dancing as exercise classes in fitness centres and lays on dementia-friendly Scottish music shows in care homes.

Bernie is a former senior army signals officer with a wealth of international experience working with both NATO and the UN. During his service he went to sea with the Royal Navy, flew with the Luftwaffe and completed the French commando course.

Since leaving the army, Bernie has worked in Saudi Arabia, as business tutor at Fife College and as a recruitment consultant.

www.ceilidhcraic.net

Róisín O’Brien is a choreographer, writer and producer. Her expertise lies at the intersections of contemporary dance, ballet, as well as physical and visual theatre and collaborations with live music. Since starting to independently make work in 2016, her choreographic credits have included: Hidden Door Festival commissions (2022 & 2023), Resolution, DanceLive and various venues at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She was part of the inaugural L20 programme, an artist attachment programme with The Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.

Róisín writes for numerous publications, including The Guardian, Springback Magazine, Fjord Review, and The Skinny, and collaborates with dance artists and companies on show programmes. She is a Springback Academy graduate. She has worked as a producer for DanceLive and MANIPULATE festivals and as an independent producer for artists/musicians duo Long Green Jaws. She is also a qualified yoga instructor.

www.roisinobriendance.com

Image by Mihaela Bodlovic

Olena Singh graduated in 2002 with an MSc in Finance and Economics from the Odesa National University of Economics, Ukraine. For over 20 years she pursued a professional career as a brand, product and sales manager with companies in both Odesa and Kyiv. Since Olena fled the Russian invasion of her native Ukraine in April 2021 and settled in Edinburgh as a displaced person, she had pivoted her skills towards cultural management, translation and interpretation services on a voluntary basis. She helps manage both the Ukrainian folk dance group Kvity Ukrainy (meaning Ukrainian Flower) and the Ukrainian Community Choir of Edinburgh Oberig (meaning ‘Talisman/Amulet’). Although reinvented under this new name in November 2022, the choir was established by Ukrainian emigrants who came to Edinburgh after the Second World War with some of these founding members still performing to date. Recently, Olena undertook the Heritage Collections Summer School at the Centre for Research Collections at the University of Edinburgh. Currently, Olena is furthering her education at Edinburgh College and aiming to secure the future of Ukrainian folk dance in Scotland.

Image by Barrie Baretto