Making the festival a reality
Carla Steenkamp-Sheills - Founding Director and Creator of the Bridport Dance Festival
The power of expression that dance offers has always been precious to Carla, who started her ballet journey at the age of six when she enrolled with the Helen McBride School of Dance in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Carla successfully auditioned for full time ballet school – at the time called The Johannesburg School for Art, Ballet and Music – and here she studied classical ballet, anatomy, flamenco and classical Greek dance. At the age of 18 she auditioned successfully for the PACT ballet company in Pretoria, South Africa but decided not to pursue a performance career and instead started working in the film industry.
Following a permanent move to the UK, Carla went back to her dance roots and studied Dance Movement Therapy through the Dance Voice Therapy Centre at the University of the West of England. Here the curriculum included the power of somatic movement – all key elements in the Susara Holistic Ballet Method that she later developed. Once graduated, Carla worked primarily in women’s mental and physical health groups, whilst also running creative dance workshops in schools.
Nikki Northover - Co Producer of the Bridport Dance Festival, founding director of Bridport Youth Dance & Choreography Geography
Nikki started to dance aged two years old at the local dance school - Bernard Gale School of Dancing. Her passion for dance and the arts grew throughout her childhood and was nurtured throughout her growing up.
Nikkki has now been working in the performance and dance education industry for over thirty years. She is a promoter and great supporter of the arts and in particular dance to children and young people in West Dorset who may struggle with rural isolation. Following her studies in dance and dance education at Roehampton and Surrey University Nikki worked both in London and her hometown as a dancer, teacher, enabler, choreographer and creative producer. Alongside working within London dance schools Nikki maintained her roots in order to provide valuable artistic opportunities to children in a more rural setting.
Hélène Evans - Bridport Dance Festival Treasurer
Kitty Fisher - BDF Admin support and Fundraiser
Anson Hartford - filmmaker
Anson is a filmmaker and producer and runs Banyak Films. Banyak was founded in 2007. Hundreds of films later Anson and his brother Hugh continue to make high profile, cinematic documentaries, campaigns and tv-series with a team of hand-picked talent from around the world.
Contact: anson@banyak.co.uk
Rob Jayne - filmmaker
Rob has several interwoven career strands running throughout his life. He originally trained as a psychiatric nurse before emigrating to New Zealand. His interests led to him working in the emerging theatre, TV and film industry of the country during the 1970’s and 80’s. He was successful in being accepted to train at the national Drama School and went on to be a professional actor for 10 years. He moved into film post-production and worked as a film editor, seeing the transition from working with film stock to the era of digitisation. On his return to the UK in the early 1990’s, he took up various clinical and strategic roles in the NHS. He was awarded a doctorate by Essex University in 2008. Since 2014 he has been making documentaries, educational and promotional videos, as well as short film dramas. He is also a professional working magician and member of the Magic Circle.
Contact: robjayneoffice@gmail.com
Margie Barbour - trustee
A childhood passion for dance and theatre led Margie to working in theatre and television behind the scenes, stage management at first, then directing and producing. Coming to Bridport to work at the Arts Centre gave Margie the opportunity to return to dancing, with Grace and Growl, My Ballet, Anna Golding’s contemporary classes and tap with Helen Fisher - not forgetting line dancing with Debbie Jones. I am happy to support this exciting community project.