Meet the Team

Since graduating from Laban in 2014, Luke has performed in places from Tate Modern to Royal Vauxhall Tavern, and has worked dance administration jobs in Cardiff and The Place, London, before a brief stint doing the social media for Ballet Nights. He joined South East Dance as the Administration and Communications Assistant in Feb 2024, moving over to the Programming team in his current role from Sep of that year. 

Chloe's pronouns are she/her

Alongside her job-share Georgina, Chloë heads up the Marketing & Communications Team. Together they are responsible for the department’s strategy and planning, as well as overseeing all communications and marketing activity. 

Chloë’s background is in arts press & public relations, having worked at Arts Council England, South East for almost a decade and in a freelance capacity with a wide range of artists and arts organisations including Vincent Dance Theatre, Blast Theory, The Poetry Exchange, Lighthouse, The Serpentine Galleries, Towner Gallery, Hydrocracker and many more. 

Chloë very much enjoys watching dance theatre and contemporary dance. These days her own dance moves are largely directed at embarrassing her daughter. 

Chloë's usual working days are Monday morning, Wednesday and Friday. 

Martin's pronouns are he/him

Martin is responsible for all production and technical needs within the dance space. He works closely with the Artistic Director in the planning and delivery of The Dance Space programme, ensuring the smooth running of events and performances. 

He has over 20 years of experience as a theatre technician, touring nationally and internationally with Perriplum, Array UK, People show, High Spin, Walker dance parks music, Clod Ensemble, and others. 

When not working, he can be found tending to his allotment, playing the harmonica, or helping produce and perform experimental music events with Lost Property Arts Collective.

Martin’s usual working days are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Daniel's pronouns are he/him.

Daniel creates and delivers communications campaigns across all platforms, supporting South East Dance’s Marketing & Communications strategy.

He started his career in the music industry, fulfilling press, marketing, radio and A&R roles for Brighton's FatCat records before moving into the arts world when he became Marketing Officer at Brighton Fringe. 

Daniel has spent much of the last decade working on a dance move that is going to make him millions.

Daniel's usual working days are Tuesday - Friday. 

Mark's pronouns are he/him. 

Mark is part of the operations team working alongside his colleague Makeda.

Together they are responsible for welcoming our visitors and overseeing the day to day running of the studios.

Mark’s background includes over 30 years’ experience in Visitor Services, Operational, Event and Ticketing Management, working in Arts and Heritage organisations including The Barbican, The British Museum and Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival.

Mark has always enjoyed theatre and dance, and can also be found dancing (and singing) around his home trying to increase his step count!

Mark’s usual working days are Monday - Friday.

Rachel's pronouns are she/her.

Rachel co-leads South East Dance with Cath James, with responsibility for business areas including governance, operations, compliance, finance and HR and also leading on the development of our capital project The Dance Space.

Rachel has worked in arts management for nearly 35 years, beginning in administration and programme in a number of theatres and arts centres, then moving into arts funding with roles in the dance teams at East Midlands Arts, London Arts Board and Arts Council England.  She then went on to spend more than 20 years as a freelance consultant working with dance companies, venues and other arts organisations across the UK. 

Rachel is a terrible dancer but has been an enthusiastic member of dance audiences throughout her working life.

Rachel's usual working days are Monday - Friday. 

Georgina's pronouns are she/her

Alongside her job-share Chloe, Georgina heads up the Marketing & Communications Team. Together they are responsible for the department’s strategy and planning, as well as overseeing all communications and marketing activity.

Georgina’s background is in arts marketing and she has over fifteen-years’ experience in local arts organisations including Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival and Komedia.

Although a little rusty, she has always loved to dance and is no stranger to a tap shoe. She keeps her dance toe in with a spot of solo jazz (and kitchen dancing with the children).

Georgina's usual working days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday morning. 

Cath's pronouns are she/her.

Cath leads on the artistic direction of South East Dance and works closely with the Executive Director to ensure the effective management and leadership of South East Dance.

Originally from Australia, Cath’s background is in dance, having been a dancer at Rambert Dance Company and Siobhan Davies amongst others, as well as an international dance teacher, before moving into producing and management. She has curated, written about and choreographed dance during her 40 year career.

Dance is still a huge part of Cath’s life, taking regular dance and Pilates classes. She has been known to get creative in her own silent disco on her allotment, and doing the odd yoga session when she is feeling odd.

Cath works flexibly five days a week.  

Emily’s pronouns are she/her.

Emily manages the development and delivery of The Welcome Project as part of the Participation Programme at South East Dance. 

Emily has worked at South East Dance for nearly 14 years.  In that time she has been involved in a wide variety of exciting and engaging projects and has extensive knowledge of event and project management. In recent years, since taking on the Creative Communities manager role, Emily has extended her expertise in working with local communities and delivering outreach opportunities with marginalised groups.  Emily loves meeting new people and supporting them to find a place in dance that best suits them.

When not working, Emily loves having a boogie in the safety of her home with her kids as well as getting out to wild places and exploring the gorgeous Sussex countryside.

Emily’s usual working days are Monday morning, Wednesday and Thursday.

Jane’s pronouns are she/her.

Jane manages the finances for South East Dance and has over 30 years experience working in Finance.

When not working, Jane enjoys spending time gardening and going for walks.

Jane’s normal working days are Monday to Thursday.

Sarah's pronouns are she/her.

Sarah Kearney is the Children and Young People Programme Manager at South East Dance working with the Participation Producer to run the organisation's children and young people's programme. 

Sarah trained at Laban and has worked in dance both on and off stage. She has over 20 years teaching experience, including in dance educational, community and company settings and currently works as a Pilates teacher. Previous to South East Dance, Sarah worked at various London arts venues and in website administration supporting editorial and marketing roles.

Sarah enjoys attending performance events. When her schedule allows, she loves taking part in yoga, Pilates and dance classes. She is also no stranger to having a dance in her kitchen when the mood takes her.  

Sarah's usual working days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

Luan is the Participation Producer at South East Dance delivering socially engaged programmes to reflect the world we live in, creating opportunities to enhance people’s lives. Building communities through relevant and meaningful activities is at the heart of her work. She aims to challenge and transform perceptions about who takes part in the arts and is an ambassador for accessibility and inclusion. She believes the arts should be for everyone and that diversity and equality should be at the forefront of all we do.

Previous to her work at South East Dance, she was the Artistic Director of Ragroof Theatre and has been a freelance artist, producer, teacher and community engagement specialist for over 20 years.

Luan believes in living her values through her work and in her daily life, seeing authenticity and kindness as both radical and political.

Luan's working days are Monday-Friday. 

Emily's pronouns are they/them.

Emily is the Building Manager at South East Dance, supporting the team with compliance, procurement, staff training and operational procedures as we move into The Dance Space and beyond. They are responsible for ensuring the smooth day-to-day running of the building for the programming teams and managing the multitude of back of house operations involved in running a large public space. 

With over 10 years of experience starting in events management, Emily has worked for various charities and organisations over the years managing spaces with large teams in busy operational environments. With a passion for pragmatic problem solving and efficiency, Emily enjoys picking apart and creating all the processes that most people absolutely hate! They have lots of experience working with health and safety, volunteers, adults with additional support needs, within community projects and with diverse teams.

Emily is a queer non-binary person with a passion for learning, especially history and theology. Usually found nerding out listening to history audiobooks, with friends camping, walking or kayaking in nature or working with their hands on (questionable) creative projects. 

Emily's usual working days are Monday - Friday 

Makeda's pronouns are she/her.

Makeda is part of the operations team, working alongside her colleague Mark. 

Together they are responsible for welcoming our visitors and overseeing the day to day running of the studios. 

She also works alongside Sian, to help manage administration and hire enquires. 

Makeda’s background includes around 10 years of experience in customer facing roles, but, still in the early stages of her career, she is eager to learn new skills. Makeda was part of South East Dance's Young Emerging Producers programme as a way of exploring whether she wanted to pursue a career in arts producing. 

Makeda loves working in the arts, and grew up going to theatre shows, as well as singing and dancing around the house with her mother and sister listening to reggae, MoTown and R&B. When the right song comes on the radio, you might catch her dancing and singing in her chair while at the welcome desk at The Dance Space. 

Linzi's pronouns are she/her.

Linzi works alongside the Artist Development and Participation teams at South East Dance, supporting the management of the artistic programme and programming our studio spaces.

With 15 years experience working with organisations such as Southbank Centre, Dance4, Bestival, Women of the World Festival (WOW) and South East Dance, she has produced performance and participation projects in many different contexts. From presenting work in broom cupboards to stadiums - with your next door neighbour and with international artists- everything goes. She is also Producer for female-led dance collective, Nora and Project Manager for MakeAmplify. 

Linzi trained to be a performer, but soon realised she was much better suited to 'producing' dance so decided to stay back of house and use her powers to facilitate others to perform. She can now be found dancing in her kitchen or on top of a bar on the odd occasion she is let out of the house. 

Linzi’s normal working days are Monday-Thursday. 

Siân’s pronouns are she/her.

Siân works alongside the programming team to manage the studios and hires within South East Dance, focusing on developing the non-artistic hires, including conferences, meetings and events. 

Siân worked in Events Management in the West End for five years, regularly managing large auditorium hires, corporate events and studio hires at The Dominion Theatre. She left London to move back to Sussex and trained as a yoga, meditation and mindfulness teacher. Siân has always felt most at home working in the arts industry and is passionate about improving the health and well-being of people in the arts sector. She has supported staff well-being weeks, teaching meditation and mindfulness to the NHS nurses at Brighton hospital and to the staff at Liverpool University.

Siân trained as an actress and danced all through her childhood and teens. She loves tap dancing and tries to get to classes whenever possible. She can also be found attending theatre productions across the South East and London.

Siân’s normal working days are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.