Meet Rubicon's Staff
Adam Lloyd-Binding – Centre Coordinator
With experience of working in financial environments for over 20 years, Adam heads up the day to day administration and is responsible for the running of the Rubicon premises. If you want to hire a studio, or ask a question, contact him. He is a music buff, loves talking about music to others and suggesting music for dance pieces. Outside of Rubicon, he has a keen interest in reading, playing piano and food.
Carmella Searle – Arts Administrator
Carmella has been working at Rubicon Dance since 2004. She is one of three family members working here and her role is Arts Administrator. Jobs include all areas of day to day administration for the Centre Co-Ordinator and Director. Carmella mainly work most evenings on reception, so any enquiries please do not hesitate to ask.
John Hodgson – Finance Manager
John is a chartered accountant who joined Rubicon in 2015 with responsibility to provide financial management and advice across the wide range of the Charity's activities. He has extensive experience in the preparation of accounts, budgets and the provision of financial information for managers of small businesses and charities.
Anne-Marie Hodgson – Finance Officer
Anne-Marie joined Rubicon Dance in 2016 as Finance Officer and is responsible for sales, purchase book, VAT and payroll administration. After leaving college after passing courses in Business Administration and secretarial studies, Anne-Marie joined her family's business. The family business managed several hotels and leisure parks in Llanwrtyd, the Vale of Glamorgan, West Wales, Devon and Cornwall. Anne-Marie was responsible for all aspects of business management from advertising, marketing, accounting and human resource planning. She was Director Manager for 15 years. Her hobbies include Ballroom and Latin dancing, sequence dancing, walking with her Labrador dogs and eating out with her husband John, Finance Manager at Rubicon Dance.
Janet Fieldsend – Assistant Head of Vocational Training and Course Tutor
After training in ballet and Contemporary Dance at Arts Educational Schools, London, Janet's initial experience was as a performer. Amongst others Janet performed for Jumpers Dance Theatre (the first incarnation of what has developed into National Dance Company Wales), Moving Being, WNO, Striking Attitudes, and Cwmni Dawns Gwylan. Janet has been active in the Welsh Independent Dance sector for many years since the 1980s and originally worked as a freelance tutor for Rubicon Dance mainly delivering Primary School sector work. She has taught on the Full Time course in its various forms since 1992 and her current role is Course Tutor and Assistant to Course Director. Janet has taught GCSE Dance since 2002 and now delivers this as part of Rubicon’s programme.
Deborah Ford - Head of Vocational Training
Deborah has twenty six year’s continuous professional experience in Dance and Dance Education, ten of those years working exclusively as a performer, nationally and internationally and sixteen years teaching in further and higher education.
Completing her dance training at LCDS, Deborah then danced and toured with the Postgraduate Performance Company, performing works created by Wayne McGregor, Henri Oguike, Mark Baldwin and revivals of works by Siobhan Davies and Paul Taylor. On graduating in 1997 she performed for several years in the physical theatre company Earthfall, touring nationally and in Europe. For eight years Deborah then performed with the repertoire company NDCW, rising to the position of Senior dancer and mentoring the company’s apprentices. Deborah was involved in the creation and performance of over 40 new works whilst in the company.
Deborah joined NSCD in January 2007 as Rehearsal Director for Verve in its inaugural year. She became a lecturer in Performance across the undergraduate and PG programmes in 2008.During her fifteen years at the school she held both teaching and managerial roles and responsibilities contributing substantially to the education and training developments across the curriculum.
Deborah joined Rubicon Dance as Head of Vocational studies in September 2022 Rubicon Dance and leads the full - time BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Performing Arts (Dance Pathway) course. Deborah also works freelance as an MA tutor to students on the professional placement scheme at NSCD.
Siân Rowlands – Youth Producer
Siân started dancing through the community groups of Bridgend Youth Theatre and subsequently Bridgend Youth Dance under the artistic direction of Lizzie Davies-MacMillan and Chris Tudor. She went on to study her BA (hons) at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and her Diploma in Dance Teaching and Learning (DDTAL) at Trinity-Laban. Since graduating, Siân has worked as a dancer, choreographer, facilitator and mentor for multiple organisations including New Adventures, Wales Millennium Centre, National Dance Company Wales, National Youth Arts Wales and Ballet Cymru.
Tracey Brown – Mentoring, Training and Development Leader
Tracey has worked at Rubicon since September 1996 and her very first role was Dance Development Worker, leading dance sessions for a wide range of ages, abilities and backgrounds and contexts whilst setting up Rubicon's development programme across Cardiff which initially targeted five key areas of the city. Twenty four years on Tracey now works four days a week and manages Rubicon CPD programmes, including our annual summer programme for community dance practitioners from across Wales. She leads our community dance apprentice training programme, mentor development as well as the Wales Wide Training Programme (WWTP) which was established in 2013 with seven partners and now has twenty-five across Wales from community dance organisations, to venues, to national companies. Highlights for Tracey's time at Rubicon include the success and reach of the development programme, the young dancer programme, the Rubicon to Romania programme working with deaf children in Craiova, the community dance apprentice programme and the Wales Wide Training Programme!
Sam Hindle – Dance Development Coordinator
Sam trained through childhood including performing on stage, modelling and making a record. She graduated from the ISTD London College of Dance and Drama in 1994 and proceeded to become a freelance dance practitioner. Sam has worked with many organisations teaching and choreographing with some TV work thrown in! In 2001 Sam set up Rubicon’s Newport Development Programme which has since merged with Cardiff. Part of her post is to stage manage the Schools Dance Festival at St. David's Hall. This is just one of a number of large scale shows Sam has been involved in, with many of the groups she has worked with performing at events for the Rugby World Cup, Oval Basin and Olympics. Sam currently job shares with Sharon coordinating the Development Programme expanding our schools, health and elderly work.
Sharon Teear – Dance Development Coordinator
Sharon has worked within the community dance sector with Rubicon since 2002. She began her career as a Dance Leader and then progressed to Dance Development Leader which included administration, practical teaching and establishing dance sessions for PESS mentoring primary school teachers, teaching OCN, dance courses (WEA accredited), coordinating work-based learning placements, projects and workshops. Sharon then went onto become the Newport Development Co-ordinator and after this the Cardiff Development coordinator. During her time at Rubicon Sharon has also been a Creative Agent for the Lead Creative Schools Scheme and worked on an Age Cymru research project to produce a resource pack for dance for 60+. She also has a wealth of experience in delivering sessions to a wide range of ages and abilities (leading sessions in school sessions, family sessions, youth sessions, disability, elderly, hospice and hospital sessions). Sharon currently works with her colleague Sam Hindle as Development Co-coordinators for a large outreach development dance programme working across Cardiff, The Vale and Newport.
Lauren Williams – Fundraising Officer
Lauren graduated from Cardiff Metropolitan University in 2016 with a BA Hons in Dance. Lauren has worked at Rubicon Dance ever since assisting with fundraising, particularly applying to trusts and foundations. Lauren loves organising events, especially the annual Rubicon Dance Schools' Festival which works with 60+ schools across South Wales. Outside of Rubicon, Lauren is a trained Latin American dancer who loves all things Strictly!
Esther KilBride – Dance Leader
Esther completed her community dance apprenticeship training with Rubicon Dance in 2013 and has worked as a community dance leader since then. She currently leads a wide variety of regular sessions in Cardiff, working with around two hundred and fifty people a week. Her areas of particular interest are dance and disability as well as dance for early years, and dance and dementia. Esther leads Rubicon’s disabled adults programme through the week as well as the children and young people disability dance sessions and the Saturday kids creative sessions. She leads Rubicon’s youth disabilities performance group as well as teaching in care homes, schools, and special schools across Cardiff.
Anwen Davies – Dance Leader
Anwen has worked at Rubicon since 2004. Over the years she has taught in many different settings but currently she delivers sessions in health settings, elderly homes, family sessions, high school and over 50's. Outside of work she is busy with her two boys.
Aisling Baxter – Dance Leader
Aisling originally completed Rubicon's full-time course in 2011 before continuing her training on the Contemporary Dance Foundation course at Northern School of Contemporary Dance and graduating in 2016 with a BA (Hons) in Dance and Drama with Aerial Performance.
Rhian Dwyer – Dance Leader
Rhian graduated with a BA Hons Contemporary Dance Degree in 2017. In 2018, she completed a one-year apprenticeship in community dance with Rubicon and the Wales Wide Training Programme, where she worked to the 5 key areas of the National Occupational Standards for Dance Leadership. In January 2020, she became a full-time community dance practitioner at Rubicon Dance. She currently teaches on the centre programme here at Rubicon and on the development programme throughout Cardiff and Newport.
Sophie Batey – Dance Leader
Sophie has been working for Rubicon Dance since 2006. She has a degree in dance, PGCE in further education and completed an apprenticeship in community dance here at Rubicon. Sophie leads a diverse range of classes from education, elderly, hospitals, disabilities and scholarship and flagship programmes. She enjoys having a rich and varied programme of work and seeing the positive effects that dance has on people’s health and wellbeing.
Sophie Lorimer - Dance Leader
Sophie is working for Rubicon as an Dance Leader after completing her 7-month apprenticeship which she started in December 2021. She is proudly Welsh born and bred and has been attending dance classes since she was 2 years old. In 2018 she completed her BA(Hons) in Dance and Choreography at Falmouth University, where she discovered Dance for Parkinson's and the world of Community Dance. Sophie has taught various Dance for Parkinson's classes before coming to Rubicon, but on her apprenticeship shadowed a varied program that spanned primary schools, hospitals, centre and disability sessions. She now has her own program of sessions which she loves leading so far and can't wait to keep gaining more experience!