About this provider

Magpie Dance is the UK’s leading dance charity for people with learning disabilities. We believe that a learning disability should not be a barrier to personal and artistic success.Through dance, our participants gain life, social and communication skills with added health and wellbeing benefits.

Magpie Dance was founded in 1985 by Avril Hitman BEM who retired from the role of Artistic and Executive Director in 2017. Our values and approach were founded on the social model of disability – it is up to society to find a way of including people rather than excluding because of disability.

Since the beginning, the aim was for the dancers to have as many opportunities as possible to perform and collaborate with different companies and artists. This remains vital to Magpie Dance today which has now grown from a 45-minute session per week, to 20 sessions per week plus outreach workshops – enabling over 300 people to access regular dance activity sessions each year.

Our participants have a range of learning disabilities and are aged 3+, with no upper age limit on taking part. Through dance, our participants gain significant life, social and communication skills with measurable health and wellbeing benefits.

Participants stage regular performances and national tours, many in prestigious performing arts venues. Ambitious and talented dancers are supported through professional progression pathways. We also deliver professional training for education, dance, health and business clients nationally, and we work in partnership with the NHS to provide in-patient work for clients with dementia and a range of complex learning disabilities.