Beyond the Studio, our event series helping dancers to carve out their career with confidence, is back for 2025!
The series begins again on Thursday 13 February, 12noon-1:30pm, with a workshop led by Gemma Nixon called ‘Turning Goals into Action – A Guided Exploration.’
In this workshop, Gemma will guide dancers through a reflective and practical process to define their career aspirations and break them down into achievable actions.
Ahead of the workshop, Gemma tells us about her own dance career and shares more on her workshop and what to expect.
Q1) Tell us about your experience as a dancer.
Professionally I’ve worked with companies including Rambert Dance Company, The Royal Ballet, Company Chameleon, Scottish Dance Theatre, Alexander Whitley Dance Company, Russell Maliphant, and HeadSpace Dance.
I’ve revelled in the challenges, rigour, and pressures of both company and freelance life, which I’ve shared with incredible colleagues, teachers, choreographers and directors. It was during my time at Rambert that New Movement Collective was born.
We were a group of young, hungry, driven artists who wanted to push the boundaries of how we could make work together and what different arenas we could find to place it in. 15 years later we are still going! Our latest production, Les Noces- The Departure was a celebration of dance and music, where six out of nine dancers were over 40 years old!
Q2) Where are you at currently in your career- tell us about the transition to coaching.
Considerations around mindset, resilience and goal setting have underpinned my work both on and off the stage- they’ve been a crucial part of me achieving the things I’ve set my sights on.
It was during lockdown, whilst re-evaluating and reflecting on where I was in my career, who I was as a leader and facilitator, and my desire to learn and grow that I signed up onto the Relational Dynamics 1st coaching course, through which I was awarded my accreditation.
Since then I have coached on an individual and group basis for students, professional dancers, staff teams, company executives, training institutions and youth dance companies.
Q3)Why are you passionate about supporting dancers?
Dance has been my passion since I was really young, and with all the success and challenges I’ve had there’s been an enormous amount of work to do that isn’t about physical practice.
Aged 16, a chance encounter really shifted my thinking and gave me keys to unlock something in my mind. A guest speaker came to my school- Tim Henman’s sport psychologist- and gave a workshop and talk on performance.
The things I learnt about on that day-mindset, resilience, strategies and tools- had a huge, long-lasting impact on me and have been fundamental in helping me navigate my career.
I’m really passionate about the boundless possibilities coaching methods have in enhancing and unlocking potential both as an individual and/or collaborative teams. I strongly believe in the use of coaching methodologies as a resource to support the artistic community, and their long-lasting positive effects in a world where resilience and adaptability are key qualities to thrive and succeed.
Q4) Why should dancers come to this session?
Sometimes it can feel that you’re fishing in the dark or swimming through the mud, perhaps you have a goal or idea but are struggling to realise it, or you feel everything is going really well but are looking for some personal growth.
This session is an opportunity to shut out the noise and allow for introspective thinking; increase self-awareness, challenge patterns of thought and behaviour to serve you better, set out intentions and goals for the year ahead and identify the steps to get there.
Coaching is a collaborative, solution focused, self-directed learning process, based on the premise that we hold the solutions within ourselves.
Q5) What will people get out of this session?
I hope people will come away with clarity, having had the space to reflect.
We will ask questions such as-
Most importantly, I hope the session gives those in attendance actionable steps to move forward with clarity and confidence.
Booking & info
Turning Goals into Action – A Guided Exploration
Thursday 13 February, 12noon-1:30pm
Company Chameleon, Barrass Street, Openshaw, M11 1PU
Pay as you feel: £3, £5, £8
CLICK HERE to book your spot at the workshop.
If you’re a dancer and you’re looking for some career coaching, get in touch with Gemma at nixongemma@yahoo.co.uk
About Beyond the Studio
At Company Chameleon, we get that being a dance maker is not just about perfecting your craft, and that your career involves a whole set of other skills too, such as producing, networking, fundraising and finance.
Beyond the Studio is our event series to help you develop these types of skills, so you can carve out your career with confidence and make a bigger impact in the industry.
Looking ahead, keep an eye out for more news about our March event, at which Dancers Career Development and One Dance UK will deliver an information session exploring their artist offers, including professional development, retraining budgets, and wellbeing packages.
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Thank you to everyone who comes to watch us perform and for your comments and feedback!