We are delighted to announce Yorkshire Dance’s new Artist Advisory Group for 2025-27: Charlotte Arnold, Tricia Arthur-Stubbs, Shambik Ghose and Eleanor Sikorski.  

The Artist Advisory Group at Yorkshire Dance is a subcommittee of the Board of Directors that includes a number of freelance artists. The group’s purpose is to amplify the voices of independent artists and encourage diversity in the programming and decision making at Yorkshire Dance. You can find out more about each artist below: 

Charlotte Arnold

Charlotte is a freelance dance artist raised in Suffolk and based in Leeds. Graduating with both a BPA & MA from NSCD, she toured internationally as a company dancer with Holstebro Dance Company (Denmark) and has performed across the UK for independent companies such as FRONTLINEdance, Riptide, Casson & Friends and Gary Clarke Company over the past ten years.

On a weekly basis, she facilitates movement for participants ages 4 – 75 across Yorkshire, is part of the L&P team at NSCD and co-directs ACCA Dance Theatre who fuse physicality with comedy to navigate female identity, touring across the UK and internationally.

In regards to the Artist Advisory Group, Charlotte commented:

“As an artist with an established practice and who has been based in Leeds for several years now, it is an enormous pleasure to join the artist advisory group and connect further with Yorkshire Dance. I’m looking forward to advocating for my peers, probing discussion and contributing to the ecology of our vibrant cultural landscape in Yorkshire and the North.” 

Tricia Arthur-Stubbs

Tricia Arthur-Stubbs is a Bradford Based Dance Practitioner whose work includes performing, workshop leading, festival directing and producing. Tricia created and directs BRAVE Festival which stands for “Black Roots and Voices Expressed”. BRAVE arts festival is a fun and practical exploration of Black history with performances and workshops that focus on arts that originated in Black culture.

Tricia is also the leader of the Cultural Voice Forum’s Black-Led Arts Sub-Network bringing together Black artists working in Bradford and has recently been accepted onto Bradford Producing Hub’s Nairobi Producer Exchange programme.

Tricia has been performing and leading dance workshops for over 18 years. She is the founder of Swirl Education, which focusses on leading world dance workshops in schools and at events. Tricia’s Trinidad and Tobago heritage has led her to specialise in Caribbean Carnival Dance. Her work is based on the belief that dance should be fun, inclusive and available to all and that dance can bring positive change.

On joining the Artist Advisory Group, Tricia says:

“I am really excited to be part of the Artist Advisory Group. I believe that the projects I am working on for Bradford 2025 alongside my work in Black arts will bring a unique perspective to the Advisory Group. I am looking forward to helping to shape future support for local dance artists in Yorkshire.”

Shambik Ghose

Dr Shambik Ghose: I introduce myself as a researcher, teacher and choreographer. I have had the privilege of sharing my expertise nationally and internationally in the domain of classical and contemporary artistic practices and performances for more than 23 years. I hold a Diploma in performing arts in Musical Theatre Dance from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, an MA in choreography and a Ph.D. from Leeds Beckett University.

I, with my wife Dr Mitul Sengupta and our dance company Rhythmosaic, articulate in research and practice that brings a multicultural and dynamic perspective to the artistic sphere that is born out of differences in experiences and diverse creative cultures. I am interested in investigating practices that emerge at the cusp of cultural hybridity. Although my practice draws from the rigour of essentialist knowledge systems of Kathak, Jazz and codified contemporary dance techniques, the artistic outcome is a constructive critique of those systems through a hybridised representation of such structured systems of knowledge.

Exploring my practice through the lens of critical pedagogies, I have had the privilege of choreographing, co-directing and presenting works for many established artistic establishments throughout the globe, such as Phoenix Dance Theatre, Royal Danish Playhouse, Beijing Dance Theatre, Beijing Dance LDTX, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Off Jazz Dance Company (France) and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for YDance Scotland.

On joining the Artist Advisory Group, Shambik says:

“I was motivated to join this exciting group to learn from, engage with and contribute to the ever-changing creative landscape of West Yorkshire and to accommodate inclusivity, diversity and dialogue.”

Eleanor Sikorski

Eleanor is an artist based in Leeds. She studied at London Contemporary Dance School. Since 2010 she has worked as a dancer for several choreographers and made and toured solo choreography. Between 2015 and 2021 she was part of dancer collective ‘Nora’, commissioning and performing original work by choreographers. With dance artist Lewys Holt she co-runs Roadhouse, a bi-monthly improvisation performance event in Leeds.

She is currently developing a new choreographic work researching chain reaction machines as scenography. Other recent work has involved choreographing group pieces for university dance students, rehearsal direction, guest lecturing, filmmaking and making comic novels.

Regarding the Artist Advisory Group, Eleanor says:

“I’m really happy to be part of the Artist Advisory Group, bringing my 15 years of experience working as a freelance dancer into dialogue with Yorkshire Dance. Since moving to Leeds in 2021, I’ve developed a strong attachment to the dance scene here and I’m excited to be able to support its development through this role.”

We look forward to working with our new Artist Advisory Group as their breadth of knowledge and experience informs, shapes and develops our work at Yorkshire Dance.

Images (clockwise from top left): Charlotte Arnold © Tim Dunk, Tricia Arthur-Stubbs © Tricia Arthur-Stubbs , Eleanor Sikorski © Lewys Holt, Shambik Ghose © Swarup Dutta