Beckett Talks

In this episode, Karen reflects on her career in dance, leadership, and cultural advocacy. She shares stories of family pride, professional recognition, and receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award, while considering the impact of her work across the Liverpool cultural sector.

The conversation explores issues of inequality, community, and the idea of "levelling up," with Karen arguing for approaches that celebrate local identity and strengths rather than suggesting communities need fixing. She highlights the vital role of arts and culture in bringing people together, fostering empathy, and creating spaces for dialogue and connection.

Karen also reflects on how experiences of race, class, and belonging have shaped her personal and professional journey. She discusses her commitment to increasing representation in the dance sector and supporting African and Caribbean artists, emphasising the importance of community, inclusion, and shared humanity throughout her work.

Sound Recordist: Dr Laura Taylor

Editing: Dr Laura Taylor

Audio accompaniment: Dr Jess Blaise Ward

Audio accompaniment mastering: Michael Ward

Inspired by David Bowie and raised in Walthamstow by Irish parents, Brendan Keaney’s journey into dance was anything but predictable. Keaney’s career took off in Wales with Jumpers (later NDCW) then led him to Ludus Dance, where he began developing educational strategies he describes as offering the kind of 'thinking time' many people associate with university. He describes how strong mentorship throughout his career within the Arts Council England, Greenwich Dance and at Dance East deepened his understanding of leadership in the sector. He praises these organisations as vital hubs for artistic growth and highlights the profound loss caused by closing schemes such as the CAT for young people who might never otherwise find their way into dance.

Date Recorded: 3rd July 2025

Sound Recordist: Dr Laura Taylor

Editing: Dr Laura Taylor

Audio accompaniment: Dr Jess Blaise Ward

Audio accompaniment mastering: Michael Ward

In this Dancing Class episode, Laura and Rachel host Farooq Chaudhry, who reflects on his journey from childhood in Pakistan to a career in UK dance, earning him an OBE. Farooq explains how he navigated poverty, racism, and the transformative power of education and art. He recalls being inspired by Namron and later supporting a young Akram Khan, taking bold risks to help launch his early works. He explains how his more recent projects confront barriers of representation and identity in the arts. The conversation explores resilience, vision, and creating space for all in dance.

Content Guidance: Light reference to abuse, crime

• Date Recorded: 17th June 2025
• Sound Recordist: Dr Laura Taylor
• Editing: Amelie Thomas
• Audio accompaniment: Dr Jess Blaise Ward
• Audio accompaniment mastering: Michael Ward

In this episode of Dancing Class, Laura and Rachel invite artist and researcher Kate Marsh to discuss her journey from growing up in Peterborough to becoming a dance professional and academic. Kate reflects on childhood encounters with movement, the impact of supportive teachers, and how class, disability, and identity continue to inform her relationship with dance. Kate discusses key mentors in her career, barriers to access, and the role of confidence and community in navigating dance and academia. The conversation highlights dance as both precarious a catalyst for empowerment and social mobility.

• Date recorded: 21st February 2025
• Sound Recordists: Dr Laura Taylor, Charlotte Ryan, Igor Mieczkowski
• Editing: Dr Laura Taylor/Amelie Thomas
• Audio accompaniment: Dr Jess Blaise Ward
• Audio accompaniment mastering: Michael Ward

In this episode of Dancing Class, pioneering hip hop artist Jonzi D shares how growing up in a creative family and discovering hip hop shaped his identity and ambitions. From early school performances to training at The Place, he reflects on navigating class and cultural barriers within the world of contemporary dance to carve his own path.

Jonzi recounts the creation of groundbreaking works like Aeroplane Man and Lyrical Theatre, which fused rap, poetry and movement, giving voice to political and social realities often absent from mainstream stages. He also discusses founding Breakin’ Convention at Sadler’s Wells, an international festival that redefined how hip hop is seen in theatre and challenged entrenched notions of “high” and “low” art, Jonzi speaks about identity, community, race, and the limitless potential he found in hip hop culture.

1. Content Guidance: Light reference to drug use
2. Recorded: 1st October 2025
3. Sound Recordist: Dr Laura Taylor
4. Editing: Dr Laura Taylor
5. Audio accompaniment: Dr Jess Blaise Ward
6. Audio accompaniment mastering: Michael Ward

In this Dancing Class podcast episode, Martin Hargreaves reflects on his journey from a working-class upbringing in Wallasey near Liverpool to becoming Head of the Rose Choreographic School at Sadler’s Wells. Raised in a family with little direct connection to the arts, his early exposure to dance came indirectly through his sister’s ballet classes and films like West Side Story. He discusses how dance shaped his sense of identity and confidence as a queer teenager, and how it has remained central to his life through writing, teaching, and critical engagement.

1. Image Credit: Jason Dimmock
2. Content Guidance: Recorded 14th March 2025
3. Sound Recordist: Charlotte Ryan
4. Editing: Dr Laura Taylor
5. Audio accompaniment: Dr Jess Blaise Ward
6. Audio accompaniment mastering: Michael Ward

In this episode of Dancing Class, dance artist Sarah Blanc vibrantly explores her journey from a council estate in Waterford, Ireland, to becoming a freelance choreographer and performer in the UK. Sarah shares candid reflections of navigating the challenges of class and access alongside themes of ambition, identity, imposter syndrome, and the freelance hustle. The discussion is wrapped in Sarah’s humour and warmth. Recorded in binaural sound, this immersive episode invites listeners to reflect on how dance and class identity can shape careers in the UK.

Content Guidance: Bi-neural

In this episode of Dancing Class, choreographer Gary Clarke shares his journey from growing up in the mining village of Grimethorpe to founding his own dance company. Gary reflects on childhood memories of the miners’ strike, discovering movement through rave culture and baton twirling, and the teachers who helped him along the way. He shares stories of training at Northern School of Contemporary Dance, performing with Lea Anderson, and creating politically charged works like Coal and Wasteland. The conversation explores resilience, class, creativity, and how dance can tell working-class stories.

Content Guidance: Reference to drug use

In this episode of Carnegie Conversations, Tanya Arnold looks at why women remain under-represented in coaching and why the answer isn’t simply “more programmes.” With Leanne Norman (Director of the Women in Sport Research and Innovation Hub), Annette Stride (Director of Centre for Social Justice in Sport and Society), and Vicky Huyton (Female Coaching Network), the discussion unpacks the stubborn numbers and the tougher truth behind them: many women who do enter coaching report poor experiences, from exclusion and discrimination to bullying and unsafe cultures.

The guests argue the focus must shift from fixing women to fixing the system... pay gaps, costly CPD, informal recruitment networks, and job designs built around the “unencumbered worker.” They also challenge the idea that women should only coach in women’s sport, pointing to the National Football League as an example of how deliberate intervention can normalise women in elite roles.

Listen now to learn how we can begin to reimagining coaching culture!

In this episode of Carnegie Conversations, Tanya Arnold explores the world of elite boxing performance and how strength and conditioning, sports science, and biomechanics are shaping modern fight preparation. Joined by two-time world featherweight champion Josh Warrington, strength and conditioning coach Andrew Langford, and senior lecturer in sport and exercise biomechanics, Dr Alex Dinsdale (Leeds Beckett University), the discussion reveals what it really takes to perform at the highest level.

Discover how Josh’s training has evolved into a data-led approach focused on building power, speed, conditioning, and recovery at the right time in camp. The panel breaks down the challenge of increasing punch power without losing endurance, managing fatigue, and making weight... while highlighting why collaboration between athlete, coach, and sport science is crucial.

Listen now to learn how boxing, strength & conditioning, performance testing, and recovery come together to prepare for the rematch!