National award for disabled dancer

Founder of North East Dance Co-operative (NEDC), Angeline Lucas from Gateshead, has been awarded the prestigious One Dance UK Award for Innovation in Dance.

Angeline trained at the Philips Cain School of Dance and the Affleck Academy in Hexham, and the acclaimed Northern Ballet School. She went on to teach at Terpsichore Dance in Hexham, Gateshead College and the North East’s National Dance Agency.

Tragedy struck in 2010 when Angeline was diagnosed with debilitating Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which left her unable to dance at all.

Despite being mostly housebound and frequently bedridden with her illness, Angeline refused to put her passion for dance aside.

Instead she formed NEDC in 2015, with a mission to increase equality of opportunity and to open the world of dance to everyone.

“I wanted to create dance opportunities that could be enjoyed by everyone, including people like myself who can no longer dance but still feel passionate about being involved,”she said.

The NEDC is an independent, not-for-profit network entirely run by volunteers.

It prides itself on being free to join, open to all and entirely volunteer run.

The company’s current 650-strong membership includes dance enthusiasts, adult learners, dance teachers and professional dancers, with ages ranging from two years old to people aged 70 and above.

Plans for 2020 include a number of workshops and behind-the-scenes sessions with professional dance companies.

Already the organisation have collaborated with many professional dance companies, including Scottish Ballet, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Northern Ballet and the Mark Morris Dance Group.

In November Angeline herself received another award, the Julie Relf Award for Courage in Adversity, awarded by the Inspire Network.

She said that she hoped winning the One Dance UK Award would help her continue to expand the network of the group into all regions of the North-East.