Meet Rubicon's Staff
Senior leadership team
Chief executive officer - Simon Morris
Education manager - Deborah Ford
Deborah has twenty six year’s continuous professional experience in Dance and Dance Education, ten of those years working exclusively as a performer, nationally and internationally and sixteen years teaching in further and higher education.
Completing her dance training at LCDS, Deborah then danced and toured with the Postgraduate Performance Company, performing works created by Wayne McGregor, Henri Oguike, Mark Baldwin and revivals of works by Siobhan Davies and Paul Taylor. On graduating in 1997 she performed for several years in the physical theatre company Earthfall, touring nationally and in Europe. For eight years Deborah then performed with the repertoire company NDCW, rising to the position of Senior dancer and mentoring the company’s apprentices. Deborah was involved in the creation and performance of over 40 new works whilst in the company.
Deborah joined NSCD in January 2007 as Rehearsal Director for Verve in its inaugural year. She became a lecturer in Performance across the undergraduate and PG programmes in 2008.During her fifteen years at the school she held both teaching and managerial roles and responsibilities contributing substantially to the education and training developments across the curriculum.
Deborah joined Rubicon Dance as Head of Vocational studies in September 2022 Rubicon Dance and leads the full - time BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Performing Arts (Dance Pathway) course. Deborah also works freelance as an MA tutor to students on the professional placement scheme at NSCD.
stakeholder manager - Tracey Brown
Tracey has worked at Rubicon since September 1996 and her very first role was Dance Development Worker, leading dance sessions for a wide range of ages, abilities and backgrounds and contexts whilst setting up Rubicon's development programme across Cardiff which initially targeted five key areas of the city. Twenty four years on Tracey now works four days a week and manages Rubicon CPD programmes, including our annual summer programme for community dance practitioners from across Wales. She leads our community dance apprentice training programme, mentor development as well as the Wales Wide Training Programme (WWTP) which was established in 2013 with seven partners and now has twenty-five across Wales from community dance organisations, to venues, to national companies. Highlights for Tracey's time at Rubicon include the success and reach of the development programme, the young dancer programme, the Rubicon to Romania programme working with deaf children in Craiova, the community dance apprentice programme and the Wales Wide Training Programme!
Operations Manager - natasha Gajda
facilitator team
liz colley - Education tutor
Aisling Wallace – Dance Leader
Aisling originally completed Rubicon's full-time course in 2011 before continuing her training on the Contemporary Dance Foundation course at Northern School of Contemporary Dance and graduating in 2016 with a BA (Hons) in Dance and Drama with Aerial Performance.
Anwen Davies – Dance Leader
Anwen has worked at Rubicon since 2004. Over the years she has taught in many different settings but currently she delivers sessions in health settings, elderly homes, family sessions, high school and over 50's. Outside of work she is busy with her two boys.
Esther KilBride – Dance Leader
Esther completed her community dance apprenticeship training with Rubicon Dance in 2013 and has worked as a community dance leader since then. She currently leads a wide variety of regular sessions in Cardiff, working with around two hundred and fifty people a week. Her areas of particular interest are dance and disability as well as dance for early years, and dance and dementia. Esther leads Rubicon’s disabled adults programme through the week as well as the children and young people disability dance sessions and the Saturday kids creative sessions. She leads Rubicon’s youth disabilities performance group as well as teaching in care homes, schools, and special schools across Cardiff.
Rhian Rogers – Dance Leader
Rhian graduated with a BA Hons Contemporary Dance Degree in 2017. In 2018, she completed a one-year apprenticeship in community dance with Rubicon and the Wales Wide Training Programme, where she worked to the 5 key areas of the National Occupational Standards for Dance Leadership. In January 2020, she became a full-time community dance practitioner at Rubicon Dance. She currently teaches on the centre programme here at Rubicon and on the development programme throughout Cardiff and Newport.
Sophie Batey – Dance Leader
Sophie has been working for Rubicon Dance since 2006. She has a degree in dance, PGCE in further education and completed an apprenticeship in community dance here at Rubicon. Sophie leads a diverse range of classes from education, elderly, hospitals, disabilities and scholarship and flagship programmes. She enjoys having a rich and varied programme of work and seeing the positive effects that dance has on people’s health and wellbeing.
freelance Dance facilitators
Co-ordination TEAM
outreach & engagement co-ordinator - Emrys BArnes
Fundraising co-ordinator - Lauren Williams
Lauren graduated from Cardiff Metropolitan University in 2016 with a BA Hons in Dance. Lauren has worked at Rubicon Dance ever since assisting with fundraising, particularly applying to trusts and foundations. Lauren loves organising events, especially the annual Rubicon Dance Schools' Festival which works with 60+ schools across South Wales. Outside of Rubicon, Lauren is a trained Latin American dancer who loves all things Strictly!
Arts Administrator - Carmella Searle
Carmella has been working at Rubicon Dance since 2004. She is one of three family members working here and her role is Arts Administrator. Jobs include all areas of day to day administration for the Centre Co-Ordinator and Director. Carmella mainly work most evenings on reception, so any enquiries please do not hesitate to ask.