Dalija Acin Thelander
Dalija Acin Thelander, choreographer and researcher, has been involved in intensive research and creation in the field of contemporary dance for babies and children since 2008. She creates immersive durational performances and installations for babies and neurodiverse children. Her practice foregrounds pre-discursive and pre-reflective dimensions of embodied experience, underlying the importance of intersensoriality and emplacement. She teaches and lectures internationally and her performances have been presented in Japan, Korea, India, China, Singapore, Brazil, South Africa and across Europe. She is the recipient of the 2021 ASSITEJ International Artistic Excellence Award. She is currently conducting her academic research project, Towards Sensuous Ecologies, Rethinking Ableism in Choreographic and Movement Practices, at Stockholm University of Arts, Sweden.

Ellie Griffiths (Oily Cart)
Ellie Griffiths began as a performer for Oily Cart (2011-16), before becoming an Associate Artist and guest Director. She founded the Upfront Performance Network (which connects 900 international sensory theatre makers) in 2016, and was awarded a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship, to research sensory theatre across the world. Ellie’s artistic work and training has been produced and delivered internationally in countries such as Japan, Sweden and the USA. In 2019, Ellie created SOUND SYMPHONY, a performance made for and with Autistic young people. This was programmed as part of the Made in Scotland showcase, Bibu festival (Sweden) and in the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival. Ellie was recently awarded the ASSITEJ international Award for Artistic Excellence. She has been Artistic Director and Joint CEO of Oily Cart since 2019.

Natasha Gilmore (Barrowland Ballet)
Natasha Gilmore is the founder and Artistic Director of Barrowland Ballet, one of Scotland’s leading contemporary dance companies. An internationally respected choreographer for dance, theatre and film, Natasha's work has gained critical international acclaim and regularly tours worldwide. Awards include Best Production for Children and Young People at the CATS for The Gift and her immersive video installation Family Portrait won Best of the Fest Bobby Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Natasha was the UK nomination for the ASSITEJ Award for Excellence 2017 for her work for young audiences.
Most recently Natasha has been recognised for her developing practice in contemporary dance work created with and for neurodiverse audiences with sensory theatre works Playful Tiger, The Unexpected Gift and Poggle and Me.

Nicole Arkless (Bamboozle Theatre Company)
Nicole Arkless is an Associate Director of Bamboozle Theatre Company and has co-devised and toured many of its shows for learning disabled audiences visiting schools, theatres and festivals around the UK and in Malta, China and Australia. She has co-directed international versions of Bamboozle shows and adapted others for festival audiences. Since 2010 Nicole has been heavily involved in Bamboozle’s education projects where she has documented practice and helped refine and develop the Bamboozle Approach. She delivers bespoke CPD programmes along with the full range of training courses that Bamboozle offers to educators, artists and practitioners.

Phillida Eves (Rosán Sensory Adventures)
Phillida Eves, Artistic Director of Rosán Sensory Adventures, makes work with multidisciplinary artists, creating and presenting accessible, immersive, musical, movement and theatrical experiences with and for Autistic children and young people with intellectual learning disabilities. Phillida, who founded Rosán Sensory Adventures, is a creative sensory artist and educator who is passionate about giving the audience a voice in the creative process and agency in expressing themselves through the creative arts. Phillida, and the artists she works with, develop the work with the children and young people, who are at the heart of the collaborative process.

Dr. Charlotte McIvor (Facilitator)
Charlotte McIvor is a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Drama and Theatre Studies at the University of Galway and a co-founder of Active* Consent, Ireland’s most recognized providers of consent education in secondary, third-level, further education, and professional training contexts nationally and internationally. Recent publications include Contemporary Irish Theatre: Histories and Theories (with Ian R. Walsh, 2024) as well as The Methuen Drama Handbook of Interculturalism and Performance (co-edited with Daphne P. Lei, 2020) and Interculturalism and Performance Now: New Directions? (co-edited with Jason King, 2018). Her wider research is focused on inclusive arts practices and theatre/performance for social change in Irish and international contexts.