about us

what's on

Press & Presenters

ds on film

catalogue of works

research & development

dance & architecture

arts in education

contact us

Dancingstrong is an umbrella organization encompassing art, education, performance, and choreography. Adesola Akinleye is the artistic director of DancingStrong. She is a dancer, choreographer and founder of DancingStrong. She trained at Arts Educational School, London and The Rambert Academy. She began her professional career as a dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Since then she has danced with companies in North America and Europe. As a choreographer her work has been performed in Europe, the Caribbean and North America. Her work has been commissioned by Arts Council, Winnipeg (CA), Arts Council England, Suffolk County Decentralization Grants (USA), Dance North West, Dance in Herts, Dancin’ Oxford, Manchester International Festival and Ludus Dance.. Adesola teaches dance internationally both practical techniques (such as Ballet, Contemporary) and dance theory (such as the Sociology of the Dancing Body, Dance and ‘World’ Culture). She teaches in university setting, K-12 school systems and private dance academies, as well as in community based projects. Adesola has worked as a resident artist in a schools in London, New York and Winnipeg. She has also worked with a number of theatre companies who make work for young audiences including the Manitoba Theatre for Young People. She was also the founder of Saltare Dance Company, UK (later Saltare Foundation for the Arts, New York) for which she received the 1999 National Women’s History Month Award for distinguished achievement in the field of dance presented by the Town of Islip, New York. Adesola is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA). Adesola is also a member of the Foundation for Community Dance, UK. She holds a PhD from Canterbury Christ Church University Social and Applied Science, Sports and Exercise Science Department and a Masters of Arts with Distinction in Work Based Learning - Dance in Education and Community from Middlesex University. In 2006 she was awarded the Bonnie Bird New Choreography Award. That same year she was also awarded a Trailblazers fellowship by ADAD.

Adesola Akinleye Biography 56KB. Adesola Akinleye CV 76KB.

Dance is not a luxury but a right for everyone; the right to be physically literate, have a positive relationship with ones body and body image, and to feel comfortable expressing and sharing our stories and experiences through the non-verbal medium of movement. It is integral to an artist’s work and growth to develop a strong link with the community. This belief has allowed Adesola to expand her work from traditional dance forms to create exciting performance pieces and programs, with a particular interest in site-specific choreography, installation-based work and audience interaction using new technology, arts in education and narrative research based enquiry. She says: “Dance is my primary art form. It is a form of universal communication. It is a language. As well as having an aesthetic place dance can communicate on many other levels. Abstract ideas can be made concrete through dance, just as the concrete can be questioned and explored ethereally. In this way dance can not only add to the dialogue of society it can also explore, expose and question too.” “My experience has taught me that an artist is not someone limited to one art form but simply someone willing to respond to their environment.”