At the moment the Propel Dance team are between projects and ‘funded’ periods. We are a freelance company so whilst we aren't on paid time with Propel, we are intermittently checking our email on a part-time basis.

That means that there may be a delay in responding to your email and we thank you for your patience on this. Someone from the Propel team will get back to you but it may take up to 7 days.

Model is a white woman wearing a blonde wig with black and blue face paint across her face. She is wearing a crown with rams horns, a skull, dark red flowers and black spikes. Model is in a wheelchair wearing a long maxi white/silver dress.
A group picture of some of the cast and production team. Cast members are in the front line wearing their costumes as the rest of the company is in line directly behind them. The back line is wearing grey Propel Dance t-shirts. Everyone is smiling.

We are Propel Dance.

A brand-new professional wheelchair dance company based in Birmingham.

We’ve just secured investment from Arts Council England to pilot a short tour, which for 2023 will be a contemporary reimagining of ‘The Snow Queen’.

Led by an all-female leadership team, the company was instigated and founded by Helen Mason, a Birmingham-based Dance Artist with a 20+ year track record of working in inclusive dance; making dance for and with disabled people.

We care deeply about equity and equality of opportunity. It’s why we exist. There are few professional opportunities for wheelchair dancers and we wanted to be that change. To create something that enables progression and inspiration to the future generations. We stand for compassion, inclusion, and representation throughout our dance projects and opportunities.

Guided by our shared values, Propel Dance hopes to inspire, lead and propel change in professional wheelchair dance.

See our values here:

We look forward to connecting with you all as you join us on this exciting new adventure.

Meet the Team

  • Helen has purple shoulder length straight hair, wearing glasses and smiling straight at the camera.

    Helen Mason

    Artistic Director

    Helen has worked in the dance sector in the Midlands as a teacher, dancer and choreographer for 19 years, teaching and performing in a variety of settings such as; care homes, homeless hostels and foyers, day centres, youth groups, schools and F.E colleges, including being a course leader and tutor on Btec, G.C.S.E, A’level and Degree courses.

    Working in inclusive dance for the last 10 years, Helen has worked with many different charities and organisations such as Midland Mencap, Cerebral Palsy Midlands, Spectrum Day Centre, Para Dance UK and Whizz Kidz UK.

    Helen is passionate about making dance accessible to everyone and set up Freewheelin in 2017, Birmingham’s first wheelchair and inclusive dance group. Freewheelin are two time National Para Dance champions and have performed at Birmingham International Dance Festival and for the European Basketball finals (2019).

    In 2022, Helen become a Dance Captain for the Opening and Closing ceremonies for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, working with over 1500 volunteers.

    Helen is an advocate for Inclusive dance and has appeared in a film for Parable Dance (2020) which discusses what is good practice and has spoken at the House of Lords about making physical activity in Britain more inclusive.

    Helen has trained with Axis Dance, Candoco and Stopgap, as well Frontline Dance and Shropshire Inclusive Dance.

  • Amy is white with green eyes and brown/purple hair just past the shoulders. Wearing an open button down shirt. Amy is smiling.

    Amy Dalton-Hardy

    Executive Director

    Amy has a 15 year track record of senior roles in the arts, and now works on a full-time freelance portfolio, specialising in development, through consultancy, leadership, producing & fundraising projects across the Midlands.

    Amy’s background & artistic specialism is in dance graduating from University of Surrey with a BA (hons) in Dance and Culture & a Postgraduate Certificate in Community Dance from Trinity Laban.

    She works across dance mediums, genres and practices within theatre performance, outdoor arts, festivals, learning, participation & community engagement, as well as strategic sector development initiatives as mentor, advisor and guest speaker. Since going freelance in 2020, Amy has fundraised over £1.25m for numerous projects across the country.

    Amy has specific experience of working on inclusive projects; she is Special Advisor with Concrete Youth, led Dance Hub Birmingham’s Disability Dance Discussion Network meeting, was one of 5 strategic partners on People Dancing’s 11 Million Reasons to Dance national tour in 2017, as well as lead on artsNK’s Disability Dance participation programme for & with young people with PMLD for a number of years.

    Read more about Amy at: www.amydaltonhardy.co.uk

  • Rosie Penny

    Director of Producing & Logistics

    Bio coming very soon.

  • Wiktoria has dark blonde hair tied to the back and blue eyes. Wearing gold hoop earrings and light blue top.

    Wiktoria Grześ

    Social Media and Marketing Manager

    Wiktoria is a freelance social media and marketing coordinator/ manager.

    Wiktoria Graduated from University of East London with a 1st class degree in Dance: Urban Practice, where she got to experience marketing when co-producing UEL’s annual Coll!de dance festival. Wiktoria has worked as social media and marketing coordinator in the North Lincolnshire Festival of Creativity, Earth-bound dance company, UEL Dance: Urban practice course and is now excited to be working with Propel Dance as their social media and marketing manager.

    Wiktoria is very passionate about marketing, especially within the arts. As an artist herself, working with choreographers like Kloe Dean and Kenrick “H2O” Sandy, Wiktoria believes she has the right attributes to advocate for dance and support the marketing of individuals and companies.