ISABELLE NELSON

I work across choreography, learning and engagement, and arts management, with fifteen years as a performer, choreographer and teacher in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and New Zealand. I make work between people rather than for them, for stage and screen.

Facilitation and inclusive practises are important to me and reflected in my educational and research work. With IN Dance Co. I designed and secured funding for ‘Dance on Camera,’ a workshop series across four sessions for around seventy participants of mixed experience. I curated ‘Women in Film,’ a sold-out programme of works by six women working in dance and film, with guest speakers, developed alongside research into dance film supported by an AFK stipend. I have delivered workshops for young people and community groups across the Netherlands and New Zealand through Danstheater AYA and Java Dance, often with participants who had no formal dance training and no shared language. I have also worked with mixed-ability artists through Curtis & Co and Indepen-dance, where inclusion is the condition the work is made in rather than an adjustment to it.

I founded IN Dance Co. in Amsterdam and directed the company from 2019 to 2023, managing approximately €80,000 in Dutch public funding across multiple funders, and holding artistic direction alongside programming, contracting and company administration.

My MA in Arts and Cultural Management, awarded with distinction by Leuphana University in 2026, compared support systems for freelance dancers in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, drawing on interviews with training institutions and with Arts Council England, BAPAM, One Dance UK, Dachverband Tanz Deutschland and Dansveilig. It closed with eight recommendations for UK practice. I am a Certified Countertechnique Teacher and have taught across higher education, professional companies, schools and community settings in more than six countries, including Rambert School, London Contemporary Dance School, Codarts Rotterdam, KHiO Oslo and Henny Jurriëns Stichting.

I am now focused on building learning and engagement programmes grounded in frontline artistic practice and in research into artists’ working lives.

Supported by Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Fonds Podiumkunsten, Balkonscenes, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Stichting voor Educatie en Cultuur, Landeshauptstadt Dresden, Tanzstiftung, NPAFE and WerktuigPPO. Awards include Best Director at Vesuvius International Film Fest, Best Dance Film at Paris Play, Best Experimental Film at Munich Short Film Awards and Best Sound Design at Florence Film Awards amongst others.

A fuller biography, including performance and choreographic credits, is here.

My mission in my work:

To research and discover cross-disciplinary methods of creation and to elevate and find a common connection between ones-self and others through freedom of expression

ISABELLE NELSON

I work across arts management, producing and learning and engagement, with a background of fifteen years as a performer, choreographer and teacher in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and New Zealand. I co-founded IN Dance Co. in Amsterdam and directed the company from 2019 to 2023, managing approximately €80,000 in Dutch public funding across multiple funders, and holding artistic direction alongside programming, contracting and company administration. I wrote and administered every funding application the company made, and produced work for both stage and screen.

My MA in Arts and Cultural Management, awarded with distinction by Leuphana University in 2026, compared support systems for freelance dancers in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, drawing on interviews with training institutions and with Arts Council England, BAPAM, One Dance UK, Dachverband Tanz Deutschland and Dansveilig. It closed with eight recommendations for UK practice. I am a Certified Countertechnique Teacher and have taught at Rambert School, London Contemporary Dance School, Codarts Rotterdam, KHiO Oslo and Henny Jurriëns Stichting, among others.

Alongside this I have built and delivered engagement work. With IN Dance Co. I designed and funded Dance on Film, a workshop series across four sessions for around seventy participants of mixed experience. I have delivered workshops for young people and community groups across the Netherlands and New Zealand through Danstheater AYA and Java Dance, often with participants who had no formal dance training and no shared language. I have also worked with mixed-ability artists through Curtis & Co and Indepen-dance, where inclusion is the condition the work is made in rather than an adjustment to it.

I am now focused on building learning and engagement programmes grounded in frontline artistic practice and in research into artists’ working lives. A fuller biography, including performance and choreographic credits, is here.