2025 Year in Review: A Year That Landed Differently
This is about a 5-10 min read, I’d love it if you make it to the end… you might need a mince pie and a cuppa!
I’ve written a year-in-review post every December for as long as I can remember. Usually it’s a neat collection of moments, projects, wins and lessons - a way of making the year feel coherent.
But 2025 doesn’t sit neatly.
It lands differently.
Alongside the work - and there was a lot of work - this was a year marked by bereavement, disputes, illness, and a creative landscape that continues to feel increasingly hard to navigate. It was a year that asked for emotional stamina as much as professional skill.
And yet, somewhere inside all of that, something shifted.
Despite the challenges, or perhaps because of them, I feel like I unlocked a new headspace this year. A clearer sense of direction. A steadier relationship with my capacity. A deeper confidence in the work that is actually mine to do.
This isn’t a triumph narrative.
It’s a survival narrative that still grew something meaningful, strategic and quietly hopeful.
Image Gallery: highlights from across the year, with some credits going to Photogemphic & Romy Whai (others taken by me!)
The Year as It Really Was
If I’m honest, 2025 demanded more of me than most years I can remember.
Working while grieving.
Showing up while unwell.
Holding space for clients navigating their own uncertainty, while managing disputes and complexity behind the scenes.
Doing all of this in a freelance ecosystem where many people are stretched to breaking point.
But this year also sharpened my instincts. It forced decisions about boundaries, energy and focus. It clarified what I will - and won’t bend myself into anymore.
And through all of that, the work continued to grow. It felt like I made a breakthrough!
What Grew Anyway
Propel Dance CIC
Propel, for me, remains a North Star.
This summer we returned to the studio with thanks to ACE funding AND we raised an extra £1,800 through a community crowdfunder, creating a new suite of short works ready to be booked if you’re interested go here to read more.
Alongside this, we continued refining our mission and approach - strengthening our artistic identity and inclusive leadership model.
Winning We Are Creative’s Best Dance Performance of the Year early in the year was a powerful moment of recognition. It felt like recognition not just of the work itself, but of the values that underpin it.
Dance Leaders Group (DLG)
This year I pulled every possible stop to submit a major Youth Music application on behalf of the Dance Leaders Group - a vast regional dance ecosystem of West Midlands based dance organisations and artists.
I will never recommend last-minute, high-pressure delivery as a working model (even though I can clearly still do it, what was I thinking?!). But the process reinforced the collective power of partnership, shared leadership and regional collaboration when the stakes are high.
Solihull Creative Business Programme 2.0
Delivering the second iteration of Solihull’s creative business programme in Q1, on behalf of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council and their Core Creatives network was grounding and energising.
Supporting borough-based creatives to build business confidence, fundraising literacy and leadership capacity through action learning - and delivering the aptly named Surviving & Thriving or Diversifying Symposium - reminded me how powerful it is to spotlight people who have built sustainable practice or successful businesses through adversity rather than despite it. Some memorable takeaway stories will stay with me, and I hope with the symposium attendees for a while to come!
I wrote a blog reflecting on this event that you can catch up on here.
Nottingham Light Night & Midlands Light Consortium
Returning to Nottingham Light Night again, as an ongoing client, this time unlocked something new. This year I supported the event and partnership team behind it to:
secure funding
deliver a city-wide consultation on future artistic policy with a range of stakeholders
and co-establish a new Midlands-wide consortium of light festivals and events
It’s a significant, ambitious partnership - and exactly the kind of cross-regional collaboration the sector needs right now.
I also loved bringing Emily Holtom in as Assistant Producer on both Nottingham and Culture Central work (massive props to Em!) - a collaboration that strengthened delivery and reflected my commitment to creating supported pathways for emerging producers.
Consultancy: The Shape of the Work Shifted
My consultancy practice deepened this year. Less transactional, more relational. Less about individual projects, more about direction, leadership and change.
Across 2025, I:
delivered widening engagement research and consultation for Culture Central
continued long-term organisational transition work with Impelo in Wales, including monthly 1:1s and senior recruitment support
provided governance training and advisory support to Welsh clients, grassroots music venue The Lost Arc
continued a close strategic collaboration with Coventry University across inclusive immersive work and their Place Partnership application
took on (towards the end of the year) new clients which I am excited to support in 2026, which involves organisation development & leadership support with the incredible folks at Unanima Theatre in Mansfield
I also supported Sutton on Sea Carnival Committee to seriously scale-up Sutton Carnival; this involved supporting a voluntary group of passionate individuals through their first ever ACE-funded outdoor carnival - guiding, advising and supporting from afar as they built confidence and capacity. Just to be clear though, the carnival has been running for 50 odd years and only just been funded. They unlocked things with the funding they couldn’t do before - bravo!
Governance, Leadership & Policy Influence
Alongside consultancy and mentoring, governance and policy work formed a distinct strand of my practice this year.
I continued as Chair of Gloucester Guildhall, supporting the organisation through a values-led period of stewardship and future planning as well as overseeing their NPO delivery. I also became Co-Chair of 2Faced Dance, stepping into shared leadership at a moment of transition, challenge and most importantly, opportunity with a wonderful company championing boys and men in dance, delivering truly groundbreaking work in and around Hereford(shire) and beyond.
In addition, I remained an active member of the WMCA Creative & Cultural Strategic Advisory Group, contributing to regional conversations about investment, infrastructure, access and the future of the creative economy in the West Midlands. I also served on the Hungry 2 Move Steering Group; a fledgling project aiming to tackle eating disorders in dance - it’s a biggie and one to watch!
This work is slower and less visible, but deeply structural - and it continues to shape how I understand leadership, accountability and long-term change.
Teaching, Mentoring & Creative Leadership
Teaching and facilitation remain core to my practice. This year I:
lectured at De Montfort University
returned to London Studio Centre (always a joy)
delivered a half-day sustainable freelancing workshop for CreateNEL place partnership programme in Grimsby
delivered a dance-specific version for New Adventures’ long-running and highly revered Overture programme
contributed again to Roundhouse London’s Self Made programme
delivered a bespoke workshop to Solihull’s CEP on governance and business entity pathways
another bespoke session on the West Midlands creative ecosystem & careers for Lichfield Festival’s Careers Fair
Mentoring and advisory continues to be one of the most rewarding parts of my work. This year I supported an extraordinary group of artists, producers and organisations, spanning all types of practice/discipline including:
Zoe Taal (Deleata Z Aerial)
Psychonaut Theatre
Esalan Gates (Codex Theatre)
Abbi Thompson (Diamondz Dance / Hub Dance)
Alison Penn (Giraffe Dance)
Julie Bowers (GradPro)
Romanah Buchanan (Eloquent Dance)
Dannielle Lecointe (Makeda Creative House)
Eleni Kyriacou (Bittersuite)
Bobak Champion (Salaam Salaam)
Joshua Clayton
Maimuna Faal (Tuba Dance Theatre)
Mamoona Shafique (Raqs Art)
Paulina Grenda
Scott Peacock
Hal Mayer
Jordan Sheard
Amy Smith
Jude Hanly
Natalie Haslam
Amy Sandford
Reisz ‘Odd Priest’ Amos
Ryan Sinclair (Empower Poetry)
Victorine Ngamsha
Esme Green (Creative Voices Collective)
Sarah Brewster (Fresh Seed)
Hannah Badge (Bad Production)
Tori Drew
Shane Shambhu (Altered Skin)
Nyasha Daley (WEUSI)
Melissa Keskinkilinc and Penny Dixon
PLUS amazing people and teams including Sidekick Dance, Next Door Dance, Haddon Centre for Performing Arts, Creative Pro Exchange Leicester, Arts Uplift and Democracia84.
Supporting Amy Smith through her DYCP even led to me speaking on stage at the National Rural Touring Forum conference in the summer at 101 Outdoor Arts; a reminder that mentoring relationships often open unexpected doors for everyone involved.
New Collaborations & Emerging Work
One of the most exciting developments this year was beginning work with Dr Harpreet Jandu and his start-up Playback Creates, and securing their first ever Arts Council England Project Grant for Homegrown - a talent development programme with 10 spaces targeting South Asian young people.
I began working with the incredible Maisie Byers who has grown over the last 5 years, Grace & Poise - the world’s first Muslim ballet school. Pioneering work across London, Luton and Birmingham. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for them!
Work rooted in lived experience, cultural heritage and long-term opportunity feels especially important right now.
What This Year Taught Me
This year taught me, sometimes reluctantly, that:
Grief reorganises everything: priorities, energy, perspective
Boundaries are not soft skills; they are infrastructure
Capacity and capability are not the same thing
Freelancers are the cultural sector’s shock absorbers and its innovators
AI didn’t replace my craft: it sharpened it
I am one of very few people supporting creatives in the business of their art, and that clarity finally landed
Working last-minute is not a methodology, even if I can still pull it off
Walking away from the wrong opportunity is also strategic leadership
Rest is not the opposite of ambition - it makes ambition possible
Looking Toward 2026
Despite the rough terrain, I enter 2026 steadier than I expected. What’s ahead feels expansive and over Christmas I like to do the ‘Unravel Your Year’ free workbook by Susannah Conway to learn even more about myself and my practice:
my second DYCP and the podcast project emerging from it
a clearer, sharper consultancy offer with some VERY exciting clients on the horizon in Q1
deeper partnerships and stronger collaborations
growing recognition of my role as a strategist, mentor and systems-level thinker
2025 was not easy.
It wasn’t neat or linear or particularly kind.
But it cleared ground.
It sharpened my voice.
It revealed a version of me with a longer horizon and a better sense of direction.
I’m entering 2026 with intention.
Thank you to everyone who trusted me, collaborated with me, challenged me, and held me through this year. Thank you to the creatives who invited me into your journeys.
