Sharon Watson named new Chief Government and Principal of Northern College of Up to date Dance

Northern College of Up to date Dance has declares Sharon Watson as its new Chief Government and Principal. Watson, who's the longest standing Creative Director of Leeds-based Phoenix Dance Theatre, will start her tenure as CEO and Principal of NSCD in Could 2020.

Watson turns into NSCD’s fourth Principal within the establishment’s 35-year historical past, following within the footsteps of Janet Smith MBE, Gurmit Hukam and founding Principal Nadine Senior MBE. She grew up in Leeds and was considered one of Nadine Senior’s pupils at Harehills Center College earlier than happening to review at London Up to date Dance College in 1983. On leaving the varsity she was one of many first feminine dancers to affix all-male Phoenix Dance Theatre, and in 1996 she attended NSCD to finish a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Dance) diploma. Watson returned to Phoenix Dance Theatre in 2009 to take up the position of Creative Director.

Lately Sharon has been recognised with quite a lot of awards and accolades, together with the Sue Ryder ‘Yorkshire Women of Achievement in Business Award’, and the First English Girl’s Award for Arts and Tradition. NSCD introduced Sharon with an Honorary Fellowship in 2018, and in 2019 she obtained an Honorary Doctorate from Leeds Beckett College for her contribution to the Arts. In October 2019 she was named the Arts and Media Senior Chief of the 12 months by the Black British Enterprise Awards.

Based mostly in Chapeltown, Leeds, Northern College of Up to date Dance is a number one centre for dance training within the UK. NSCD is presently the one establishment to supply conservatoire-level skilled dance coaching within the North of England. The College’s programmes at Undergraduate and Postgraduate ranges nurture versatile and impartial dance artists with extremely tuned technical, artistic and efficiency abilities, prepared for entry into the occupation. NSCD recruits essentially the most proficient college students, no matter background, to form the way forward for the artwork type.