Luminelle

23/01/2026

Have you seen 👀 Artistic Director has developed a new creative space for dance thinking over on 🧡

Danielle is sharing practice and insights into neurodivergent artistic processes over on a new Substack which includes essays, interviews, and her recent poetic writing. This is a work in process, and a new area of artistic exploration and expression.

The most recent piece sees Danielle and Rosie Heafford .heafford discussing cocreation of meaning and entangled thought based choreography.

Whilst Luminelle is currently not delivering any active dance projects or performances, Danielle continues to develop thought based practice on Substack. Please support us and subscribe, or share! All essays and poetry can be found at or via the Care Collective Substack. Link in bio 💫

03/12/2025

We have had the pleasure of working with Windmill Primary School in East Oxford this autumn to develop a very special project We Are Kin. Following on from our family show Kindred, and drawing on the concepts of connection and networks, and how our contact and relationships-chosen or chance-can affect the way we thinking about our health and wellbeing. This has been a really special six weeks of exploration from visual art making to choreographic exploration using improvised technologies and somatic principles.

The young people have created, shared, and innovated. They have been moved outside of the classroom and onto the page and screen. It’s been a privilege to work with them and this film directed by with cinematography by represents the evolving process and the concept of growing networks and enmeshment of friendships and familial bonds.

Huge thanks to for supporting this project and for the incredible staff at Windmill Primary for their commitment supporting the young people

03/06/2025

✨STARTNG FRIDAY!✨

🎉 NEW at The Music Room – ELKIN CLUB! 🎉

We’re excited to welcome Elkin Club to The Music Room in Eynsham – a joyful, inclusive weekly arts programme for early years children and their parents or carers, run by the brilliant team at Luminelle. 💛

Expect creative dance, multi-sensory movement, free play, arts & crafts, social time and refreshments – all in a warm, relaxed, and SEN-friendly environment.

🗓 Fridays, 10am–12pm
📍 The Music Room, Queen Street, Eynsham, OX29 4JD
📅 Dates: June 6th, 13th, 20th | July 4th, 11th

💷 Cost:

£12 drop-in (1 parent + child)
£50 for 5-week block
£4 per additional child
(Pay in person)
📩 To book or find out more: [email protected]

We’re thrilled to have this wonderful new club at the venue – come and join the fun! 🌟

03/06/2025

We've been in hibernation for quite some time, and we are gently re-emerging and bringing with us our beautiful, cocreative, joyful family dance work for communities in West Oxfordshire (thanks to funding from Co-op). ELKIN CLUB returns, this time to The Music Room Eynsham, where we will be hosting grown ups with their little ones age 5 and under to dance and move with us in weekly sessions, Fridays, 10am-12pm throughout June and July. Drop in or pay in advance for a discount to enjoy all five sessions before the summer holidays!

06/11/2024

Artistic Director Danielle Jones led this practice led and policy aware session on the development of dance in health practice over the last 10 years, and ways that artists can be resourced and confident in their progress as they continue to evolve their work in the current climate. Thank you for having us People Dancing and for continuing to champion our work Yael Owen-Mckenna

"Learning about the policy and findings about dance and health; enjoying the creative dance tasks; thinking about the overlap between dance and health; considering the kinds of creative tasks that could be designed; reflecting on facilitation skills. This event has given me time and space to think and reflect on my work—helping me become more aware of the topics discussed and how to apply them personally and guide others to see for themselves. Making more time and space for health." - a Summer Intensive participant

Be sure to save the dates for our next Summer Intensive: Tuesday 22 - Thursday 24 July 2025!

24/09/2024

🟣 Look at these beautiful dress rehearsal images of our dancers at taken by !
🔵 We can’t wait to share our cocreated family performance, Kindred, with audiences in Oxfordshire this Sunday as part of
🟡 This cocreated work demonstrates the joyful, moving, and high quality artistic experience, and the collaborative, responsive, and attentive process of creation, that we’ve been on with families in Oxford over this year
🟠 There are still tickets available for both shows this Sunday 29 September, 11am and 2pm, for grown ups and their little ones 5 and under
🟢 Cosy up with us in the soft space, come and dance and move with us, cross the threshold into our home

Kindred by Luminelle, details at the link in our bio, tickets via also linked in our bio

.ross.webster

11/09/2024

✨ This excerpt is from our recent project led by , exploring the feasibility of working as a dance artist and simultaneously meeting children’s needs as a parent. This project evolved due to the significant challenges faced by mothers attempting to sustain a career in dance post motherhood. We at Luminelle have modelled and trialled approaches in which Danielle, Luminelle Artistic Director and our brilliant collaborating artist Erena, have worked together with their children delivering our latest work. With all the resources, time, and considerations that are required for this, the gains have been remarkable for all involved, and we have opened up vulnerable and honest dialogue about the challenges and joys of working in this way.

💫 We look forward to sharing more and developing this work for the benefit of artist mothers, and organisations working to include parents with caring responsibilities in the workforce.

📝 Nurturing Productivity: Meeting Children’s Needs - Working, Parenting, and Cocreating with care in Community and Socially Engaged Dance Practice and Mothering.

A practice as research project looking at ways of working in dance alongside our children led by with

07/09/2024

🌼 Luminelle Artistic Director and our research collaborator are delighted to join global researchers, artists, and stakeholders next week to present our research in progress ‘Nurturing productivity: meeting children’s needs’ working, parenting, and cocreating with care in dance practice and mothering 🌼

This work discusses the connections and tensions in the nurturing process of care in dance practice and in mothering, how these things can coexist, and the feasibility of working in this way for the sustainability of of dancers careers beyond motherhood.

There is no on size fits all approach when it comes to the balancing act of parenting and dance. This brilliant international network seminar pioneered by dance and motherhood advocate with .b.duffy will highlight the many ways that we are attempting to change the narrative and navigate the challenges that our sector presents at all stages of parenthood.

There’s still time to join us! 👀 link in our bio for the schedule and to book tickets

29/08/2024

💃🏼 Kindred is about movement and being moved
🛌 Kindred is about play, and rest
✨ Kindred is about creating sparks of connection between parents and children
⏳Kindred offers a new sense of time, rhythm, and flow
👓 Kindred is about watching, noticing, and being seen in the present moment as parent, as child, as human…

Luminelle welcomes you into our home. On 29 September join us for two shows, 11:00 and 14:00. Cosy up amongst the warm, soft furnishings, and join us to move and be moved by beautiful, live vocal and dance performance inspired by parents and children and the things that unite us. Booking link in our bio.

📸 taken as part of our R&D with families across Oxford

28/08/2024

Kindred is a fun, cross-generational, loving, honest dance piece that connects parent and child, and reflects the experience of parenthood for audiences of grownups and children together in an intimate and playful way. Created by this show will move you in more ways than one.

Tickets available for two shows , 29 September 11:00 and 14:00 from the link in our bio

24/08/2024

✨What our families are saying…✨

A big part of our early years work is honouring and supporting the contribution of the parent in the space. We know that there is an inextricable link between the development and mental health of the child in early years, and the health and wellbeing of the parent. The coregulating adult has a significant impact on the neurological development of the child, and yet parent carers are often overlooked and their sense of self significance and identity can be lost in these first years of parenting.

Supporting parents to connect with themselves and have compassion for themselves in our dance sessions, leads to a greater overall sense of wellbeing for the adult and the child together. We’ve witnessed first hand how the comfort and safety of the parent, through the simple act of acknowledgement and connection, can create safety for the child and enable them to thrive and create.