A woman with long, wavy brown hair taking a selfie inside a sports facility. She is smiling and wearing hoop earrings and a navy blue shirt with white text. The background features an orange floor, white walls, and ceiling lights.

I’m Liz Sweales, founder of LOVE.DANCE, a contemporary dance education practice creating joyful, creative and confidence building experiences for children and young people.

My mission is simple: to get young people excited about dance and to create an environment where they feel confident to explore, create and express themselves.

Children and young people love LOVE.DANCE because every class invites them to imagine, explore and create. Together we build dances, experiment with choreography and share ideas, so each dancer feels part of something bigger while discovering their own unique voice. Contemporary technique is woven throughout, creating a balance of skill, creativity and confidence.

I am a qualified secondary school dance teacher, choreographer and award-winning Rambert Grades provider, with more than 20 years’ experience working across UK and international schools. I have taught and developed dance provision from Early Years through to KS4, with particular experience developing youth dance programmes and building positive, lasting relationships with young people.

I hold a degree in Contemporary Dance from Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, and a PGCE in Dance from Middlesex University, London. I was Head of Performing Arts at Westminster Academy, a large secondary school in central London, where I established the dance department and developed KS3 and a popular BTEC Dance provision. Since then, I have worked extensively across international schools in Shanghai and Budapest, teaching and developing dance and performing arts from Early Years through to secondary age.

In 2015 I founded LOVE.DANCE in Shanghai, where I taught contemporary dance to primary-aged children, launched an adult dance programme for the local community, and created a youth dance film, Missing Space.

After relocating to Budapest, LOVE.DANCE grew substantially, developing into a busy contemporary dance programme working with schools, nurseries, kindergartens and the wider community. Alongside regular classes, I developed youth dance opportunities, Rambert Grades and creative projects for children and young people.

At the heart of LOVE.DANCE has always been a desire to share my love of dance and help people understand its power — as a way to move, create, connect, express ourselves and discover something about who we are.

Now based in Bristol, I’m excited to bring that experience to a new generation of young dancers, schools and communities.