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Monday 9:45am - 9pm Tuesday 9:45am - 9pm Wednesday 9:45am - 9pm Thursday 9:45am - 9pm Friday 9:45am - 9pm Saturday 1pm - 5pm

Dance Base

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Scotland’s National Centre for Dance. You dancing? We're asking. Dance Base is Scotland's National Centre for Dance. Charity No. SCO22512
(405)

Stay up-to-date with the dance happenings in Edinburgh from events through to performances, festivals, weekly classes and professional residencies. As a charity, Dance Base exists to bring the joy of dance to everyone and to support independent dance artists across Scotland.

29/10/2026

Teacher spotlight: Sheena Byrne ✨

Sheena has been teaching dance for 27 years—covering all the varied and wonderful settings that make up community dance, teaching across all the ages and ranges of supporting needs within a community.

Sheena's teaching foundation is Contemporary based, her teaching firmly rooted in supporting the needs of all dancers in class. Meeting the dancers at whatever stage or level they feel they are at, they are then supported and encouraged all the way.

In an atmosphere of joy and ease, dancers learn many ways to enliven their bodies to more dance.

Dance with Sheena:

💫Inclusive Dance
📆 Fridays
🕐 15:15 (60 min)
🎟️ https://loom.ly/YSH8zIo

📽 Stuart Armitt

28/10/2026

🌟 DEBS snaps! 🌟

From 5-9 October this year, our 2026/27 DEBS cohort had their first residency with their mentor Thomas Small.

Every year, Dance Base offers a group of dancers and physical performers a place on our Dancers Emerging Bursary Scheme (DEBS). The scheme includes mentoring from experienced dance artists, free professional classes and workshops at Dance Base, free selected community classes, up to two week-long group residencies at Dance Base and free studio space - as well as access to shows and resources at Scottish Dance Theatre.

For their open sharing at the end of the week, this years' DEBS, Evelina Tiger, Marcus Burns, Islay Spanswick and Sophie Morrison, presented snippets of choreography they'd created throughout the week and talked through what they'd learned about how to build careers as professional dance makers and choreographers from their mentor Thomas Small.

📸 Anni Cameron

[Images: Nine photographs of a group of four young dancers in a bright studio with large windows, along with their mentor, who talks to them from the side.]

26/10/2026

Teacher spotlight: Alan Greig ✨

Alan studied in London at the Laban Centre and Central School of Ballet. He was a scholarship student in New York of seminal choreographer Alwin Nikolais. He has been working professionally since 1986 and has taught thousands of students across a range of ages and abilities.

Alan has worked for organisations including Scottish Dance Theatre, Scottish Ballet education, Northern School of Contemporary Dance and Jin Xing Dance Theatre (China). Alan was Artistic Director of X Factor Dance Company and holds an MA (Distinction) in Dance Theatre Practices.

Alan has been teaching at Dance Base since 1989—his classes are fun and technical, incorporating Nikolais, Cunningham and improvisational techniques.

Dance with Alan:

💫Contemporary Beginners
📆 Wednesdays
🕐 17:50 (60 min)
🎟️ https://loom.ly/WJsbCk0

💫Contemporary Improvers
📆 Fridays
🕐 17:30 (90 min)
🎟️ https://loom.ly/odkfSF8

📽

22/10/2026

Teacher spotlight: Yamil Cuedo Ferrera ✨

Yamil was a lead dancer for five years with the professional Cuban company Ballet Folklorico Cutumba until he came to live in Scotland in 2009.

Prior to Cutumba, he danced with La Ceiba and Sangre y Tradicion as first dancer. He has performed Cuban popular and Afro folkloric dances for over 20 years and has been teaching in Cuba and in Great Britain since 2007.

He comes from Santiago de Cuba where the tradition of Afro Cuban music and dance is still very much alive, and Cuban Salsa, Son and other popular dances such as Cha-cha-cha are still as popular as ever.

Yamil has been teaching at Dance Base for over 16 years, and we can absolutely confirm that his teaching style is fun, energetic and creative. He is sure to leave you feeling recharged and alive!

Dance with Yamil:

💫Afro Cuban
📆 Thursdays
🕐 18:55 (60 min)
🎟️ https://loom.ly/YbX-dUk

💫Cuban Salsa
📆 Thursdays
🕐 20:00 (60 min)
🎟️ https://loom.ly/PfXF7kk

💫Latin Fitness
📆 Fridays
🕐 11:45 (60 min)
🎟️ https://loom.ly/3PI85ME

📽 Stuart Armitt

21/10/2026

What a weekend!✨

Thanks so much for helping us celebrate our 25th year on the Grassmarket!

Shout-outs to Agnes Ness, Benoît Egloff, Chloe Cade, Jack Anderson, Paul Wood, Kirsty Po***ck, Chris Stuart Wilson, TMRW Crew—and everyone who came down to take part in the dance battle and classes!

📽️ Dani Bakkes

20/10/2026

Dance Base x Project X Scratch Night artist spotlight: Kiki Oladapo and Gaia Silvan ✨

Kiki Oladapo is a hip-hop dancer, choreographer and creative director based in Scotland. Rooted in London’s hip-hop scene, his practice blends hip-hop theatre, storytelling and cultural identity.

As a Black artist with Nigerian heritage, Kiki explores themes of identity, belonging, masculinity, family and connection through physical and expressive movement. His work draws inspiration from African mythology and folklore, while bringing hip-hop foundations into contemporary theatrical spaces.

Gaia Silvan is a multidisciplinary artist from Kintyre. They are a recent graduate from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Contemporary Performance Practice. As a black-mixed race, neurodivergent, q***r woman/person and coming from rural upbringings, Gaia has always been drawn to exploring the intricacies of our identities.

At Scratch Night, Kiki and Gaia will explore identity, isolation, connection and the cycles we create within our relationships, inspired by African, Caribbean and Scottish folklore.

Two lost beings encounter one another, drawn together by a strange sense of familiarity. Disconnected from their histories and from themselves, they begin to uncover fragments of a forgotten past.

As their relationship develops, memories begin to surface, revealing hints of who they once were and why they became lost. What begins as a chance encounter slowly becomes something more complex, as trust, power and control begin to shift between them...

💫Dance Base x Project X Scratch Night
📆 Friday 23 October
🕘19:00-21:00
🎟️Tickets: £10 (£8) https://loom.ly/5dIZCNU

Book now via the Live Events page on our website.

15/10/2026

Our Celebration weekend starts THIS FRIDAY! 🎉

Our beautiful, 25-year-old building will be packed to the ballet bars with events, workshops, archive material - as well as an all-styles dance battle!

Schedule:
Friday 16-Sunday 25 October
Film Archive featuring the 2020 lockdown project ‘Now Here This’, alongside ‘Skimming the Archive’ by Matthew Hawkins. These will be available to watch in Meeting Room 2.

Friday 16 October
18:00-19:30 – Class from the Past: Dance Throwbacks with Paul Wood

Saturday 17 October
10:00-11:30 – Class from the Past: Barefoot Ballet with Kirsty Po***ck
11:30-13:00 – Class from the Past: Destination Jazz with Chris Stuart Wilson
18:30-20:00 – Dance Base Connections: 25 Years - an evening of reflection and performance with Agnes Ness and Benoît Egloff

Sunday 18 October
10:30-12:00 – Hip2TheHop: Own the Circle: Freestyle Workshop
13:00-18:00 – Hip2TheHop: Own the Circle: All Styles Dance Battle

Book here: https://loom.ly/NvLUKqY

📸1. Still of Bridie Gane’s ‘Reception’, featuring Katie Miller, as part of ‘Now Here This’, Dance Base, 2020. 2. Jazz class 2022. Image credit Stuart Armitt. 3. Kirsty Po***ck. 4. Chris Stuart Wilson. 5. Agnes Ness and Benoît Egloff 6. Hip2TheHop: Own The Circle poster artwork.

14/10/2026

Hold onto your pumpkins it's the spooooktacular Dare2Dance teacher line-up!

🎃10:00-10:45: Warm-Up and Spooky Street Dance - Jo Richards
👻10:50-11:35: K-POP Halloween special covering MEOVV’s DDI RO RI - Natalie Divine
🎃11:45-12:30: Rihanna's 'Let Me': early 00's Commercial - Lorna Brown
***12:35-13:20: Lunch Break***
👻13:20-14:15: Tibetan Opera Dance - Yuxi Jiang
🎃14:15-15:00: Haunted House - Ashley Jack

Join us for a day of freakishly good dance! Try new styles alongside some iconic dance routines - all levels welcome.

🕯️Dare2Dance - Halloween Special
📆Sunday 25 October
🕘10:00-15:00
🎟️ https://loom.ly/DO3iT24

Do you dare to dance? Book now!

[Images: teacher headshots with a 'Dare2Dance' logo, dripping blood, overlaid with a grainy filter.]

09/10/2026

✨ Presence in Body and Voice | A professional workshop with Fleur Darkin.

This workshop is designed for dancers and performers who want to explore relationship with text and approaches to storytelling within a strong physical practice.

Building up bespoke personal specificity and dealing in live presence, this workshop will be a physical, playful lab for performers wanting to amplify their own voices and agency as generating artists for their own work or in collaborative process.

A relaxed and supportive environment to experiment - everyone welcome!

📅 Saturday 24 October 2026
🕜 15:00 (120 min)
👟 Level: Professional
🎟️ Tickets: £15/£10

Book your spot! https://loom.ly/2atEpGc

📸Courtesy of the artist

Address

14/16 Grassmarket
Edinburgh
EH12JU

Opening Hours

Monday	9:45am - 9pm
Tuesday	9:45am - 9pm
Wednesday	9:45am - 9pm
Thursday	9:45am - 9pm
Friday	9:45am - 9pm
Saturday	1pm - 5pm

Telephone

+441312255525

Website

http://dancebase.co.uk/

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