Following professional dance training at Arts Educational School and London Contemporary Dance School, on relocation to Swindon I opened a dance school (1972). This led by a serendipitous path to my appointment by Swindon Council to establish Swindon Dance in 1979, where I remained as Artistic Director until retirement in 2016. Based on a mission to make access to dance for all a reality, Swindon Dance is recognised as a pioneer in community dance and in 1991 became a National Dance Agency funded by Arts Council England.

My Fellowship in 1984 to research the training and development of Black dancers in New York at Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Alvin Ailey School resulted from my work with talented young dancers from diverse cultural and socio-economic groups, who did not appear to flourish when in higher professional training in London. The inspiration and learning from this opportunity influenced all my future career and many of the research outcomes are still relevant today.

I was honoured to receive an MBE in 1992 and to be the Founding Chair of the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora in 1994. I was awarded the Critics' Circle Jane Attenborough Dance UK Award in 2009.