I am Viv Slayford and I have always seen myself as helping people realise their dreams big or small and I have carried that belief with me into my current role as the Artistic Director of Swindon Dance. That may sound a simple statement yet has helped me achieve many things when as a young person I was seen as someone who would not ‘amount to much’.

My advice is always stay honest and true to yourself, have the courage to follow the pathway you want to follow and don’t let life’s barriers and people’s opinions become an excuse to not follow your dreams. I often ask people, when you look back on your life do you want to see a life full of wonderful experiences or a life of what ifs and compromises to please others?

I want to show you that you do not have to follow a conventional path, that life’s challenges or a failed exam is not a barrier to a fulfilling career. My pathway into a professional dance career was totally by accident. I did not have any ‘life goals’ or ambitions, I was not shown that I had any worth and therefore did not have the confidence to think about college and a career. I faced many barriers. I come from a working-class family with alcohol issues, my parents divorced at a time when parents didn’t divorce. I’m dyslexic, failed my exams and at 16 got a motorbike and hung around with a group of bikers.

What changed for me was sport – archery, where I was introduced to positive encouragement, focusing on achieving my goals, what I wanted to achieve. I was suddenly important. I became a master-bowmen and grew belief in myself. What has this got to do with a professional career in dance? It gave me the courage to follow my passion, which was art. I got some exams and went onto study art at Goldsmiths College, London where I discovered Laban and contemporary dance. After completing my first year at Laban I attended summer school at Swindon Dance (then the Thamesdown Dance Studios) and I never left. Swindon Dance has so inspired and supported me, allowed me to test out my ideas and has picked me up when I have failed, brushed me off and set me on my feet again. Finding Swindon Dance was the best unplanned decision of my career. I finished my dance training unofficially on the foundation course at Swindon Dance and at The Place, and despite being only 4’10” danced professionally with Theatre of Motion Directed by Pete Purdy for a number of years. 

The most precious part of my career for me started in the late 1980s when I was able to bring my passion for creativity, my life experiences and my sporting achievements together to coach young dancers wanting a career in dance using a positive and supportive style of development with positivity and discussion at its core. My track record for developing elite autonomous artists at this time led to funding from Texaco giving me the financial support to develop a youth talent programme which is now one of the country’s nine Centres for Advanced Training (CAT) and part of a nationally supported and funded coaching programme that is having a huge impact on the countries cultural industry. Our CAT has over 120 students with three programmes, two in contemporary dance (Swindon and Exeter) and one in street dance (Swindon). For me the achievement is still seeing those young dancers from such varied backgrounds realising their dreams, seeing where their pathways lead and now in my latest role, still being able to support them as professionals.

In January 2016 the Swindon Dance Board of Trustees called me to a meeting where they offered me the role of Artistic Director, despite my partner at that time having terminal cancer (a battle he lost that Christmas) they still thought unanimously that I was the right person to take Swindon Dance forward. This was the ultimate achievement for me because it meant my ‘worth’ had been recognised.

I hope my pathway will help other young people realise they have worth, inspire graduates to follow their dreams despite life’s barriers and for employees to realise following the conventional pathway is not the only way.

Before he died, Kev and I set up the Loganberry Trust, to raise awareness and offer free advise and PSA testing for Prostate Cancer. 

Since Loganberry only works across Wiltshire, I have included a link to a Chartable Trust set up by our mentor Graham Fulford.