Body Perspectives: Meet the panel re-evaluating the ideal in dance

Body image affects participation, wellbeing, performance, health and culture in dance. A new event from the National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science (NIDMS) will bring together research, lived experience and practical action to explore how we can create healthier body image cultures in dance. 

Body Perspectives: Re-evaluating the Ideal takes place in Birmingham on Monday 26 October, from 10am to 5pm. 

The event will explore how body image affects dance and what can be done to create healthier cultures. Attendees will leave with evidence-based knowledge, practical tools, meaningful connections and concrete actions they can implement immediately. 

Meet the conference speakers 

Romy Ashmore-Hills 

Romy Ashmore-Hills is Co-Founder and Project Manager of Hungry 2 Move, a creative action research project funded by Arts Council England, exploring the relationship between dance training and body image through the eyes of young dancers. Romy is a freelance artist & facilitator with a BA (Hons) in Drama. Romy has worked in the participatory arts and in community setting for the past 4 years, including work on the inclusive and integrated dance project ‘Critical Mass’ in association with the commonwealth games. Romy is trained in creative facilitation for young people, trauma informed practice, mental health first aid, paediatric first aid, safeguarding, and is currently undergoing eating disorder training with the charity BEAT. Romy is passionate about using dance and the arts to improve wellbeing for young people.  

Jonathan Bucke 

Jonathan Bucke is a chartered physiotherapist and Clinical Lead for The Royal Ballet Company at the Royal Opera House, London, with a background spanning elite sport and performing arts medicine. He has served as Head Physiotherapist for Team England at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, worked with Team GB at the Paris 2024 Olympics and spent over eight years with the English Institute of Sport and British Gymnastics. He holds master's degrees in Sports Medicine (University of Lancashire) and Advanced Manipulative Physiotherapy (University of Birmingham), and regularly speaks at industry conferences and co-hosts CPD courses on topics such as bone stress injuries in dancers. 

David Donnelly 

David Donnelly is a soloist with the Royal Ballet and has performed with the company for 13 years. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, he moved to the UK at 17 to join the graduate year of the Royal Ballet School. Alongside his performing career, David is a Yoga Alliance registered teacher with more than 700 hours of training. He credits Forrest Yoga with helping him reconnect with his body through physical and mental injuries and with finding his voice as a teacher. In 2025, he wrote about his experiences with body image as a dancer in the British Journal of Sports Medicine article There and back again: navigating disordered eating and body dysmorphia as a pre-professional ballet dancer. 

Mhairi Keil 

Mhairi Keil is a Performance Nutritionist and Performance Supervision Advisor whose work focuses on the intersection of body image, health and performance. She has worked with athletes, performers and practitioners across elite sport and professional dance for over 20 years. Mhairi co-developed and co-led the first body image project within British Gymnastics and currently co-creates and co-leads body image initiatives within women’s football at The FA. She is also the initiator and co-creator of the Body Image in Dance Conference, developed in partnership with Erin Sanchez at One Dance UK and supported by NIDMS. 

Iain Mackay 

Iain Mackay joined The Royal Ballet School as Artistic Director in September 2024. He previously danced with Birmingham Royal Ballet, where he was promoted to Principal in 2003, and with Corella Ballet Spain. Throughout his career, he performed leading roles across classical and modern repertoire and worked with leading international choreographers. As Artistic Director, Iain’s focus is on the individual needs of the School’s students and providing a nurturing training experience for them to reach their full potential. 

Dr Siobhan Mitchell 

Siobhan trained vocationally as a dancer before completing degrees in Dance Studies, Dance Science, and Health and Wellbeing. She is currently a Research Fellow in Child and Adolescent Health at the University of Exeter. Her doctoral research explored the psychological and social implications of early and late maturation in adolescent ballet dancers. More recently, Siobhan led the GuiDANCE project and founded the GuiDANCE Network, which aims to enhance practices around growth and development in the dance sector. 

Ruth Anna Phillips 

Ruth works as a director, movement director, choreographer and theatre maker in London and the Midlands. She has worked with organisations including Almeida Theatre, National Youth Theatre, Historical Royal Palaces, Nevill Holt Opera, Guildhall and LAMDA. Ruth is passionate about inclusive movement, particularly in relation to body shape, and works as a size inclusivity consultant. 

Karen Sheriff 

Karen Sheriff is a chartered physiotherapist and healthcare leader with a deep commitment to changing how the dance world understands and supports energy availability. Before founding Project RED‑D, Karen led The Royal Ballet School’s 28-strong specialist healthcare team, supporting 240 full-time students. Her work focused on prevention, injury recovery, and performance; with REDs support at the core. Karen’s leadership is grounded in evidence and collaboration. She’s worked with academic leaders at Queen Mary University of London, St Mary’s University Twickenham, the University of Essex, and the NGO Podium Analytics. Her mission? To help institutions go beyond awareness and embed change. 

Exploring healthier body image cultures 

The panel brings together perspectives from performance, nutrition, healthcare, research, education and lived experience. 

Alongside the panel, the event will draw on work from initiatives including Project RED-D, which focuses on Relative Energy Deficiency in Dance, Hungry 2 Dance, which explores dance training and body image through the experiences of young dancers, and GuiDANCE, which addresses growth and maturation in dance. 

Body Perspectives: Re-evaluating the Ideal takes place on Monday 26 October, 10am–5pm, in Birmingham, England.