WHAT PEOPLE
David Mckenna's
The what moves people method
Dance is more than choreography. It is communication before words, it is identity before labels, it is connection before conversation and for over thirty years my work has explored one simple question:
What moves people?
Not simply physically but emotionally, psychologically and socially. Whether I am working with autistic young people, people living with trauma, prison residents, professional performers or communities who have never stepped inside a theatre the starting point is always the same:
Every person has a creative voice worth hearing.
My role as the artist is not to impose ideas but it is to create the conditions where people feel safe enough to discover their own.
MY principles
People First: Every project begins with people rather than performance. Relationships come before outcomes. Trust comes before creativity. When people feel seen and heard they begin to move differently.
Co-Creation: I don't arrive with finished choreography. I arrive with questions. Participants become collaborators. The most meaningful work happens when ownership is shared.
Inclusion Isn't an Add-on: Inclusive practice is not a specialist programme. It is the foundation of everything I create and over the past decade my work has increasingly focused on neurodiverse learners, SEND settings, people experiencing mental ill-health, vulnerable young people and prison communities.
The methodology adapts to the individual, not the other way around.
Embodied Learning: Sometimes words aren't enough. Movement allows people to explore emotions they cannot yet explain. Through dance, theatre, photography, creative writing and poetry, film, music and sensory experiences through my work participants develop confidence, communication, self-awareness and resilience.
Beautiful Work Matters: Community arts should never mean lowering artistic ambition. I believe everyone deserves access to exceptional artistic experiences. The work we create together is visually striking, emotionally honest and artistically ambitious because people rise when expectations rise.
Working Across Different Worlds: Although every project is unique my practice now works across four interconnected areas.
Education: Creative learning for SEND schools, mainstream education and alternative provision where I aim to developing communication, confidence and emotional literacy through movement.
Health & Wellbeing: Using creativity to improve physical and mental wellbeing, reduce isolation and strengthen communities.
Criminal Justice: More than twenty years working in prisons across the UK and USA exploring identity, allyship, accountability and hope through performance.
Professional Arts: Creating performances, installations and participatory experiences that place audiences and communities at the heart of the work.
Why Movement?: Movement bypasses the barriers that often prevent people from expressing themselves. It allows us to play before we judge. To imagine before we explain. To connect before we speak. Every movement tells a story. Every body has value. Every voice deserves space. That belief has guided every project I've created. It always will.
