Charlie Cornforth: Inspiring Movement, Building Community, and Revitalising Dance in Plymouth

As the founder of Crumbling Rocks Theatre, Charlie is passionate about making movement-based training accessible and fostering wellbeing through creative practice. In this conversation, Charlie reflects on the resilience of Plymouth’s dance community, the challenges it faces, and the importance of collaboration in keeping dance at the heart of the city’s cultural identity.

My name is Charlie Cornforth. I have been training and performing in the theatre and performance industry for over fourteen years. I started out training as an actor but became more interested in developing a multi-modal practice, branching out into a wide variety of other training disciplines, such as contemporary dance, stage combat, gymnastics, martial arts, yoga, aerial performance, and circus skills.

I am a freelance theatre and movement practitioner, so I have the privilege of working for many different organisations. These have included Barbican Theatre Plymouth, Creative Curiosities SW, and the former Exim Dance Company.

Two years ago, thanks to funding from Real Ideas, I started my own company, Crumbling Rocks Theatre, which provides creative training experiences designed to promote health and wellbeing through acting, movement, and stage combat.

It’s a great fit for me because when I am not running workshops and other performance projects within the local community, I am crafting performances and getting them ready for touring the local fringe circuits.

There was no single moment that brought me into dance. I have always been interested in movement, and I spent a lot of time training and working alongside dancers. I kept getting invited to various contemporary dance and contact improvisation classes, and eventually, I reached a point where acting and movement began intersecting. In many ways, I came to understand that I couldn’t do one without the other, as they both informed and helped me in different ways. 

Besides the obvious health benefits, dance unlocks new pathways for expression and emotional intelligence. Sometimes, it’s less about the dancing itself and more about the philosophies we seek to introduce into our personal lives and our communities. With recent events, it feels like we need philosophies such as energy, connection, letting go, resilience, and breath more than ever.

I haven’t just seen dance positively impact people in Plymouth—I know it to be a fact. So many people I meet in dance are often in the middle of working through a difficult or complex time in their life, and everyone gets involved in dance for different reasons. Sometimes, yes, you just want to have a wiggle, but often it’s a combination of the esoteric mixed with the exoteric. They might work a strict 9–5 and have a family in the evening, so that small one-hour slot of dancing is their only time to be a little bit selfish. They might be a teenager who is just starting to try and answer some of the larger questions in life, like “What do I want to do with my life?” Or perhaps they have just gone through a breakup.

My point is that dance isn’t just a place to get healthy—it’s a place to heal, to keep yourself out of trouble, to build, and, if necessary, to rebuild your identity. That has a direct correlation to healthy communities. 

The dance scene in Plymouth can be tricky. There have been major setbacks and losses in the dance community, with vital organisations either missing out on important funding or closing altogether. However, the dance scene in Plymouth is also incredibly resilient, and many individuals and organisations make it work with whatever resources are available. A lot of the time in Plymouth, it is about knowing where to look and keeping your eyes open for when dance opportunities appear.

There are numerous key community hubs in Plymouth, and they are often happy to signpost you to these opportunities. Besides Crumbling Rocks Theatre, there is Oxford House Creative Hub, The Plot, Rhythm City Dance Studios, Barbican Theatre Plymouth, Plymouth Dance, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Far Flung CIC, and more.

I think we can make dance more accessible in the city by trying not to compete with each other but by connecting and synchronising instead. More collaborative projects between organisations would allow us to share resources, communities, knowledge, and experiences.

Try not to limit yourself to one organisation. Sometimes, you might be lucky enough to establish a fruitful relationship with an organisation in the city, and they will look after you, but I wouldn’t rely on that. Instead, the safer bet is to make yourself known to every organisation in the city so that when appropriate opportunities arise, you can be involved.

Crumbling Rocks Theatre runs regular workshops and classes. Often, these are collaborations with local organisations and community groups. So if you want acting, movement, or stage combat workshops, get in touch with us and book a workshop today.

Additionally, we also run professional practice and performance consultancy. So whether you are unsure how to move forward after university or trying to get a performance project tour-ready, you can book us for a consultation and get pointed in the right direction.

There is plenty of advice-based support available in Plymouth. However, what professional and mid-career dancers in this city really need is more fully funded performance projects and community events paid at practitioner rates. They have spent a long time training and working extremely hard, so it can be disheartening when there isn’t much performance opportunity in Plymouth—especially ones that pay at the Equity standard.

I think what I love about Plymouth (besides the ocean) is that it’s a smaller city, which often makes it easier to get to know who’s who. Everyone is generally quite friendly and eager to point you in the right direction for who is best to work with or to help with your project.

Dance can be the heart of any cultural scene. It allows us to engage in and participate in our culture and community, to celebrate our culture, and to showcase it for everyone else to see. Placing dance at the heart of the wider cultural scene is about being proud of the city and the people who live here.

I think the location of Plymouth truly allows artists and dancers to thrive. We have so much beauty on our doorstep—whether it’s the ocean, Dartmoor, Saltram, or Plym Bridge Woods—there is so much to inspire and get the creativity flowing. And in the summer, you see artists and dancers really lean into this with numerous outdoor mini-festivals, parades, and performances.

If I’m going to be honest, no, I don’t think Plymouth is doing enough to celebrate and promote dance. We often use words like “champion” and “celebrate” in relation to dance, but it has become clear that attendance at both dance performances and classes within the city has steadily declined over the past few years. Between a lack of attendance and a lack of successful funding, there have been fewer opportunities in the city, pushing audiences and dancers out of Plymouth and towards Exeter, Bournemouth, and Bristol. However, it is also important to remember that this is a symptom of a much larger problem.

What excites me most is seeing our local dance communities being recognised and celebrated. They all work so hard and have overcome incredible obstacles. The more we shout about our dance community in Plymouth, the greater chance we have of reigniting interest in dance and allowing all of our dance organisations to flourish.

In an ideal world, I hope this campaign will signpost a previously unreached audience to what is available in the city and, perhaps, better inform funders’ decisions to grant more successful bids to Plymouth.

Just turn up. Whether it’s your very first hip-hop class, going to watch the ballet, or attending a local community event—just go and do it. Put your phone away, turn off Netflix, and jump into what your local community has to offer, because if you know where to look, there is always plenty going on.