Diversity founder Ashley Banjo has lent his support to The Sky Foundation's new programme, The Julia Rausing Sky Arts Bursaries, in partnership with The Julia Rausing Trust.

The programme will support 20 dancers with funding, mentoring, professional development and industry visibility. Banjo commented 'Dance opened so many doors for me growing up. I was lucky that my mum ran a dance school, so I was surrounded by dance from an early age and had access to opportunities that helped shape my future. But opportunities are becoming harder to access today, particularly for people who don't come from an affluent background. Creative potential should never be determined by a family's finances, yet these findings suggest cost is becoming an increasingly significant barrier to pursuing a career in dance'.