Copywriter in Cardiff

National Dance Company Wales are looking for a skilled copywriter to help communicate clearly, confidently and with character. We make dance made in Wales and share it with the world. We are a contemporary dance company based in Cardiff Bay. We tour performances across the UK and beyond and we inspire others to move through talent development. We put many voices at the heart of our work because we believe dance is for everyone and build communities through enriching dance experiences. We’re on a journey to connect audiences to our work by making significant investment in our digital infrastructure. This year we’ll be launching a new website, CRM and ticketing system – all built to work together to improve user experience.

About the opportunity: We’re looking for a skilled copywriter to help us make the most of this moment. We want to communicate clearly and confidently about ourselves and our work and put that into practice across the key pages of our new website. We want to balance character and clarity and follow best practice for writing across digital channels. We want copy that sounds like ‘us’, and meets people where they are, whether they’re familiar with our work or have never been to a dance performance or class before. As a bilingual company, we’re particularly interested in hearing from copywriters who can write in both Welsh and English, or from a collaborative team, who can recognise the nuance of tone in both languages. We also welcome applications from English-only or Welsh-only copywriters as translation can be arranged.

Who we're writing for:

• NDCWales superfans and loyal audiences who know and love our work
• First-timers who are curious about contemporary dance, including teachers, young people and lifelong learners who we reach through our schools and community work
• Arts explorers who aren’t necessarily dance attenders, but enjoy a variety of artforms or cultural experiences
• Artists, choreographers, and industry peers exploring our work or opportunities
• Potential funders and partners who want to understand and invest in our mission and impact

Our website needs to be welcoming and accessible for all these people.

Our tone of voice: We currently hold a basic set of ‘brand voice’ guidelines. They give us a foundation to work from, but part of your role will be to help us develop them through this brief.

Scope of work:

• Phase 1: discovery & tone of voice
• Review our existing brand voice guidelines and any relevant audience insight
• Understand how we currently talk about ourselves across our digital channels (and our ambitions going forward)
• Produce short ‘golden rules’ guidelines with examples for internal use across the organisation
• Phase 2: website copy
• Write headline and body copy for agreed key pages
• Develop appropriate calls to action for each page, responsive to different user journeys
• Where relevant, rework existing copy rather than starting from scratch
• Phase 3: review & sign-off
• Share drafts for feedback (we’ll agree a review process including timelines as part of the contract process)
• Incorporate revisions and prepare final copy for handover

Key Pages: We’re anticipating working on approximately 6-8 pages. The final list will be agreed at the project kick‑off, but we expect it to include:

• Homepage
• About Us
• Tone of voice development and short golden rules document
• Suggested calls to action for each page aligned to user journeys
• Headline and body copy for all agreed website pages that balances personality and character with clarity of message and web‑writing best practice
• Final copy formatted and ready for handover within mutually agreed timeline
• All copy to meet accessibility best practice, including an appropriate reading age; and consider the nuance of tone that English and Welsh languages may present
• All copy to be optimised for web and search (including AI search readiness and SEO)

Our current website is ndcwales.co.uk, this also links to dancehouse.wales (our home venue). Our new website will unite both sites. We’d love to hear what you think is and isn’t working about our existing copy.

How we’ll work together: We’ll start with a kick‑off conversation to align on scope, timeline, and ways of working before agreeing a review process. We’re a small team, but we’ll do our best to turn around feedback promptly.

Experience & Skills: You’ll be a skilled copywriter with a genuine feel and flair for language and meeting people where they are at.

• Excellent writing, editing, and proofreading skills
• Experience of crafting brand voices and developing tone of voice guidelines
• Experience of writing for digital platforms
• Strong understanding of best practice for web writing, including content optimisation and accessibility
• Experience of writing for SEO and AI optimisation
• Experience working with organisations based in Wales, and/or familiarity with the Welsh language
• Experience working with arts, cultural, or third‑sector organisations
• An interest in or existing knowledge of contemporary dance or the performing arts

Timeline: The project is funded through the Bloomberg Philanthropies Digital Accelerator programme, which supports arts organisations in making meaningful improvements to their technology infrastructure. The funding comes with a defined project timeline, and we’ll need the deliverables to be completed within this period. We would like this work to start no later than July 2026 and key pages to be delivered by September 2026.

Budget: We are anticipating approximately 6-8 days of work and are happy to receive proposals based on your day rate. Please include a breakdown of how you would allocate your time across the three phases outlined in the project scope.

Equality: NDCWales aims for dance to be part of everyone’s life and presents its work in different formats and contexts across Wales and around the world. We believe diversity should be fully embedded into our organisational culture and values, and we are continuing to expand the diversity of the company and its work. To that end we are talking with and listening to people from a range of communities, to bring understanding and insight, and to identify changes we can make. Details of the action we are taking can be found in our Strategic Equality Plan.

Social Justice: Social justice, equality and fairness are at the core of everything NDCWales does. We are committed to ensuring that everyone in Wales has equal opportunity to access dance. NDCWales will seek to ensure that no one receives less favourable treatment because of having a protected characteristic. We particularly encourage applications from people who are underrepresented in the arts sector, and from those who experience discrimination due to race, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, race, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, disability or age.