Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the North East of England, my dance training began at Newcastle Dance Centre, culminating in full-time training at the now named Newcastle College University Centre, Performance Academy. Professional engagements following on have included dancer, teacher and choreographer with Surface Area Dance Theatre, Billy Elliot West End and Wooden Gate Film Productions respectively.  I spent several years living and working in London, as well as additional research and working periods in New York (USA), Santander (Spain) and Düsseldorf (Germany), where in addition to my rich North Eastern cultural and artistic experiences, I have been able to accumulate and broaden my embodied experience and training, by dancing in centres and companies such as Steps on Broadway, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Pineapple Studios London, Tanzhaus Düsseldorf and Tanz Fabric Berlin.

 

My performance profile centres around contemporary dance theatre performance, jazz dance and film. Settings include theatre, film and social dancing such as vernacular jazz, latin dance and contact improvisation.  I am in post at University of Cumbria as Lecturer in Dance & Movement, where my role currently focuses on the development of the Centre for Arts & Participation based at the Institute of Education, Arts & Society, UoC. In this, I build on a long history of teaching and facilitating dance and performance across a broad range of professional and community settings such as schools delivery, vocational and professional technique training and community festival performance.  I also take interest in choreography and movement direction for film and theatre.

 

My artistic and academic interests lie in developing thinking and practice around the notion of embodied knowledge and what that can offer and reveal to our societies and communities.  I advocate for and work towards practice and creativity as a way of researching and knowing new information as well as accessing existing theory such as the branches of phenomenology.  Areas of practical exploration and consideration include German expressionism, TanzTheatre, Jazz Dance & African Diaspora and Japanese Butoh.