Sharon Watson

After studying at London Contemporary Dance School, Sharon graduated from the BPA (Hons) in Contemporary Dance at NSCD in 1997.

Sharon Watson is the fourth Principal of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Prior to this she was the longest-standing Artistic Director of Phoenix Dance Theatre. Her journey with the company began when she was one of the first female Principal Dancers invited to join the all-male award-winning company, touring from 1989 to 1997 and choreographing Never Still and Shaded Limits. Having left Phoenix to pursue a number of other ventures including setting up her own company ABCD, Sharon returned in 2009 as the new Artistic Director. Sharon choreographed numerous works for the company including the celebrated Windrush: Movement of the People and Black Waters.

Amy Voris

Amy Voris is a dance-maker based in Manchester.  Her practice is process-oriented and collaborative, driven by the desire to develop relationships with people and with movement material over long stretches of time.  The outcome of the work is contingent on hunches and interactions that occur during the process and varies widely.  Examples of current projects include a site-responsive project (enter inhabit), a collaboration with a jewellery maker (flockOmania) and a collaboration with three Northwest-based artists exploring the curation of experimental performance practices (Accumulations).  Her projects have received support from Chisenhale Dance Space, Dance Northwest, Dance Manchester, Yorkshire Dance and The Arts Council among others.  With choreographer Ruth Segalis and performer Natasha Gilmore, Amy was a founding member of Rose’s Thoughts Dance Company (London, 1996-2003).   

Amy will be taking part in Möbius Atelier - Choreographic Intensive. During this two-day research period, Amy will adapt a solo score called perch to the unique capacities of four dancers. There will be two key elements of research during the adaptation process: the exploration of transitions between energetic states and the spatial potentialities of working with a quartet. In its original form, perch explored the theme of temporary dwellings, the chronological arrangement of disparate movement content and the significance of the dancer’s deepening relationship with movement material.

www.amyvoris.com

Photo: Christian Kipp

Annie Hanauer

Annie Hanauer is an independent dance artist based between the UK & France, originally from the USA. Annie works internationally and has performed, toured, choreographed, and taught extensively for over a decade, currently performing with long-time collaborator Rachid Ouramdane/CCN2 Grenoble and the Paris Chamber Orchestra. She is interested in the experiences of people who have been 'othered', stemming from her own lived experience as a disabled woman, and extending to a wider idea of inclusivity.

She is interested in who has access to dance both as an audience and performer, and wants to disrupt dominant ideas of a normative dancing body. Her own choreographic work has involved developing methodology for group performance improvisation, and she is currently developing projects around disability, caring & motherhood, and ideas of utopia & collective imagination. She approaches movement with curiosity and looks for the coincidence of pleasure and sweat. Annie's choreographic work has been supported by Arts Council England, Siobhan Davies Dance, CCN2 Grenoble, Candoco Dance Company and The Place.

website: https://www.anniehanauer.com/

Jamaal Burkmar

A graduate of the Northern School for Contemporary Dance in Leeds. Jamaal’s first creation as a student ‘Ocean’ was commissioned for VERVE, the postgraduate company at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. ‘Ocean’ proved successful with audiences in UK and beyond. Since graduating Ocean has been reworked 3 times on different groups and performed at several highly prestigious events. During this period Jamaal was also successful in gaining his first Arts Council England Grants for the Arts award for the creation of a short work called ‘Sonder’. It was during the summer of the same year that Jamaal applied and won the highly prestigious New Adventures Choreography Award.

Photo: Foteini Christofilopoulou

Valentina Golfieri

Valentina was born in Rimini, Italy. She trained at London Contemporary Dance School where she completed her BA and MA after spending a year touring with the postgraduate company EDge.

Valentina is the Associate Director of Arthur Pita’s Open Heart Productions. She has created and performed roles in Arthur’s productions since 2010, including the Royal Ballet’s Metamorphoses, God’s Garden and The World’s Greatest Show. She is currently touring with the company’s production of The Little Match Girl. She has also been a member of Protein Dance since 2011, as performer and Assistant Director. With the Company she has toured the globe performing, teaching and leading projects with hard to reach communities. She has also performed extensively with Frauke Requardt, Will Tuckett, Clod Ensemble, David Rosenberg, Daniel Kramer, Royal Opera amongst others.

Valentina guest teaches throughout the country and designs costumes for dance, including productions for Candoco, StopGap, Sweetshop Revolution, Frauke Requardt and NSCD’s Verve.

Douglas Thorpe

Douglas began his career with Phoenix Dance Theatre, who he danced with for over twenty years before developing his own choreography. Under the banner of Mad Dogs Dance Theatre, Douglas’s work has developed an identity for being extremely explosive, powerful, physical dance theatre. Douglas has made work for ACE Dance & Music, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Staatstheater Tanz, Braunschweig in Germany and the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Phoenix Dance Theatre welcomed Douglas in Spring 2013 back to create a new work for the company tour. 

Photo: Camilla Greenwell

Susanne Thomas

Susanne is a German born choreographer and director, currently based in Leeds. Her wealth of choreographic work has been presented in both indoor and outdoor sites in the UK and worldwide, with venues ranging from theatres and museums, department stores and railway stations to the Royal Opera House and the National Theatre. Her company Seven Sisters Group has been at the vanguard of site-specific and immersive performance since the early 90s.

Susanne’s UK-based career began 26-years ago with a scholarship to study at London Contemporary Dance School, upon which she quickly became an established artist in London before moving North four years ago. She is co-artistic director of Seven Sisters Group, together with designer Sophie Jump. Their projects focus on communicating contemporary issues through new and idiosyncratic works that defy labelling. Evolving with advancements in hand-held technology, Seven Sisters Group has led the way in morphing virtual reality and site-specific performance. Recent projects incorporating these innovative approaches have drawn great acclaim, with ‘Like a Fish Out Of Water’, winning the “Gold Award for Exceptional Achievement Across All Categories” at World Stage Design 2013.