Gianluca Vincentini
Founder and artistic director of Möbius Dance
Gianluca has performed, taught and directed dance throughout the UK, Europe, Asia and USA since 1997.
Originally from Italy, Gianluca trained at the National Academy of Dance in Rome, Biennale Danza, Venice and Transitions Dance Company at Trinity Laban. Performance credits include: Henri Oguike, IJAD Dance Company, Efrosini Protopata’s Lapsus Corpi, himherandit productions and Iceland Dance Company.
Gianluca has been the Artistic Director of VERVE from 2011-2016 and the Head of Professional Development from 2014-2016 at Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds.
Under his direction the company worked with many of Europe’s leading international choreographers such as Lea Anderson, Anton Lachky, Akram Khan, Kerry Nicholls and Ben Wright as well as Theo Clinkard, Luca Silvestrini and Efrosini Protopapa. Gianluca put emphasis on nurturing and supporting upcoming choreographers such as Jamaal Burkmar, James Cousins and Leila McMillan. Under his direction the company toured extensively throughout Europe.
While directing the Riley Theatre, Gianluca established ‘Connections’, a year-long scheme of professional artistic development and performance. The programme included ‘Northern Connections’, specifically designed for emerging dance artists based in the North of England.
Other achievements include a collaboration with the Henry Moore Institute and Tino Sehgal for the recreation of Kiss, a live project first staged in Nantes in 2002 which visited Leeds city centre in 2015.
Prior to moving to Leeds, Gianluca was the Assistant Artistic Director and Rehearsal Director of Iceland Dance Company from 2006-2011 and collaborative Rehearsal Director for Carte Blanche. He held Artistic Directorship for Spiral Dansflokkur. Gianluca has assisted over 50 choreographers including: Ben Duke, Alexander Ekman, Katrín Hall, Damien Jalet and Erna Ómarsdóttir.
Gianluca has also worked with theatre and musical productions as well as television as assistant choreographer for the UK version of the popular BBC TV show So You Think You Can Dance.
In 2015 Gianluca joined AGITART Companyia as Festival Co-Director – programming the International Festival of Contemporary Dance in Figueres and a season for the Teatre El Jardi.
Gianluca now offers freelance Artistic Direction, programming and curation across the dance industry internationally as well as coaching and supporting up and coming dance artists.
Photo: Danilo Moroni
Board Members
Nadia Murrell (Chair)
Nadia is a Buisiness & IT Consultant, with a key focus on transformation. She has worked across a wide range of sectors, but most recently in the Financial Services industry, working alongside a number of FTS100/250 Boards to define and deliver their business and technology transformation strategy.
Prior to becoming a consultant Nadia held Director roles for multi-national organisations, where she was responsible for organisational design, technology development, delivery strategies and ensuring governance met the industry regulated standards.
Nadia has been actively involved in the performing arts industry for over 30 years and serves as a vice-chair on the board of a local arts charity.
Hannah Bixby
Hannah is an Arts Manager specialising in sales and operations for Arts organisations, events companies and charities. Currently working at English National Ballet, she graduated from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) with a degree in Music, Theatre & Entertainment Management and has been working in Arts Education roles for over 10 years. Her professional portfolio includes work with the British Council, Royal Opera House, Dance Consortium, Ballet Soul, Young Film Academy, Theatre Re, All In Actors, SPILL Festival and the Festival City Theatres Trust, Edinburgh. Hannah is passionate about wellbeing within the arts and is also a Vinyasa yoga instructor alongside her work in the creative industries.
Christina Kapadocha
Christina Kapadocha (PhD) is a London-based theatre and somatic practitioner-researcher, Registered Somatic Movement Educator and founder of Somatic Acting Process®. A first-class graduate of the Greek National Theatre Drama School (2008) and East 15 Acting School (MA, 2011) under full scholarship, Christina has worked as an actress, director and movement director in Greece and the UK since 2007. She was awarded a fully funded Practice-as-Research PhD from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2016 and is currently a Lecturer in Movement for Acting and Research at East 15 Acting School, University of Essex. Her practice-research projects and publications investigate somatically inspired contributions to theatre- performance practices and beyond. Christina is the editor of Somatic Voices in Performance Research and Beyond (Routledge, 2021) and an associate editor for the Theatre, Dance and Performance Training journal. Personal website:https://christina-kapadocha.com/
Susanna Recchia
Susanna Recchia is an Italian dance artist, currently based in Lausanne. She works as a performer, teacher, choreographer, rehearsal director, artistic advisor, mentor and independent researcher. Through her work, she has performed, taught and collaborated with many artists internationally in professional, academic, educational, health and community settings. Her work is rooted in contemporary dance practices, with a main focus on somatic movement studies, improvisation and resourcing creativity through moving. She is currently invested in asking questions about her own dance practice regarding decoloniality and social justice. Her desire is to continue finding ways in which art and specifically dance can be a transformative practice through which listening and togetherness is felt. She is currently studying about rest, conflict resolution, embodied leadership and decoloniality. Dialogue and collaboration, movement and freedom of expression, inclusivity and imagination are the core forces of Susanna's work as an artist and facilitator.