James Mackk

James Mack is an Art Director, animator, interaction designer and director. His work focuses on taking highly synthetic image making and combining it with reality in order to use CGI as a poetic storytelling mechanism, rather than for shock and awe. He has been nominated for Show Studio’s Fashion Film of the year and at London Short Film Festival, as well as working for clients; FKA Twigs, Lazy Oaf and Charli Cohen.

Oli Bentley

Oli Bentley is creative director of award-winning design studio Split and has worked extensively in the creative sector in the North of England over the past 14 years. 

He has worked closely with organisations such as Phoenix Dance Theatre, Yorkshire Dance and Inclusion North to transform their visual identities, breaking down the boundaries between “the brand” and "the art”, whilst paying great attention to accessibility and inclusion. 

Anna Franks

Anna has over 23 years experience in research, marketing and communications. Previously Director of Research and Consultancy at Audiences Yorkshire, Anna has been working as a freelance consultant specialising in the arts and cultural sector for the last 18 years. 

Anna plays a dual role on this project. At a strategic level Anna is supporting the Company to refine in more detail their target audiences for their activity and work. Anna’s work is about immersing herself in the future ambitions of Mobius Dance and supporting the team to shape some clear approaches and strategies for growth and impact. 

Alongside this Anna is specifically supporting on the marketing, audience development and evaluation of ‘Curious Playground’ - a new performance being devised by Artistic Director Gianluca Vincentini during the third national lockdown. Anna is working closely with the wider team to develop creative and engaging marketing messages about ‘The Making of Curious Playground’ building towards a more focused marketing campaign to sell the live performance experience once lockdown has lifted.

Stefania Pinato

Originally from Italy, Stefania is a dance artist based in Leeds. She trained at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and the Northern School of Contemporary Dance.

Stefania has created and performed numerous roles with Mobius Dance since 2016 and with the company she has toured to Italy, Spain and Malaysia.

Beside her performing role, Stefania has been curating and developing the company’s social media profiles since 2017. She has now taken the official role of Social Media Manager and she is now in charge of creating and/or curating content for all social media channels and she is responsible for planning, implementing and monitoring all posts. Stefania collaborates closely with marketer Anna Franks on the social media strategy, growth and impact.

Stefania also maintains and develops the company’s website and newsletters.

Gianluca Vincentini

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.

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Hannah Bixby

Hannah is an Arts Manager specialising in Theatre and Dance in education & outreach contexts. 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 the past 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 supporting the professional development of young people coming into the creative industries.

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Susanna Recchia

Susanna is an Italian dance artist living in the UK since 2001. She studied dance at the National Academy of Dance in Rome, and is a Graduate of Laban, where she received the Award of Best Performer in 2004. Following a Foundation Course in Dance Movement Therapy at Goldsmiths University, she obtained an MA in Dance and Somatic Well-being at Lancashire University. 

Her ongoing practice is fed by Body & Earth, a yearly meeting led by Andrea Olsen and Caryn McHose. 

Her work shifts between performing, teaching, mentoring and researching in academic and artistic contexts. As a performer Susanna has toured internationally, and collaborated with choreographers who involve improvisation either in the process of making or in performance and has devised her own work joining practitioners from disciplines, such as photography and film. Susanna is currently the Research and Rehearsal Director of Candoco Dance Company, and has worked with the company in different capacities since 2008: as a company teacher, dancer and Candoco Artist co-leading educational and performative events.

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Fabian Jackson

Fabian is a dance artist originally from Norfolk who started his training in Leeds, at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. His interests are rooted in movement research and workshopping; raising new questions to inform his practice. 

Fabian has been working primarily as a freelance artist with Candoco Dance Company since the completion of his apprenticeship with them in May, 2019. Performing the works of Theo Clinkard, Yasmeen Godder and Ben Wright. 

Aside from this, Fabian spent time as part of the team creating and performing ‘Land’ in 2019 with Wilhelmina Ojanen, for her Sadler’s Wells main stage performance. 

Other informative projects have included performances for Hetain Patel, Maxine Doyle and Holly Blakey. 

Shawn Willis

Shawn trained at Northern School of Contemporary dance based in Leeds, where he had the opportunity to work with choreographers such as Hannes Langholf, Kerry Nicholls and Carlos Pons-Guerra. After graduating in 2017 he toured with Black Box Dance Company as an apprentice dancer. Passionate for learning he then went onto developing his teaching ability through the Leeds City College teaching apprenticeship PGC before continuing on as freelance performer, teacher and collaborator for companies; Ballet Soul, Compassion 2 Dance and Phoenix Dance Theatre.  He is excited to be joining the Mobius family based in north where a massive part of his dance identity already exists hoping to build new relationships and develop already existing ones.

Theo Arran

Theo studied at Rambert and then Trinity Laban graduating with a first class BA Honours in Contemporary Dance. He continued his training at Verve, the postgraduate company of Northern School of Contemporary Dance, achieving a Distinction level Masters Degree. During his training he has had the opportunity to work with artist including Ben Wright, Hannes Langolf, Sita Osthiemer, Matthew Robinson, Ihsan Rustem and Lenka Vagnarova. Since graduating Theo works with Joseph Mercier on Desperate Gestures and currently towards the solo work Freddie, Wilhelmina Ojanen on Land as part of Sadler’s Wells Young Associate Choreographers and Zoielogic on the upcoming work Heist. He has also been part of processes and performances with Holly Blakey, Abbott Dance Theatre and Andrea Galvani. 

Photo: Stefano Padoan

Kieran Dawes

Originally from the Lake District, Kieran has a passion for film and photography. He is currently study filmmaking at the Northern Film School at Leeds Beckett University and he sees his passion and studies becoming a full-time career. Kieran has an interest in film which involves music, dance and fashion as he loves the creative aspects behind it. He has worked for Twinnie, The Overtones, and his work has been featured on the Rolling Stones website.

Kieran has collaborated with the Möbius creative team to create a short dance film titled Encounter Three and is currently working on The Making of: Curious Playground.

Paulina Porwollik

Paulina is originally from Hamburg, Germany and she is currently on a Masters course through Northern School of Contemporary Dance as an apprentice dancer with Candoco Dance Company in London.
In Summer 2019 Paulina graduated from Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD) in Leeds.
Before she came to England she did a degree in Dance and Eduacation at Erika Klütz Schule, Hamburg and worked with artists and choreographers such as Humanhood, Antonia Grove, Tiia Ourila, Suse Tietjen, Joseph Mercier and Barnaby Horn.

Paulina will join Möbius as an apprentice in 2020.

Wilhelmina Ojanen

Wilhelmina is a Finnish-born, Chilean-raised contemporary dance artist based between London and Finland. Wilhelmina completed her training at Trinity Laban, graduating with a Distinction from her Master’s in Dance Performance - Transitions. As a performer, Wilhelmina has most recently worked with Hagit Yakira, Richard Chappell, Jarkko Partanen, Ben Wright and Stephanie Schober. Wilhelmina is an accredited Authentic Flow Yoga Teacher.

 An emerging choreographer, Wilhelmina is currently a Young Associate Artist at Sadler's Wells. She has recently made work for Sadler’s Wells Lilian Baylis Studio, The Place Theatre and the Laban Theatre, and she premiered her large-scale piece LAND at Sadler’s Wells Main Stage in July 2019. Wilhelmina’s choreographic work delves into realities of human connection; studying poetically, through movement, our relations to one another and the world around us. Her work explores the intersection of physicality and poetry, of softness and strength, and of memory and embodiment.

Wilhelmina will be taking part in Möbius Atelier - Choreographic Intensive, and then further develop her R&D into a 45 min piece. Her new work will aim to locate itself at the meeting point of research into body memory / embodied cognition and a poetic way of appreciating the beautiful, small and tender details of our bodies. Delving into the world of neuroscience, Wilhelmina has been deeply affected by Bessel Van Der Kolk’s book The body keeps the score, where he talks about how past trauma can stay stored in our bodies and have a profound and ongoing effect on our physicality. In this piece she would like to challenge performers and audience to reflect on how they see their bodies, themselves and others as part of this world, and discover how that manifests in their actions.

Photo: Helen Murray

Ana Fernández Melero

Born in Seville, Spain, Ana is a physical and dynamic dancer who enjoys challenging the depths and extremities of her versatile movement language. She is interested in exploring the boundaries between grounded and experimental movement with the more lineal and technical form.

Ana started her training at the Professional Conservatoire of Seville, and sub sequentially joined The Centro Andaluz de Danza (CAD) where she worked with artists such as; Johan Inger, Claudia de Smet, Fabrice Edelman, Olivio Sarrat and Carolina Armenta.

In 2016 Ana Joined Phoenix Dance Theatre as an apprentice through the post-graduate program at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, where she also completed an MA in Contemporary Dance and Performance graduating with Distinction. During her time with Phoenix Ana performed works by Itzik Galili, Sharon Watson and Caroline Finn. She also had the pleasure to work with choreographers such as Alleta Collins, Douglas Thorpe, Edward Lynch, and Sandrine Monin.

Ana really enjoyed being part of Mobiüs in 2018, working with Valentina Golfieri and Susanne Thomas she explored a more physical theatre work. Back in Spain Ana also worked with Michele Merola in Teatro de la Maestranza, Sevilla, being a dancer in the Opera Adriana Lecovreur. She also has created a solo for MDV Danza lead by Mikel de Valle, performed in Vitoria. She is really excited for her second project with Mobiüs Dance.

Stefania Pinato

Originally from Italy, Stefania is a dance artist based in Leeds. She trained at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance where she graduated with a First Class honours degree in 2015. She then progressed her professional training at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance by taking part in the post-graduate performing company VERVE where she received the ‘Award for Outstanding Achievement’ in 2016. 

Stefania is a versatile dancer and is known for a strong stage presence and the ability to create a unique and original embodiment. She has a wide interest within dance, particularly in improvisation, experiential anatomy and somatic practices.

As performer she has collaborated with internationally known choreographers such as Rebecca Evans, Anton Latchky, Athina Vahla, Efrosini Protopapa, Matthias Sperling, Susanne Thomas (Seven Sisters Group), Jamaal Burkmar, Douglas Thorpe, Valentina Golfieri, Micheal Keegan-Dolan and Gary Clarke amongst others.

Within Mobius, Stefania also covers the role of Social Media Manager. She creates and/or curates content for all social media channels and she is responsible for planning, implementing and monitoring all posts. Stefania also maintains and develops the company’s website and newsletters.

www.stefania-pinato.com

Photo: Danilo Moroni

Rob Anderson

Born in Newcastle Upon-Tyne, Rob began B-boying at the age of 15, quickly joining the world renowned Bad Taste Cru, with whom he battled, taught and performed with internationally, and continues to do so.

In 2015, Rob graduated from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance with a first class honours degree and the Carolyn Woolridge award for outstanding performance. He then toured with the post-graduate company Verve 16, under the artistic direction of Gianluca Vincentini, performing across the UK and Europe.

Over his performing career, Rob has worked with choreographers such as; Anton Lachky, Gary Clarke, Richard Chappell, Renaud Wiser, Robby Graham, Josh Hawkins, Avatara Ayuso, Efrosini Protopapa and Thomas Smalls.

At the beginning of 2017, Rob began creating his own work after being awarded a commission from Dance city. “Them..” a duet choreographed in collaboration with Clementine Telesfort, premiered at Dance City as part of Dance Edits in October of the same year.

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.

Danilo Moroni

Danilo Moroni (ITA, 1987) is a Sicilian born artist.

He earned a degree in arts and dance and as a professional dancer worked, touring internationally, for companies and choreographers such as Grand Theatre de Genève, Alias Guilherme Bothelo, Alexander Ekman, Hofesh Shechter. Danilo grew up in a photographer’s family. He first picked up a film camera at the age of eight when he started photographing around the Sicilian streets. During his trips performing around the world he continued taking pictures as a way to connect and discover new places and people. 

After starting his own photographic practice from scratch, four years ago, with no formal training, he has developed into a photographer with his own style and vision appreciated by clients around Europe. 

Danilo’s work ranges photography, film making, light designing and performance making.

His work is creative, visceral and with a unique style. In his imagery, he combines classical elements with an artistic personal touch. Danilo has a strong preference for classic subjects, such as as portraits, nudes and dance and he often combines those with influences from performing arts and cinema to create striking images with a strong storytelling element.

In 2015 he started working with Matthew’s Bourne New Adventures & Re:Bourne for whom he has been producing all imagery and campaigns of its New Adventures Choreographer Award. In 2017 Danilo starts collaborating with English National Ballet for Dance Journeys creating a series of images and short films screened at Sadler's Wells Theatre the iconic venue for dance in London. 

In April 2017 he started to co-direct a new visual dance piece about dyslexia called Mentally Zero in collaboration with Kate Mummery (funded by Arts Council of England).

In January 2018 Danilo self-published Interferencias (chapter I), a new fine-art book connecting the raw universe of the human body and movement with the concept of time and a strong anthropological element.

In 2019 Danilo joins MFAC studio in Madrid where he is now resident artist. Inside MFAC studio he establishs Danilo Moroni Studio where he creates images and videos ranging from portraits, corporate, fashion and performing arts for clients from around Europe.

www.danilomoroni.com

Ben Skinner

Born in Brighton, U.K, Ben works as a freelance artist, dancer and researcher. He holds a degree in Anthropology from Durham University in which he specialised in migration theory and the anthropology of art. He also holds a BPA in Contemporary Dance from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance where he was kindly supported by the South Square Trust and the NSCD Bursary Scheme. In 2016 he completed a masters in Creative Practice exploring the language of performance art, investigating charcoal, clay and the nature of the thinking-body within each discipline.

Current projects include puppetry for Steve Johnstone's' Folklore' tour and dancing for Vanessa Grasse's street-based choreography 'Mesh' . In October 2018 Ben will embark upon a practice led, interdisciplinary arts PhD programme facilitated by Leeds University.

www.benjaminskinner.uk