SOFIA NAPPI (2024/25)
The international choreographer and dancer from Italy trained at the Ailey School in New York and deepened her studies internationally. The close contact with the Hofesh Shechter Dance Company and her involvement with Ohad Naharin’s Gaga language had a particular influence on her work.
Sofia Nappi is artistic director and co-founder of KOMOCO, supported by the contemporary dance collective Sosta Palmizi in Turin and her first muses Adriano Popolo Rubbio and Paolo Piancastelli. Already with her first pieces for KOMOCO / Sofia Nappi, she won the Introdans Partner Award 2021 at the Rotterdam International Duet Choreography Competition 2021 as well as the First Prize, the Critics’ Prize and the Production Prize of the Tanja-Liedtke-Stiftung at the 35th International Competition for Choreography Hannover 2021.
KOMOCO / Sofia Nappi has performed in Germany, Austria, the USA, Italy, the Netherlands, Israel, France, Albania, Spain, the Canary Islands, Mexico, Kosovo, Belgium and Hungary as well as at numerous Italian and international festivals and dance platforms, including La Biennale Di Venezia, the Albania Meeting Dance Festival, the RomaEuropa Festival, MASDANZA, the COLOURS International Dance Festival in Stuttgart and the Teatro del Canal Madrid.
What’s more, Sofia Nappi regularly collaborates as a freelance choreographer with renowned international ballet and dance companies: In December 2021, she staged her piece Holelah, originally created for La Biennale Di Venezia 2019, with the ballet company of the Nationaltheater Mannheim. 2023 saw the world premieres of Tagadà for the Staatsballett Hannover and Moving Cloud for the Scottish Dance Theater as a contribution to the bill Celtic Connections. A new creation for the Dutch company Introdans celebrated its premiere in May 2023. For 2024, the Nederlands Dans Theater has commissioned a new work from her, and she will sign for the choreography for dancers and chorus in the opera Platée for the GöteborgsOperan. And her company KOMOCO / Sofia Nappi will premiere a full length evening created by her.
At the same time, Sofia Nappi works internationally in research and professional training, e.g. at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, at the Micadanses Dance Research Center at Le Carreau du Temple in Paris, at the Henny Jurriëns Studio in Amsterdam, at Elephant in the Black Box and at Danza180 in Madrid, at Tanzpunkt Hannover, at the D. A.F. Dance Arts Faculty in Rome, at the Balletto di Toscana or at Opus Ballet in Florence, always in close collaboration with the dancers of her company KOMOCO / Sofia Nappi.
© photo: Roberto Graziani
SAY (Sarah Golding and Yukiko Masui) (2024/25)
SAY was founded by Sarah Golding and Yukiko Masui in 2019 and have been associate artists at DanceEast since 2022. In 2020, they were selected by The Place to be part of the Choreodrome residency to develop the concept for their show titled “the album” which has since then toured nationally and internationally, co-produced by The Place and commissioned by DanceEast. They performed an excerpt of this piece at this year’s National Theatre Riverstage (“the album:live”) with UK Beatbox champion MC Zani. Alongside this they were commissioned to create a family version of the show that is in its third year of touring to schools and outdoor festivals (“the album: skool edition”).
As a duo they have recently been featured dancers in the film “The Marvels” and were dance captains and performers in the Commonwealth Opening Ceremony 2022.
In 2020 they made a film work “Transit-20” in collaboration with South African artists and were part of Dance Umbrella to showcase their first dance film work “SAY:AF (and friends)”. SAY have recently created work for Trinity Laban (“Break It Down”) and National Dance Company Wales (“SAY Something”) which will be back on the road in the Autumn 2023.
Most recently, they were part of the creative team as movement directors on “The Effect” at National Theatre directed by Jamie Lloyd and written by Lucy Prebble.
© photo: Henry Curtis
MIGUEL ALTUNAGA (2023/24)
Miguel trained at the National School of Art in Cuba, which led to 6 years of performing as a principal dancer for the National Contemporary Dance of Cuba.
Miguel joined Rambert in 2007 and performed in works by Gary Stewart, Christopher Bruce, Itzik Galili, Siobhan Davies, Doug Varone, Wayne McGregor, Barak Marshall, Lucinda Childs, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Hofesh Shechter, Marion Motin, Ben Duke, Alexander Whitley, Andonis Foniadakis, Mark Baldwin, Kim Brandstrup, Benoit Swan, Malgorzata Dzierzon, Aletta Collins, Shobana Jeyasingh, Paul Taylor and Merce Cunningham.
Miguel has worked with other international choreographers including Joaquin Sabaté, Jan Linkens, Georges Céspedes, Julio Cesar Iglesias, Samir Akika, Mats Ek, Steve Paxton and Exedia Dance Company (Greece).
As a choreographer and movement director, Miguel has created work for Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, Rambert, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Simply Red and Carlos Acosta. The Royal Ballet commissioned him to create “Dark Eye” for the Deloitte Ignite Festival in 2014 (Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House) and for Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2021 He created “City of a Thousand Trades”.
Miguel won the Cuban Best Male Solo Award in 2002, and in 2003 was chosen by Carlos Acosta to perform in Tocororo, which toured internationally from 2003 to 2007. In 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018 he was nominated for Outstanding Male Performance and Best Dancer by the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards UK and as Choreographer in 2022.
He was part of Hofesh Shechter Company in 2021 and is now currently with the Akram Khan Company, Lost Dog and Assistant Choreographer at the Jean Paul Gaultier Freakshow.
© photo: POETRY FILM PRODUCTions
NOA ZUK (2023/24)
Noa Zuk is a choreographer and a dancer based in Israel. She spent twelve years as a dancer with Batsheva Dance Company and since leaving over 15 years ago, Noa has established herself as a choreographer, creating for companies and performing her work around the world. Zuk is a teacher of the Gaga movement language. She regularly teaches Gaga and holds masterclasses and workshops internationally.
Her latest solo, “The Speech”, was premiered in 2021 to praising reviews. In recent years she also presented works created in collaboration with her long-term creative partner Ohad Fishof: “The Burnt Room” (2016, commissioned by CCA Tel Aviv and Neue Berliner Kunstverein); “Shutdown” (2018, Commissioned by Wee Dance Company, Germany, and later restaged by companies in Switzerland and The U.K); “Rakonto Kun” (2019, commissioned by CCA Tel Aviv as part of an exhibition dedicated to the collaborative work of Zuk and Fishof). In 2022 the two were invited by The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra to create a new choreography to Bella Bartok’s ballet “The Miraculous Mandarin”.
© photo: Philipp-Zinniker
ALICE KLOCK AND FLORIAN LOCHNER (FLOCK) (2022/23)
Alice Klock and Florian Lochner met while serving as dancers and Choreographic Fellows at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. In 2017 they founded the dance company FLOCK through which they perform their own work internationally and co-create new choreography for film and stage.
As a team they have choreographed for multiple dance companies, universities, and cultural institutions including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Ballet Arkansas, Seattle Dance Collective, Whim W’Him, the Ballet Idaho Trainee Program, Kultur O.H.G, the Goethe Institut, Adaptations Dance Theater on Maui, the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA, and the 92nd Street Y.
In all of their work they strive to bring artists and audiences together in environments that are open, dynamic, and based on joy.
© photo: Lindsay Thomas
ANTHONY MISSEN (2022/23)
Anthony Missen is Co-Artistic Director of Company Chameleon. He is a Clore Fellow, a Without Walls Board Director, a member of the Greater Manchester Culture Steering Group, an Executive Member of Dance Consortia North West, a member of The UK Dance network, and part of the Manchester Cultural Leaders group. He is a founding Director of New Movement Collective and co-founder of Company Chameleon.
He received formal training at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and went onto dance with companies including Scottish Dance Theatre, Mad Dogs Dance Theatre, Cie. Willi Dorner (Vienna), and choreographers including Rui Horta, Didi Veldman and Liv Lorent.
Movement Direction credits include Dundee Rep Theatres production of Playhouse Creatures (2007) & Romeo and Juliet (2008), Oresteia at HOME Manchester (2015), Terra, the first National Theatre connections play to incorporate movement (2019), and Alice for HOME Manchester 2021.
He was the series Director for the BBC one drama series “Everything I Know About Love” by Dolly Alderton (2021/22)
Anthony has taught in most major British contemporary dance institutions, to several professional dance companies and in many countries including South Africa, Ethiopia, Israel, Trinidad, Morocco, Sweden, Spain, France, Italy, Germany and Austria. He has led many Choreographic and skills-based Residencies.
He has worked as a facilitator for The National Theatre for their Theatre Nation Partnerships programme.
© photo: Joel Chester Fildes
GOSIA MIELECH (2021/22)
Gosia Mielech is a dancer, choreographer, Gaga teacher and a dance educator.
She completed the Gaga Teacher’s Training Course in 2018 under the artistic direction of Bosmat Nossan, Saar Harari and mentorship of Ohad Naharin.
She graduated from Olga Slawska-Lipczynska’s Ballet School in Poznan, Poland (1998-2007).
As a soloist of the Polish Dance Theatre in Poznań (2007–2012), she had a chance to dance in a range of pieces by Polish and international choreographers, including Ohad Naharin, Yossi Berg, Jacek Przybyłowicz, Ewa Wycichowska, Gunhild Bjørnsgaard, Susanne Jaresand, Thierry Vergerand many others.
She founded DanceLab – an independent dance company in 2012. She choreographed and produced dance performances including: ‘Sababa’, ‘NILREB’, ‘Anonymous’ and ‘I’mperfect’. Gosia performs DanceLab’s repertoire worldwide, including recent performances in London, Lisbon, Stockholm, Moss, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Berlin, Nurnberg, Poznan, Krakow, Wroclaw, Warsaw and others.
© photo: Justi Szadkowska
KEVIN FINNAN MBE (2021/22)
Kevin is known for his dynamic, highly visual productions integrating dance, circus and digital technology. He is responsible for the distinctive style that Motionhouse is renowned for.
He is passionate about exploring and questioning the traditional use of space in performance, which has led to the creation of an extensive body of work developed over three decades. He is regularly commissioned to develop extraordinary dance spectacles, most notably as Choreographer and Movement Director of the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
More recently he developed Watermusic, a large-scale outdoor spectacle for the Aarhus 2017 European Capital of Culture celebrations in Randers Harbour, Denmark in September 2017 and Lumen, a large-scale outdoor spectacle in the lead up to the TM2021 European Capital of Culture celebrations in Timișoara, Romania in October 2018. Kevin has created major productions celebrated globally, including more than 35 theatre and outdoor festival productions and large-scale outdoor spectacles, bespoke performance events to mark cultural capital celebrations in Copenhagen and Marseille-Provence and the launch of the London 2012 Festival with The Voyage in Birmingham city centre.
Committed to collaboration, he has worked with artists including writer A.L. Kennedy, installation artist Rosa Sanchez, film-makers Logela Multimedia, set visionary Simon Dormon and international companies such as Legs On The Wall and Vancouver’s Headlines Theatre.
In 2017 Kevin became first Visiting Professor of Dance at Birmingham City University’s Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. He has an MA in Contemporary Performing Arts from University College Bretton Hall and a PhD in Theatre from Warwick University. He is a Research Fellow at the University of Warwick and Associate Artist of Greenwich+Docklands International Festival. In 2013 he was made an honorary Doctor of Letters at the University of Warwick in recognition of the importance of his work and his service to the arts. He was awarded an MBE in 2013 for his services to dance.
VIDYA PATEL (2021/22)
Vidya Patel is a Birmingham based Dance Artist with training background in Kathak learning from Guru Sujata Banerjee.
After representing the South Asian Category in the Grand Finals of the inaugural BBC Young Dancer 2015 at Sadler’s Wells, she has continued her journey as a freelance artist performing in a range of works touring nationally and internationally with several contemporary choreographers and artists including Richard Alston Dance Company, Gary Clarke, Thick & Tight and Akademi. She has been nominated thrice for the Critics Circle National Dance Awards for her performances in Richard Alston’s ‘An Italian in Madrid’ as well as Akademi’s ‘The Troth’ choreographed by Gary Clarke.
As an emerging choreographer she has collaborated with artists including composer/multi- talented musician Shammi Pithia and contemporary dancer Connor Scott creating ‘About the Elephant’ commissioned by Sampad Arts and mentored by Kerry Nicholls which premiered at Serendipity Festival in Goa. Recently she has been working with artist Hetain Patel who is creating a new solo on her supported by DanceHub.
She is currently an Associate Artist at Déda, Derby, a member of Aakash Odedra 2 educational programme and one of four Sadler’s Wells Young Associate Choreographers. Earlier this year, Vidya worked with Joss Arnott Dance as a dancer on their ‘PULSE! 2.0’ digital flash mob campaign.
Through her interest and curiosity Vidya continues to collaborate with artists from various artistic practises as well as continuing to shape her knowledge and understanding whilst training as a dancer in the Kathak form.
© photo: Indy Sagoo
KEVIN EDWARD TURNER (2020/21)
Kevin started dancing at the age of eight with Trafford Youth Dance Theatre. Here, his love for dance was born and he learned improvisation, contact improvisation and creative dance. His formal studies were at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. As an undergraduate, Kevin performed and choreographed with the National Youth Dance Company and graduated with a first-class honours’ degree.
Kevin’s professional engagements include working with Rambert Dance Company, Scottish Dance Theatre, Phoenix Dance Theatre, CassaniDance, Rubberbandancegroup (Canada), Henri Oguike Dance Company, Company Decalage, Mad Dogs Dance Theatre, Finn Walker and Roda. He has worked as an independent artist in collaboration with Gansango in Seattle, Crossfade in Budapest and Navala Chaudhari in London. He has taught in most major British contemporary dance institutions, as well as in Canada, USA, Hungary, Trinidad and Tobago, South Korea, South Africa and all-over continental Europe.
Kevin co-founded Company Chameleon in 2007 and has since created, performed, led, directed, produced, taught and facilitated performances, masterclasses, workshops, residences, interventions and participatory projects nationally and internationally.
By invitation, Kevin has featured in several television programmes and documentaries including BBC One’s ‘Going Back, Giving Back’ in 2016 and BBC Two’s ‘Dancing to Happiness with Darcey Bussell’ in 2018, which explored how dance can improve your mental health.
Kevin is a passionate advocate for the positive impact of dance on overall health and wellbeing and as a result has vast experience delivering workshops in many different settings from hospitals and care units to prisons and young offenders’ institutions. He has been invited to speak at various symposiums and conferences such as TEDX on the transformative power of dance and its relationship with health, wellbeing and mental health.
BECKY NAMGAUDS (2020/21)
Becky Namgauds is a choreographer and dance artist creating intense, powerful work that sits between dance, performance art and installation. Inspired by personal and political issues, her work draws on a wide range of movement practices, including contemporary dance and Capoeira.
Namgauds has created work for theatres, outdoor festivals, galleries and music videos and has collaborated with Hofesh Shechter Company and LIFT. Her show ‘Like Honey’ was part of the British Council Edinburgh Showcase 2019 and her outdoor work ‘Rodadoras’ has toured nationally and internationally. She is currently a Without Walls Blueprint Artist for 2019-20, researching a new work ‘The Anthropocene’, and will be premiering her solo work ‘Exhibit F’ at Dance Umbrella this October.
© photo: Marso Riviere
WUBKJE KUINDERSMA (2019/20)
Wubkje Kuindersma is a Dutch female choreographer. She was educated at the Rotterdam Dance
Academy and danced with a.o. Danish Dance Theatre, Gulbenkian Ballet, Random Dance, Djazzex, Nürnberg Ballet and in several freelance projects. Her acknowledgements include a scholarship from Dansersfonds and a nomination for The Philip
Morris Award for outstanding performance in the
ITS Festival in Amsterdam. Her first choreography ‘Aquasomnia’ won an award for originality of movement vocabulary and outstanding movement quality in the choreographic competition U30 in Cologne, 2010.
In 2016 Wubkje received the BNG Bank Dance Award for choreographic talent. She has choreographed
for Dutch National Ballet and Dutch National Ballet Junior Company, Ballet Dortmund, BalletX, Danish Dance Theatre, Korzo Theatre and Netherlands Dance Theatre’s program, Noverre, National Youth Ballet of John Neumeier and West Australian Ballet, a.o.
Her duet ‘Two and Only’ for Dutch National Ballet was internationally well received. Marijn Rademaker got nominated for the Prix de Benois for his role in this ballet and performed Two and Only together with Timothy van Poucke on the Benois Gala at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
The Centre for Ballet and the Arts at New York University and Dutch National Ballet nominated Wubkje to serve as an Artistic Partnership Initiative Fellow in Summer 2018. Dancemagazine included Wubkje in their Top 25 to watch list for 2019, an annual list of the dancers, choreographers and companies that are on the verge of sky-rocketing and dancemagazine believes represent the future of our field.
In May 2019 Wubkje was nominated for the Award of the “Nederlandse Dansdagen” in the Netherlands.
Wubkje created ‘FUEL’ for Emergence in 2019.
© photo: Josh Hawkins
JAMES WILTON (2019/20)
James Wilton is a multi-award-winning choreographer based in the UK who creates and tours athletically driven, martial arts influenced contemporary dance work both nationally and internationally.
After forming James Wilton Dance in 2010, his first work, ‘The Shortest Day’, won the Sadler’s Wells Global Dance Contest and was performed at Sadler’s Wells. The Shortest Day also won awards at the MASDANZA and Hannover choreography competitions.
The company’s first full length work, ‘Last Man Standing’ (2014), has been performed over 75 times, including performances in Austria, Germany, Poland, Serbia, Switzerland and Sweden and won an award at the Berner Tanzpreise in 2014. Wilton’s work ‘LEVIATHAN’ (2016), a piece for 6 dancers based on Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick, has been even more successful with international acclaim. ‘LEVIATHAN’ was recently nominated for Best Dance Production at the Manchester Theatre Awards.
Outside of theatre based touring works, Wilton has created numerous outdoor and mass scale productions, including creating a work for 50 professional dancers for a performance at the opening and semi-final ceremonies of the Rugby League World Cup 2013, the work was seen by 110,000 people live and a broadcast number of millions.
James created ‘An Event’ for Emergence in 2019.
© photo: Steve Tanner
SHARON WATSON MBE DL (2018/19)
Sharon Watson is the seventh and longest-standing Artistic Director of Phoenix Dance Theatre. Trained at the London School of Contemporary Dance, she was one of the first female Principal Dancers invited to join the all-male award winning Phoenix Dance Company, touring with the company from 1989 to 1997 where she choreographed “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. Since then Sharon has choreographed “Fast Lane”, “Melt”, “Never 2 Still”, “Repetition of Change”, “TearFall” and “Windrush: Movement of the People”.
During her tenure at Phoenix Dance Theatre, Sharon has received a number of awards and accolades: In 2010, she was named as one of the Cultural Leadership Programme’s ‘Women to Watch’, a list of 50 influential women working in arts and culture in the UK. She was awarded The Sue Ryder ‘Yorkshire Women of Achievement in Business Award’ and named ‘Yorkshire Woman of the Year’ in 2016. She recently received the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts’ Companionship Award from Sir Paul McCartney and was recognised as one of ‘100 faces of a vibrant economy 2017’ by Grant Thornton. Acknowledged at the 2017 Northern Power Women Awards as part of the very first ‘Top 50 Power List’ and in 2018 Sharon won the First English Woman’s Award for Arts and Culture and was presented with an Honorary Fellowship by Northern School of Contemporary Dance. In July of 2019 Sharon received an Honorary Doctorate from Leeds Beckett University for her contribution to the arts. Sharon’s recognitions are testament to her continued passion and drive to contribute to the local and national creative industries through the medium of dance.
Sharon is a previous trustee of Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and current trustee of The Place, Leeds Playhouse, and an artistic adviser for Central School of Ballet. She is committed to improving diversity within the arts by supporting the creative voices of women and black and ethnic minority artists.
Sharon was the first Guest Choreographer for Emergence’s inaugural tour in 2018/19 where she created “And still I walk…”.
