Each year NSCD commissions a range of artists to create new work with our students. This year we’re excited to reveal that students in their first year of the BA (Hons) programme are working with NSCD Lecturers and practising artists:
See the results of their collaborations after an intensive creation and rehearsal process in DEBUT, Tuesday 26 – Thursday 28 March. Read on to get to know more about this year’s choreographers….
Book NowFrom dancing and choreographing, to acting and puppeteering, Ben is well-versed in all things performance, and has toured the USA with Sinner for Stan Wont Dance. Throughout his career, he has mentored and taught younger dance artists and performers.
Ben believes that dance can serve as a way to offer deeper insight and a deeper understanding of the human experience. Ben is always looking for innovative ways to capture the imaginations of a live audience, and he has choreographed performances for Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Ricochet, London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Richard Alston and Amanda Miller’s Company: Pretty Ugly.
Committed to making dance-theatre work both diverse and inclusive, in 2019, Ben choreographed and directed The Lost Thing for Candoco Dance Company, a unique collaboration with The Royal Opera House. The family-focused dance-theatre work was performed by a fully inclusive cast of disabled and non-disabled performers. Ben also created A space in the dark for Black Box Dance Theatre, Denmark that same year.
In 2021, Ben worked as Artistic Direction Consultant for National Dance Company Wales and between 2017 – 2020, he was Artistic co-director for Candoco Dance Company. He was the Associate Artistic Director and Resident choreographer for Skånes Dansteater from 2014 – 2017. Also in 2021, Ben began working as an Intimacy coordinator on the film My Policeman by Amazon Studios and also on a new mini-series based on Nick Hornby’s novel Funny Girl for SKY Atlantic.
Prior to joining NSCD as a Lecturer in Dance, Ben created work for Transitions Dance Company at Trinity Laban, Edge at The Place, VERVE at Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Intoto at London Studio Centre, and Beverly Hills High School amongst others.
Anna Williams graduated from London School of Contemporary Dance and has been working as a performer and choreographer in dance, theatre, opera and live art for over twenty years. She was the recipient of the Prix Individuel (ADAMI) Performance Award (International Festival for Choreography Bagnolet, Paris) and her choreography has been nominated for a South Bank Show Award.
She is the co-artistic director of Anatomical – the makers of the hit interactive family shows ’The Doodle Dance Show’ & The Buildy-uppy Dance Show and Midsummerland which have toured to over 30 venues around the UK.
Other choreographic works include: ‘Clearing’ (finalist in The Place Prize for Choreography), ‘I Am Falling’ at The Gate Theatre, ‘The Thought That Counts’ for Theatre-rites at the Barbican and her solo work ‘This Woman’s Hour‘.
Her extensive performance career includes work with Ricochet Dance Company, Russell Maliphant, Random Dance Company, Aletta Collins, Nik Haffner, Carol Brown Dances, New Art Club, Wendy Houstoun , La Ribot, Clod Ensemble, and Rosemary Lee.
Antonio is an award-winning performer, dance choreographer, and teacher from Uganda. His artistic practice draws on a blend of styles, namely Hip-hop, dancehall, breaking, afro-fusion, contemporary, house and indigenous Ugandan dances.
Antonio was awarded the Pina Bausch Fellowship in 2017 as a visiting dance scholar at the University of Auckland. He also received the Caroline Plummer Community Dance Fellowship at the University of Otago in 2019. Antonio’s artistic philosophy seeks to bridge the gap between street-based community arts practice and academia.
With over 19 years of dance experience, Antonio has worked in diverse cultural, artistic, and social contexts. These include disadvantaged communities in slums, orphanages and refugee centres; theatres, festivals, and schools in Uganda, Europe, and New Zealand. Antonio has worked at institutions such as The University of Auckland, The University of Otago, Makerere University, Codarts Dance Center, Pacifika Institute of Performing Arts and the Norwegian College of Dance.
