I have created over twenty-five ballets since becoming a professional Choreographer. Below are selected highlights with brief descriptions of each featured piece. I would be happy to send a full CV to any Artistic Directors who require a copy, please request one via the contact page.

2005 English National Ballet School
Erik Satie, compilation of solo piano music

The Emperor’s New Clothes
I was asked to create an education piece for graduate students to gain performance experience and to introduce children to narrative ballet. Basing my ballet on Hans Christian Andersen’s tale, I set my Emperor in a world of high fashion, paparazzi and television with a court of nodding yes-men. After realising the scenario, costume/prop conception, music compilation and choreography, I subsequently devised and led creative workshops in various schools.

2005 BalletX
Steve Reich, Electric Counterpoint

Easy Living
I was invited to create a piece for the launch of a new dance company at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. There having been a hot and sticky summer in both London and Philadelphia, I was inspired to make a piece about my memories of past summers. Beginning with concrete ideas such as basking in the heat of the sun and waves rolling onto the beach, I abstracted these movement ideas and made material, which I then developed during the piece. Eager for the dancers to interact with each other while dancing, I choreographed a playful game of tag, flirtatious and fun, which later led to a nighttime sensual duet unseen by sleeping friends. The piece finishes in the golden twilight of a summer sunset, dancers darting back and forth in the last rays of sun.

2001 Portuguese Contemporary Dance Company
J.S.Bach, Musical Offering

Touched
My first commission for a contemporary dance company helped to develop my classically based vocabulary and was instrumental in my future work. I used strong imagery to draw on the dancers’ instincts, so they were able to improvise and help build choreographic material. Sensuality, shyness and dependence were the starting points for three separate duets that formed the backbone of the piece.

2005 London Children’s Ballet
Artem Vassiliev, original score

The Canterville Ghost
My first full-length narrative ballet was based on Oscar Wilde’s comic tale, ‘The Canterville Ghost’- a first for ballet. My challenge was to bring the wit and emotions of Wilde’s story to dance, realising that within the story there existed not only humour, but great pathos and a fledgling romance too. I collaborated closely with the creative team over a period of months to achieve the scenario’s full potential, aware that my remit was to include and feature every single child in the cast of 54 at least three times in the ballet! I preferred to incorporate the narrative into the dance rather than superimposing mime onto set pieces and therefore used vision scenes and re-enactments to further the story when necessary. Keen to use traditional theatrical methods I used body doubles, hidden entrances, gauzes, glowing bloodstains and a fake head to ghostly effect.

2001 Madeira Ballet Company
Maximilliano de Sousa, selected songs

Dancarmax
Maximilliano de Sousa was a well-loved Fado singer from Madeira. I was asked to compile a soundtrack from his music and create a half-hour long piece evoking the colours and flavours of this island while also paying homage to the performer. Sourcing the island’s famous flower, wine and folkloric culture, I drew on the joy, humour and liveliness of the islanders, basing one of the dances on grape-stamping and another on mermaids swimming to neighbouring island Porto Santo. I also explored darker elements of the island like the unpredictable micro-climate weather and the isolation of the lace-weavers. These figures hunched over looms, work their fingers to the bone and never get to the seashore, living inland in solitude.