“No one makes such rich tapestries of dance, visuals and sound.” The Daily Telegraph
Siobhan Davies Dance, Britain’s leading independent dance company, was formed by Siobhan Davies in 1988 after a 15 year association with London Contemporary Dance Theatre, fulfilling her desire to create work on a more intimate and personal level.
Until 2000, the Company produced and toured a new work almost annually. Its previous work includes White Man Sleeps (1988), The Glass Blew In (1994), The Art of Touch (1995), Trespass and Affections (1996), Bank (1997) and four full length works, Wild Air (1999), Of Oil and Water (2000), Plants and Ghosts (2002), and Bird Song (2004).
These productions were generally presented in middle and large scale venues throughout the UK and overseas. However Plants and Ghosts saw the beginning of Siobhan Davies’ move towards bringing dance to different spaces and presented this piece in non-conventional performance areas such as an aircraft hangar, a gallery and a warehouse. Following the success of Plants and Ghosts, Bird Song also toured studio spaces and venues that could be transformed into intimate, ‘in the round’ style auditoria, which enabled the audience to be closer to the dancers.
Through its touring and professional development activities, Siobhan Davies Dance continues to develop partnerships with a number of key venues, agencies and organisations, both in the UK and abroad. These include Dance Advance (Philadelphia, USA), Swindon Dance, Dance Base and The Traverse (Edinburgh), CODA Festival (Oslo, Norway), Dance City, (Newcastle upon Tyne), and The Dance House (Wales Millennium Centre). The Company also regularly presents its work at leading venues in London.
Other activities include workshops and masterclasses aimed at higher level dance, music and visual arts students, educationalists and professionals; student study days; INSET training days; introduced studio performances; open rehearsals; and professional technique classes and workshops led by international teachers, which provide a training resource for dancers. For more information on these projects, see the professional development page.
Siobhan Davies Dance also opens up its methods of creating new work with members of the Company to other dancers through its professional development programmes called Jerwood Bank and Bank International.
Siobhan Davies Dance has been recognised by numerous awards including four Digital Dance Awards, the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance (1993 for Winnsboro Cotton Mills Blues, 1996 for The Art of Touch), and overall winner of the Prudential Award for the Arts (1996) following six nominations in previous years. Click for a complete list of the company awards.
