Dan Daw

Dan is the Artistic Director of Dan Daw Creative Projects. Dan Daw Creative Projects is a disabled-led company who are leading the way in creating accessible international touring work that blurs the lines between theatre, dance and activism. 

Dan began working as a performer with Restless Dance Theatre (Australia) in 2002, and since then has gone on to work with Australian Dance Theatre, Force Majeure, Queensland Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company (Australia), FRONTLINEdance, Scottish Dance Theatre, balletLORENT, Candoco Dance Company, National Theatre Scotland (UK) and Skånes Dansteater (Sweden). 

Dan’s critically acclaimed live performance work has toured to over twenty venues around the World, being nominated for a UK National Dance Award in 2022 and more recently awarded a Green Room Award for Best Contemporary and Experimental Performance during his season at Rising Festival and APAM. 

A Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist and working as Auawirleben Theatre Festival Associate Curator (2024 – 2025), Fokus Tanz Co-curator (2024), Internationale Tanzmesse NRW Associate Curator (2021 – 2024), Associate Artistic Director of Candoco Dance Company (2021), Sadler’s Wells Summer University Artist (2015 – 2018) and Associate Director of Murmuration (2015 – 2022), Dan continues to work at the forefront of disability-led performance making and international performance programming.

Temitope Ajose 

Temitope is a London based Dance Artist who is interested in myth, psychology and magic. Her work staged at venues such as The Royal Opera House, The Place, DanceXchange, RichMix, Dancebase and the Soho Joyce (New York). 

As a dancer Temitope has worked with Punchdrunk, Director Carrie Cracknell at The Gate Theatre and The National, Theo Clinkard, Protein Dance Company, Lea Anderson, Frauke Requardt and David Rosenberg, Joe Moran, Seke Chimutengwende, and Lost Dog to name a few. She performs for visual artists and makers, Florence Peake, Adelaide Cioni, Sam Williams and Megan Rooney.  

Temitope also engages in movement direction (Old Vic and National Theatre) and for Artist Megan Rooney on her solo shows, at Kunsthalle Germany, Salzburg  Kunstverein, and The Lyon Biennale. 

Temitope continues to make her own work ‘My Name is my Own’ at The Southbank with director Jo Tyabji in collaboration with critically acclaimed writer Jay Bernard. 

In the family of things Trinity Laban Dance Collective. Where the veil is thin in collaboration with Maëva Berthelot and award-winning musician Brìghde Chaimbeul. And her solo work Lady M (at home with Lady Macbeth) commissioned by The Place. 

Shannelle ‘Tali’ Fergus 

Tali is a London raised, Margate based creative working within the dance community and in the dance industry, with 20+ years experience and a unique 360 perspective, continuing work across performance, choreography, teaching and talent management.  

Tali’s choreography credits include Rita Ora, Years & Years and West End’s The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe.  

Her debut theatre work ‘mum. edit. more’, also commissioned for film, was recently added to BFI’s National Archive, as one for 400 examples of outstanding online video. 

Tali was one of 2025’s shortlisted artists for The Arts Foundation’s Futures Award in Dance. 

Tali is founder, producer and lead facilitator of identity. ideas. industry., a professional development programme delivered to close to 400 artists globally via conversation, movement and literature. 

Sasha Mahfouz Shadid 

Sasha Mahfouz Shadid (he/him) is a British/Palestinian artist, born in Portsmouth, Southsea. He is an experienced movement artist, painter and culture worker. His greatest passions are Street-dance, focused on Hip Hop, Krump, House Dance and traditional Palestinian dance. learning these from artists and renowned dancers from around the world.   

He has have worked locally and internationally, touring with Hip Hop theatre shows, Assistant Director roles for theatre work and has performed in venues including The O2 Arena, Wembley Stadium, The Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Opera House, Sadler’s Wells Theatre and The National Theatre on the Olivier stage.   

Aside from theatre, his work commercially is also ongoing having danced for pop and indie artists from GreenTeaPeng, Clean Bandit, Ellie Goulding and many more. He has been on a journey of discovery, gaining experiences that contributes to his creative path allowing him to create theatre, film and perform relentlessly. 

Andrea Buckley

Andrea Buckley is a movement artist with over 30 years of experience in performance, teaching and somatic practice. Her work grows out of improvisation and contact work, shaped over many years through collaborations with artists including Sue MacLennan, Kirstie Simson, Nancy Stark Smith, Gill Clarke, Rosemary Lee and Deborah Hay.

She has worked widely across the UK and internationally in both professional and community settings, and has maintained a long and meaningful connection with Siobhan Davies Dance (now SDS). Andrea works with a broad range of people — from dancers and students to people with learning disabilities and mixed‑ability groups. Her teaching and mentoring adapt to the needs of each group and each place, making her practice responsive, inclusive and grounded.
Andrea is also an Advanced Certified Rolfer™ and Rolfing® Movement Practitioner, supporting individuals and small groups to explore how body and mind relate through movement and touch.
Based in her hometown of Wirral in the Northwest of England, she continues to co‑create and facilitate work with colleagues Mary Prestidge and Paula Hampson. Recent projects include First on the Heel (2023), a film commissioned by Output Gallery with filmmaker Tommy Husband.

Her solo practice has recently expanded into making short exploratory films. She is interested in perception, curiosity, connection and embodied presence. Working closely with horses has opened up new layers in her creative process — their sensitivity and attentiveness have become an important influence. A recent highlight was collaborating with film artist Lucy Cash within this environment as part of her research.
Andrea is especially inspired by the possibilities that arise when people come together to create something new in a shared, live moment.

Siobhan Davies

Siobhan Davies is a renowned British choreographer who rose to prominence in the 1970s, and was Artistic Director of Siobhan Davies Dance until she stepped down in March 2021. Davies was a founding member of London Contemporary Dance Theatre and in 1982 joined forces with Richard Alston and Ian Spink to create independent dance company Second Stride. Founding Siobhan Davies Dance in 1988, she works closely with collaborating artists to ensure that their own artistic enquiry is part of the creative process. By 2002 she moved away from the traditional theatre circuit and started making work for gallery spaces. Davies applies choreography across a wide range of creative disciplines including visual arts and film. Her choreographic works have been presented at some of the most prestigious art institutions in the UK and Europe, including Lenbachhaus (Munich), Whitechapel Gallery (London) and Turner Contemporary (Margate). Davies is currently an Associate Professor at the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University. Davies was awarded a Damehood in 2020 for her continued service and contribution to the dance industry, and in 2025 she won the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement at the National Dance Awards.

Responses

“Our attention is drawn to process, something often frustratingly hidden from an audience, who see just an iceberg’s tip of what goes into creating a dance and what a performer might be feeling inside their spine, their muscles, their organs, their imagination.”

“If Chapter 1 suggests anything, it is that an archive survives most vividly when it produces new encounters. The artists in the remaining chapters now have a clear question to pursue.”