Holly Blakey is among the foremost choreographers of her generation and one of the few women in the UK creating ambitious, large-scale work. Her practice attends to the honest entanglements of embodied vulnerability, grief, and joy, grounded in an intersectional feminist framework.

As a director and choreographer, she has collaborated with artists including Rosalía, Harry Styles, and Florence + The Machine, alongside visual artists Linder Sterling, Jeremy Deller, and Tai Shani. Her work spans collaborations with fashion houses such as Vivienne Westwood, Burberry, and Dior, as well as major cultural institutions including the Southbank Centre and Théâtre National de Chaillot.

Blakey’s practice consistently interweaves live and commercial contexts, exploring the porous relationship between these distinct yet not wholly separable worlds.

hollyblakey.co.uk

Ben is Artistic Director and co-founder of Lost Dog. He trained at Guildford School of Acting, London Contemporary Dance School and has a degree in English Literature from Newcastle University. His work is an attempt to reconcile those three subjects.

For Lost Dog Ben has created Ruination (co-produced by the Royal Ballet) winner of the National Dance Award’s Best New Choreography, A Tale of Two Cities, Juliet & Romeo, Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me), and the Place Prize Winning, It Needs Horses.

Outside of Lost Dog Ben has created work for Rambert (Cerberus and the Olivier Award Nominated, Goat), Scottish Dance Theatre (The Life and Times of Girl A), Dance Umbrella (The Difference Engine), Phoenix Dance Theatre (Pave up Paradise), and the contemporary circus company Barely Methodical Troupe (Kin).

 Ben is an Associate Artist at The Place.  In 2016 Ben won the National Dance Critics Award for Outstanding Male Performance for Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me).

With more than 20 years within the hip-hop dance industry and up to 10 years within the theatre industry, Jade has become a seasoned movement story-teller specialising in creating work solely designed to connect and move audiences with relatable and thought-provoking narratives. Her 20+ years experience in community based work, supporting young and vulnerable people, also informs much of her practise in creating engaging and inclusive spaces that encourage and flourish the art lover in daring to be bold.

Rosie Heafford is Co-Director and founder of Second Hand Dance. Second Hand Dance creates bold, accessible dance performances and digital dance films that subtly challenge the status quo and foster intimate, playful, shared experiences for children and their adults.

A graduate of Laban (London), Rosie’s work has been presented across the UK from cattle markets to Sadler’s Wells (London) and Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, as well as festivals across Europe, Asia, and North America. An award-winning choreographer, her practice is shaped by her lived experience as a disabled artist and parent-carer.

Rosie’s artistic practice is collaborative, disability affirming and child-centred. In the last 10 years it has been performed 713 times at 299 venues across 17 countries.

secondhanddance.co.uk

Russell Maliphant is a renowned choreographer, celebrated for his innovative work combining movement, light, and body dynamics. He trained at the Royal Ballet School and performed with companies such as Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, DV8 Physical Theatre & Michael Clark&Co. In 1996, he founded the Russell Maliphant Dance Company, which has toured nationally & internationally.

Russell was the guest artistic director of National Youth Dance Company in 2019, creating work on 40 young dancers, presented at Sadler’s Wells in 2020. That same year he gained his PhD to stand alongside an honorary doctorate he received from Plymouth University in 2011.

Russell Maliphant’s work is characterised by a unique approach to flow and energy and an ongoing exploration of the relationship between movement, light and music. Russell Maliphant has been an Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells since 2005.

russellmaliphantdancecompany.com

Dickson Mbi is a world-renowned dancer, choreographer and composer. Born in Cameroon, Dickson grew up in East London, creating ground-breaking hip hop performances and inspiring a new generation of dancers, including with battle crews Prototype and Fiya House.

In October 2022 for Dickson Mbi Company, he premiered ENOWATE, his first full length solo piece at Sadler’s Wells, for which he won the 2023 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance. In September 2023, he premiered TWICE BORN to critical acclaim, his commission by Scottish Ballet for 21 dancers and for which he also composed the score.

Dickson has a distinct and compelling artistic voice, making work that reflects our times and the human condition, in addition to his personal heritage of an East London upbringing of Cameroonian descent. His work is contemporary, speaking to this generation and those to come. His unique journey serves to raise aspiration; acting as a figurehead representing different pathways to the most prestigious stages for contemporary dance.

dicksonmbi.com/about/dickson-mbi

Raquel’s work straddles dance, installation, performative conversations and photo-documentary. She works with rest and horizontality to create theatrical encounters that explore the lived experience of invisible disability. Her project A Crash Course in Cloudspotting is an installation & performance, an app, a community and a digital archive of resting stories.

Raquel co-founded Lost Dog dance and was Associate Artist on Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me), and Juliet + Romeo. She was nominated for a 2023 Olivier Award (Outstanding Achievement in Dance) for her Dramaturgy on Lost Dog’s Ruination. Alongside Dominic Mitchel, she was co-artistic director of Candoco Dance Company January 2024 – July 2025.

Her current projects include Proper Time, a multidisciplinary piece that disrupts normative, capitalist, colonialist time; and A Good Thing is Never too Late, an autobiographical dance work that explores dual heritage, ancestry, decolonising practice and ghost stories to tend to the longing that comes with being from somewhere else.

uncharteredcollective.com

Benji Reid is a British photographer, visual theatre-maker and self-described “choreo-photolist”, a term he coined to describe his practice combining photography, choreography, and theatre. His work explores themes of identity, mental health, Black masculinity and spirituality through striking staged imagery and live performance.

Originally trained at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Reid began his career in dance and hip-hop theatre before transitioning into photography, where he developed a distinctive visual language that merges movement, storytelling and surreal image-making.

His photograph Holding on to Daddy won the Wellcome Photography Prize (Mental Health category) in 2020. Reid’s work has been shown internationally, including at Somerset House (London), MoCADA Museum (New York) and Design Fair Paris.

In 2023 he premiered the live visual theatre work Find Your Eyes, commissioned by Manchester International Festival, where he creates photographs live on stage with dancers. The show has since toured internationally including performances in London, Amsterdam, Venice Biennale and Abu Dhabi.