Based in Glasgow, Scotland, Claire Cunningham is one of the UK’s most acclaimed and internationally renowned disabled artists. Her work, which is often biographical and deeply personal, explores Crip & disabled experiences, practices of care, and questions societal ideas of knowledge and value. The movement vocabulary she uses to delve into these these topics is often rooted in the use/misuse, study and distortion of crutches – the objects she uses to engage physically with the world.  

Claire has made everything from solos to large ensemble works. Notably, in 2012, she created ‘12’, an exploration of the word crutch in a metaphorical sense, on Candoco Dance Company. Since then, she’s made the solo 'Give Me a Reason to Live', inspired by the role of beggars and cripples in the work of Dutch medieval painter Hieronymus Bosch, and the full length show  'Guide Gods', looking at the perspectives of the major faith traditions towards the issue of disability. Claire’s new show ‘Songs of the Wayfarer’, is inspired by Gustav Mahler's 'Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen' as well as her life experience as a disabled person, the memory of her training as a singer, and the expertise of mountaineers and disabled friends. In this, her first solo piece in 10 years, she asks what it means to hike, and to strive for great heights. 

After seeing her perform ‘Songs of the Wayfarer’ at HAU in Berlin, and ahead of its run at Sadler’s Wells' Lilian Bayliss theatre from 4th-6th December, I couldn’t wait to talk to Claire about how she challenges conventions around virtuosity in dance, making work that attracts disenfranchised audiences to the theatre, and how she’s going to continue her work in a new context as as Professor of Choreography, Dance, and Disability Arts at the Hochschule fur Zeitgenössische Tanz in Berlin.

Born in Marseille in 1948, Malou Airaudo began her dance journey at just eight years old at the Opéra de Marseille’s ballet school. She later joined the opera’s ensemble and went on to perform with prominent companies, including the Ballet de Monte Carlo and Ballet Théâtre Contemporain, before eventually moving to New York. There, in 1971, she met Pina Bausch, who would invite her to join the newly formed Tanztheater Wuppertal in Germany two years later.

As a core member of the company, Malou played a pivotal role in the creation of some of Bausch's most iconic works, including 'Iphigenie auf Tauris' and 'Cafe Muller'. In addition to her work in Wuppertal, Malou continued to perform internationally, and in 1975, she co-founded the Paris-based company La Main. Teaching has also been a significant part of her career: in 1984, Bausch invited her to become a professor of Modern Dance at Folkwang Hochschule, and from 2012, she directed the university’s institute of contemporary dance.

Since 2018, Malou has been active in staging new productions of Bausch’s repertoire, including 'Iphigenie auf Tauris' at Dresden’s Semperoper, a process captured in the documentary Dancing Pina. She's also created her own work on the likes of Folkwang Tanzstudio, and hip-hop and breakdancers from pottporus company. In 2020, she collaborated with Germaine Acogny, the Senegalese dancer choreographer and teacher known as the mother of contemporary African dance, to create 'common ground[s]', a duet where they explore their shared histories and emotional experiences. Over recent years, Malou has continued to perform this deeply personal work, and as goes through its final run at Sadler’s Wells in London from November 6-10, I couldn’t wait to sit down with her to reflect on her amazing life and career.

Rio de Janeiro-based choreographer Lia Rodrigues began her dance journey by training in classical ballet alongside studying history at the University of São Paulo. After cutting her teeth as a dancer in France, most notably performing with modern dance legend Maguy Marin and being part of the creation of her seminal Samuel Beckett-inspired work May B, Lia moved back to her home country of Brazil and founded her eponymous dance company in 1990. Lia works extensively at the intersection between art and social activism. Since 2004, her company has helped to develop outreach and arts actions in the Maré favela in Rio de Janeiro, in conjunction with an NGO based in the neighboruhood. This partnership gave rise to the Maré arts center, which opened in 2009; and to the Maré free dance school, which has been open since October 2011. 

Over the years, Lia has accrued many accolades, from receiving the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters from France to receiving a portrait at Paris’ Festival d’Automne in 2021. Recently, it was announced that her work ‘Encantado’ has been nominated for the Rose Prize, a new international choreography award established by Sadler’s Wells in London. Ahead of the announcement of the Rose Prize winner in February 2025, I couldn’t wait to speak to Lia about the inspirations behind 'Encantado', how what she's learnt from motherhood has influenced her career, the responsibility that comes with privilege, and how she strives to make contemporary dance more accessible in her unequal home town. 

Originally trained at the Julliard school in New York, Janet Eilber danced professionally with the Martha Graham Dance Company for many years. During this time she danced many of the greatest roles from the Graham repertoire and had several new ones created on her by Graham herself. In 2005, she was appointed as the company’s Artistic Director, tasked with preserving Graham’s legacy while keeping it relevant for new generations. Her leadership has been defined by a commitment to expanding audience access to the Graham masterworks, which has seen her do everything from implementing contextual programming to pioneering the use new media, as well as commissioning contemporary choreographers to create new works that shed new light or engage in dialogue with Graham’s oeuvre. Now, she’s overseeing GRAHAM100, a three-season-long centennial celebration of the company and its dancers. 

I sat down with Janet to find out more about what’s in store for the GRAHAM100 programme, to discuss what it was like working in the studio in one of the leading pioneers of modern dance, and what she thinks the next century of the Martha Graham Dance Company will look like.

Cassa Pancho founded Ballet Black in 2001 after graduating from professional dance training and was one of the first dancers and choreographers in the company. Her initial goal was to provide role models to young, aspiring Black and Asian dancers. A year later, she opened the Ballet Black Junior School in Shepherd’s Bush, London. 

Since starting Ballet Black, Cassa has commissioned over 40 choreographers to make work for the company, including Richard Alston, Javier de Frutos, Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa, Shobana Jeyasingh, Henri Oguike, Arthur Pita, Will Tuckett, and Mthuthuzeli November, who himself is a dancer with the company. 

Currently, Ballet Black is touring, ‘Heroes’, a double bill of works by Sophie Laplane and Mthuthuzeli November, around the the UK. I sat down with Cassa to find out more about what’s in store, as well as reflect on how the landscape has changed for dancers of colour since she started Ballet Black in 2001.

Québécois dancer and choreographer Louise Lecavalier joined choreographer Édouard Lock’s company La La La Human Steps in 1981. Known for its energetic, acrobatic style involving fast-paced and athletic physical contact, La La La is regarded as one of the most prominent contemporary dance company of the late 20th Century. Louise became one of its key figures, and was well known for mastering La La La’s signature barrel jump. During her 17 years with the company, Louise danced in seminal works including ‘Human Sex’, 'Businessman in the Process of Becoming an Angel’, and ‘Oranges’, and took part in groundbreaking collaborations with the likes of David Bowie and Frank Zappa. In 1999, she left La La La to pursue alternative projects. Since then, she’s danced with Tedd Robinson, Benoît Lachambre, and Crystal Pite, and started creating her own work under the umbrella of her company Fou Glorieux.

Outside of performing, Simone enjoys choreographing, and founded The Playground, a free, monthly creative platform for professional artists supported and held at Rambert’s studios.

Based in Dehli, India, Aditi Mangaldas is a leading dancer and choreographer in the classical Indian dance form of Kathak. Having trained extensively under the styles leading gurus, Aditi is recognised for her artistry, technique, eloquence and characteristic energy that marks every performance. Considered a maverick in India, she has consistently broken new ground as choreographer, creating works for her eponymous company that combine Kathak with contemporary influences and confront timely socio-political issues. 'Mehek', Aditi's latest piece, is the first full-length duet she has ever created. Developed in collaboration with with UK-based choreographer Aakash Odedra, it tells the story of a relationship between older woman and a younger man and meditates on the theme of “unspoken and taboo love stories”. Ahead of Mehek’s UK tour this April, I couldn’t wait to speak to Aditi to find out more about what’s in store, and to reflect on her impressive 50-year-long career. 

Andrea Miller is a US-based choreographer, creative director, and the founder of the internationally renowned multidisciplinary organisation GALLIM. Working across dance, film, fashion, and the visual arts, Andrea is known for her exploration of the essential elements of human behaviour and the alchemy of human expression through the medium of movement and performance.

On Friday 24th November, Andrea will be returning to London to restage excerpts of 'Les Noces Ascent to Days' at the Victoria and Albert museum as part of their dance-focused V&A Friday Late event. Ahead of the performance, I couldn’t wait to talk to Andrea about breaking out of the concert dance bubble to present work in non traditional performance spaces, her collaborations with visual art organisations and creators in particular Phyllida Barlow, and her plans for the future of her company who are fast approaching their 20th anniversary. 

Shobana Jeyasingh CBE is a London-based choreographer. Born in Chennai, India, Shobana trained in Bharata Natyam (the classical dance of Tamil Nadu) and read English Literature before founding her eponymous company in 1989. Since then, she has created over 60 critically acclaimed works for stage, screen, and out and indoor sites, ranging from Palladian monasteries in Venice to contemporary fountains in London.

Shobana’s work is known for both its intellectual rigour and visceral physicality. It is rooted in her experience and perspective of life as a female postcolonial citizen of the world. Over the course of a distinguished career she has collaborated with scientists, curators, composers, film makers, digital creatives, dancers and designers to make dynamic multi-disciplinary work that places the body centre stage in the dialogue of ideas.

On 19th and 20th August 2023, Shobana will be restaging her site specific work ‘Counterpoint’ in the courtyard of Somerset House in London as part of the venue’s Summer in the Courtyard series and Westminster City Council's Inside Out festival. Originally choreographed in 2010, the work contrasts the powerful curves and thrilling physicality of 22 dancers with the formal lines of the neoclassical courtyard and modernist fountains. Ahead of the performances, I couldn’t wait to talk to Shobana about the original inspirations behind the piece, as well as her career long investigations into composition and writing stories with the body.