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Yael Flexer is an award-winning choreographer based in Brighton, UK. Her work is primarily concerned with interaction and connecting with an audience on a human and visceral level. Commissions as an independent artist include, among others: E-Werk Tanz Festival (Germany), Edge, Scottish Dance Theatre, Motus Dance Festival, National Youth Dance Company Scotland, Ludus Dance, Mapdance, Lila, Freefall & Cascade Dance Companies, Gravity & Levity & Trinity-Laban. Recent commissions include works for Hull Dance, Maslool (Israel), Stavanger University (Norway), Three Score & Encore East.

Yael has created numerous works for youth companies and regularly leads workshops, professional training and mentoring projects in the UK and internationally. Yael is winner of The Jerwood Award and completed her PhD in 2013 at The University of Chichester where she also co-directs mapdance, the University’s MA/postgraduate touring company.

You can read Yael's full biography here.

Born in Japan, Aya is an independent dance artist based in Glasgow. Aya trained at Rambert School and performed for Flexer & Sandiland, Rosemary Lee, Charlie Morrissey, Lila Dance and Gecko Theatre. She is a member of Collective Endeavours and practices improvisation performance. She joined Barrowland Ballet as an associate artist and regularly teach professional classes and lead the intergenerational company Wolf Pack. She works extensively with inclusive companies and communities in the UK and abroad such as Anjali, StopGap, Indepen-Dance and Paragon.

In recent years her works have been developed within the collaboration with the visual art, costumes, sound and architect of site that accommodates the moving bodies. She often works with galleries such as Tate, V&A museum of Childhood and Tramway to lead the education workshops and participatory performances.  Her works have been presented in locations including The Place, Royal Festival Hall, Northern Ballet, Paralympics 2012 torch relay ceremony, Cairo, Madrid, Tokyo, Ofunato and Queretaro in Mexico.

Hannah began her professional training at Trinity Laban, and after graduating with a degree in Dance Theatre in 2008 went on to study for an MA in Dance Performance at the University of Chichester as part of Mapdance09. Since then she has danced for Mayuri Boonham (ATMA), max.IMEALLdance, Udifydance and Lila Dance.

In 2010 she joined Flexer and Sandiland and has toured nationally and internationally with the ‘The Living Room’ and, the companies 20^th anniversary production, ‘Weightless’. Hannah has taught extensively in further/higher educational settings and gained her PGCE in post compulsory education in 2013. She also teaches on a freelance basis, delivering youth and adult contemporary technique and creative classes throughout the South Coast and London, including the CAT program at Trinity Laban from 2014 - 2017.

In 2014 Hannah joined Wessex Dance Academy, working with a team of dance artists to deliver a unique dance program for vulnerable young people in Hampshire. In 2018 she took on the role as Lead Dance Artist, working to expand creative partnerships and continues to deliver high quality dance training and life changing creative experiences for all those engaged in the project.

Fiona has worked in the UK & internationally as a dancer, teacher & maker since 1985, & values the alchemy of collaboration that underpins these various roles. As a dancer she has worked with choreographers: Deborah Hay, Gill Clarke, Alex Howard, Rosemary Lee, Victoria Marks, Fin Walker, David Dorfman, Charlie Morrissey, Erica Stanton, Yael Flexer & Stephen Koplowitz.

Fiona was Head of Movement at the Oxford School of Drama 1999-2004 & received a National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts Fellowship for her work as co-director of Independent Dance 1996-2015. Fiona also works as a Certified Rolfer™, Rolf Movement™ Practitioner, Franklin Method® Educator & Scaravelli Inspired Yoga Teacher. She is delighted to be facilitating our Acting our Age dance class groups.

Originally from Hawaii, Julie is an international freelance dancer, choreographer, teacher and rehearsal director based in London, UK. She studied dance at Queen Emma Ballet and Mid-Pacific Institute’s School of the Arts, Hawaii. In California, she danced for Donald McKayle’s Etude Ensemble performing his renowned repertoire, Rainbow Etude. Julie completed her MA degree at London Contemporary Dance School.

Since moving to the U.K., Julie has toured nationally and internationally (Norway, Israel, China, Colombia & Peru) with distinguished choreographers and dance companies. Selected credits: ROH's Die Zauberflote, Peter Darling & Ellen Kane (Groundhog Day and Matilda), James Cousins, Flexer & Sandiland, ENO's Madam Butterfly, and Richard Malone's LFW Presentation, and commercially with Lynne Page (Pet Shop Boys, Jess Glynne's The BRITs 2019 & Stormzy’s The BRITs 2018), Caroline Pope (ITV’s Mr. Selfridge), Lucy Hind (Nick Frost & Simon Peg’s Truth Seekers), La Dispute’s Woman (Reading) and Th1ng Corp and Saatchi & Saatchi’s ASDA Battles Campaign.

Karen da Silva completed her professional contemporary dance training at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance. After performing as a dancer, an urge to find more specificity & autonomy lead to an interest in theatre and she went on to study Stanislavski and Meisner techniques and work in more acting based contexts. A desire to deepen and develop her own practice led her to practice-based research at the University of Surrey where she was also Performance Studies coordinator for the BA Dance Studies programme.  In 2016 she completed her Ph.D. in which she developed a choreographic practice that intersects choreographic craft, Stanislavskian acting techniques and phenomenological approaches to truth.

Karen has taught at Laban Trinity, London Metropolitan University and Bangor University. She is interested in ways in which we can maintain an ongoing presence-with an idea or image and find our own unique resultant, arising movement. Karen is based between the UK and Portugal, where she has a dance research studio. She works internationally performing, directing, choreographing, teaching and facilitating.