Diane Alison-Mitchell

MA
Job title
Personal Academic Tutor, MA/MFA Movement: Directing and Teaching

Profile

After performing and touring as dancer in the UK and France, Diane achieved her MA Movement Studies at Central. Since then, she has worked as an actor movement tutor and movement director/choreographer.

Diane teaches both movement fundamentals and movement expression to bring greater body awareness and dynamic expression. At Central, Diane has taught on various courses including MA/MFA Movement: Directing and Teaching, MA Musical Theatre, and the Acting Diploma. She has also taught at Mountview Academy, E15, Arts Ed, Italia Conti and Royal Holloway. Diane has been Head of PT Foundation Acting and a movement tutor at ALRA South for the past 10 years. 

Diane has movement directed extensively in theatre including Young Vic, RSC, Almeida, Royal and Derngate, Regents Park Open Air, and her work has also featured in live events such as Quadrophenia Immersive Cinematic Experience at Eventim Appollo and as part of the creative team for the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony.

Research

  • Social dances from medieval times to current day to uncover physicalities in a given era.   
  • Aesthetic principles within African-derived movement and rhythms to develop the ensemble and ground the body and voice. 

Qualifications

MA Movement Studies

Other Details

Alison-Mitchell, D. (2016) ‘Dancing Since Strapped to Their Mother’s Backs: Movement Directing on the RSC’s African Julius Caesar’ in Jarrett-Macauley, D. (ed.) Shakespeare, Race and Performance: The Diverse BardLondon, Routledge

Awards

  • Bonny Bird Choreography Fund/Dance UK Choreographer to Choreographer Award, 2014
  • Dance UK Choreographers Observership, 2013
  • Dance UK/ADAD Trailblazer Fellowship Award, 2003
  • Arts Council International Fellow, 2002
  • Lisa Ullman Travel Scholarship/British Council Award (part of the British Council’s ‘Britain and South Africa Dancing’), 2000

Productions

Recent movement direction and choreography includes:

Offside (Futures Theatre); The Island, (Theatre Chipping Norton/Dukes Lancaster); Roundelay (Visible Theatre/Southwark Playhouse); They Drink It In The Congo (Almeida Theatre); SOUL, The Untold Story of Marvin Gaye (Royal & Derngate and Hackney Empire); Othello (RSC); Assistant Choreographer, The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Quadrophenia – The Immersive Cinematic Experience (Hogarth Productions for AEG Live); Klippies (Southwark Playhouse); Julius Caesar (RSC, BBC).