Profile
I’m a practicing artist, making performances, films, installations, books and digital art. I’m co-founder and co-artistic director of Fevered Sleep. My work is research led and participatory: with art at the front of the process and people at the centre. The things I make appear in all sorts of places, from theatres, galleries and cinemas, to beaches, parks, schools and the spaces of everyday life: in people’s homes, on phones, online. I’ve worked all over the UK and around the world, collaborating with artists, producers, scientists, academics, medical practitioners, adults, children, professionals and non-professionals, as research partners, co-creators, performers, thinkers, writers and participants.
I grew up in working class community in rural West Yorkshire and was the first and only person in my family to stay in education post-16. I moved to London to read Biochemistry at King’s, before taking a step sideways to complete a BA in Performing Arts at Middlesex. My MA at Sussex was in English Literature (Sexual Dissidence) and my PhD at Queen Mary, University of London explored the relationships between performance, writing, time and death. My current practice is still rooted in these diverse experiences. It aspires to be equitable and inclusive, and invites all sorts of people to come together and reflect on the complexities of the world in which we live.
Before working at Central, I taught at Middlesex University and then at the University of Winchester, where I also held an AHRC Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts. I’ve given talks and keynotes, run workshops and facilitated debates in a range of professional and academic settings, in the UK, Peru, Australia, South Korea, Taiwan and Canada. I’m on the Board of Directors and the Artist Advisory Group at Yorkshire Dance, and a member of the Creative Partners Sounding Board at Battersea Arts Centre.
As Professor of Interdisciplinary Practice at Central, I build bridges between academic research and professional practice, and as co-artistic director of Fevered Sleep I make art through processes of research. For me, there is no distinction between doing research and making art.
Areas of Expertise
Art and performance with and for children and young people
Interspecies art practices
Cultural practices of death and grief
New approaches to devising, collaboration and participation
Performance touring in the UK
Increasing accessibility and inclusion in the arts
PhD Supervision
I am currently supervising doctoral projects in the areas of queer dramaturgies and theatre making with refugee artists.
Key Publications
2015. Future Play: A resource for anyone making, touring or presenting performance for children, co-edited with Sophie Eustace, Claire Lee (London: Fevered Sleep)
2010. Invisible Things: Documentation from a devising process, co-written with Synne K Behrndt (London: Fevered Sleep & the University of Winchester) (second edition 2019)
External Practice
2018 – date. (Joint lead artist/researcher) This Grief Thing, produced by Fevered Sleep, presented in partnership with Derelict (Preston), Middlesbrough Town Council, The Whitworth and Sick! Festival (Manchester), Dance4 (Nottingham), St. Margaret’s House, Stratford Circus (London)
2018 – date (Joint lead artist/researcher) The Institute of Everything, produced by Fevered Sleep in partnership with Clifton Green Primary School, York
2017 – date. (Joint lead artist/researcher) Sheep Pig Goat, produced by Fevered Sleep, commissioned by Wellcome Collection, further developed in partnership with University of Surrey School of Veterinary Medicine.
2015 – date. (Co-choreographer) Men & Girls Dance, produced by Fevered Sleep, presented in partnership with Quarterhouse (Folkestone), Lawrence Batley Theatre (Huddersfield), The Lowry (Salford), Dance4 (Nottingham), The Place, Tate Britain (London), Skånes Dansteater, Malmö, Sweden.
Register of Interest
Nothing to declare.
