Inaugural Cohort Revealed For Rose Choreographic School

The inaugural cohort of Rose Choreographic School, which will be based at Sadler’s Wells’ new venue Sadler’s Wells East, has been announced. Led by dramaturg and writer Martin Hargreaves with input from artistic faculty members and leading dance figures William Forsythe, Trajal Harrell and Alesandra Seutin, Rose Choreographic School is an experimental research programme for artists to develop their practice over a two-year period. 

The 13 artists in the first cohort will meet remotely from June and in person at Sadler’s Wells East from later this year until April 2026. They will have access to studio spaces, mentoring and a research budget and will engage in workshops, lectures and discursive events.

Sadler’s Wells East will be a new kind of cultural destination with local roots, national impact and global perspectives. Situated in Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and opening later this year as part of the groundbreaking East Bank cultural and educational development, Sadler’s Wells East features a 550-seat theatre, six studios for creating work, a community dance space and Academy Breakin’ Convention, as well as the choreographic school. 

Meet the Cohort

Aliaskar Abarkas (he/they) is an Iranian artist and writer whose practice is deeply rooted in alternative and communal education; he is currently based in London. Their projects, notably The Community Whistling Choir, explore themes of communication, conviviality, and transformation of self and knowledge. Collaborating with a diverse creative network and participants, Aliaskar's work takes the form of documented processes that culminate in musical soundscapes, visuals, and performances.

UK-based dance artist and anthropologist Anjana Bala (she/her) creates and trains in Bharatanatyam alongside uncodified movement practices. During her time at the Rose Choreographic School, she hopes to explore avenues of the political that move beyond popular definitions, curious about what politics are possible within aesthetic and affective forms themselves.

Azahara ubera Biedma (she/they) is an artist, dancer and independent researcher based between Spain and Brussels. Their practice is situated at the intersection of dance, choreography, experimental pedagogy and activism and looks to investigate how to translate philosophical ideas around feminism and queer culture into somatic practices. Their work has been shown in several venues, museums and art spaces including Kaaitheater, Beursschouwburg, Konvoi Festival, Antic Teatro, MACBA and M.N.C.A.R.S.

Bibi Dória (she/they) graduated with a degree in dance from the State University of Campinas in Brazil. Their work resides at the intersection of dance, performance, and cinema, exploring themes of memory, archives, fiction, and imagination. Residing in Lisbon since 2018, she collaborates with various artists, including Bruno Brandolino, with whom they co-created and performed the piece "LA BURLA" (2022), and is the founder of the independent film production company Odete Filmes.

Hanna Gillgren (she/her) is a Swedish choreographer, performer, curator, facilitator and lecturer working between the UK, Sweden and Norway. Her work explores the relationship between voice, movement, language and collaborative practice. In 2018, she co-founded Fest en Fest, an international festival for expanded choreography that presents UK and Nordic artists working across dance, performance, written and visual arts. Hanna is also a part-time senior lecturer in choreography and dance practice at Roehampton University.

Heidi Rustgaard (she/her) is a choreographer, curator and dancer, working between Norway, Sweden and the the UK. She attempts to make works that don't only focus on one discipline, but extend, explore, and shape a choreographic practice by connecting with various knowledges, forming novel modes of expression that aren't limited by what already is and instead imagine what might become. She co-founded Fest en Fest with Hanna Gillgren.

jee chan (they/them) is an artist and choreographer based in Singapore and Germany. Approaching language as an act of translating the unspeakable, the unknowable and the forgotten, their work is concerned with themes of violence, displacement, grief, ritual and transformation. Their practice is characterized by hybridity, flux and syncretism, moving across and between performance, film, installation, voice and song.

Lorea Burge (she/her and they/them) is a dancer, choreographer and a not quite musician from the UK. She has collaborated with artists and choreographers including Marina Abramović, Charles Linehan, Seke Chimutengwende, Neve Harrington and Ehryn Torrell. In 2015 she co-founded the dance collective Unbaptised Infants. In 2023 she premiered her first full length solo work B Field. Their current research, Sonic Fielding, is a sonic/visual playground exploring the choreographic potential of composing music through dance.

Oluwaseun (Seun) Olayiwola (he/him) is a poet, critic, choreographer and performer based in London. His choreographic work has been presented at the V&A, The Place, The Central School of Ballet, and Studio Voltaire. He’s been commissioned by Ledbury Poetry Festival, Southwark Council, Studio 3 Arts. He recently began lecturing in dance in the Kingston School of Art. His debut collection is forthcoming in January 2025.

Rohan Ayinde (he/him/they) is an artist and poet based between London and Chicago.  Investigating how the politics of place intersects with the conceptual, his poems, drawings, videos and performance work are translations and sketches of landscapes built from a freedom best imagined by writers like Octavia Butler, Ursula Le Guin, Lola Olufemi and Edouard Glissant. Ayinde is one half of the wayward/motile collaborative duo i.as.in.we, with friend Yewande YoYo Odunubi. He received his MA in Visual and Critical Studies from SAIC (2019) and is the Gallery Director at Blanc, Chicago.

Stina Nyberg (she/her) is a dancer and choreographer from Sweden who engages in the collaborative creation of conversations, dances, thoughts, texts, sounds and shows. She uses choreography to explore her passions and interests. Lately she has been speculating on the relationship between ecology and masculinity, and a world without humans as a better place.

Silvia Bottiroli (she/her) is an Italian curator, writer, researcher, dramaturg and educator in performing arts. She was the artistic director of DAS Theatre in Amsterdam (2018-2021) and of Santarcangelo Festival (2012-2016). She curated FUORI! for Emilia Romagna Teatro in Bologna (2022-2023) and For the Time Being for Freescpace in Hong Kong (2020-2021), amongst others. She teaches Methodology, Critique, and Research in the Arts at Bocconi University in Milan, lectures and examines at institutions across Europe and works collaboratively in curatorial and editorial projects.

Yewande YoYo Odunubi (she/they) is a UK based artist, researcher, and cultural producer who’s practice centres around the question, "what does the body need to dream?”. She experiments with movement, performance, film, music, text and facilitation as acts of translation and a means of dialogue with the body’s present and imagined possibilities. Alongside poet, curator and friend Rohan Ayinde, Yewande is one-half of the wayward/motile collaborative duo i.as.in.we.

Rose Choreographic School has been made possible by a generous donation from an anonymous individual who chose the name Rose for the school. The donation also supports the Rose International Dance Prize at Sadler’s Wells – a biennial prize for new dance creations that was launched by Sadler’s Wells last year. The first six finalists will be announced in later this spring and will present their work on Sadler’s Wells’ stages over the course of two weeks in spring 2025. 

Head of Rose Choreographic School, Martin Hargreaves and Assistant Producer Izzy Galbraith said: “We selected these artists from over 400 applications based on the strength of their singular research proposals and their appetite to host and engage with other artistic practices. We look forward to coming together this summer to collectively imagine the conditions we need to collaboratively choreograph the School. We’re also excited to explore what can be shared from this research with wider publics across the two-year cycle.”

Podcasts, on-site workshops and research presentations and publications from the school will be publicly available online. The inaugural programme starts in June 2024 and runs until April 2026. To keep up to date with any future recruitments, events and public engagement. You may sign up through this link - Newsletter Sign Up Form.   

To find out more, visit rosechoeographicschool.com 
 

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