DU Watermans Takeover

Read more

Photo Sophie Bradbury

Dani Harris-Walters is a Dance Artist, performer, choreographer, teacher & DJ who immerses himself within realms of Hip Hop culture and theatre. An experienced figure in the industry, he loves to experiment, reform and restructure movement from many dance styles to create a unique and distinctive dance language.

Graduating from University of East London with a BA Honours degree in Dance: Urban Practice, Dani propelled into the Hip-Hop theatre world working with Tony Adigun’s Avant Garde Dance, touring nationally and internationally both The Black Album and Fagin’s Twist co-produced by The Place, touring the UK & China.

His first job came as a professional dancer in the London Olympic Games 2012 Opening Ceremony being a part of the Second to the right, and straight on till morning cast, performing with NHS workers choreographed by Temujin Gil.

Within the theatre world he has also worked with many of the leading names in Hip Hop Theatre including the Olivier Award Winner Botis Seva | Far From The Norm, Ivan Blackstock, Just Us Dance Theatre’s Born To Manifest, and the infamous Boy Blue Entertainment in their production Blak, Whyte, Grey touring the UK, America and Taiwan.

Photo Thaxnay Kapdee

Kesha is a dancer and choreographer who embodies Kathak and Contemporary movement. She creates work that is rich in detail and experimentally reconsiders contemporary South Asian dance. Her curiosity and exposure to a wide range movement training informs and invigorates her dance-making vocabulary. In 2021, Kesha was appointed as one of the Associate Directors at Aakash Odedra Company; Work Place Artist at The Place Theatre London and a Resident Creative at The Curve Leicester.

Her primary Kathak training began under her mother, Priti Raithatha and Smt. Nilima Devi M.B.E. with whom she accomplished 6 National ISTD examinations.

Since 2009, Kesha has divided her time between India and the UK training in Kathak under Smt. Nirupama Rajendra of Abhinava Dance Company and Smt. Daksha Sheth. She also trains in Contemporary dance, whilst exploring various Indian movement forms including Kalari Payatt, regional folk styles and physical theatre. Kesha has been a company dancer for India’s celebrated Classical and Contemporary Dance companies: Nritarutya Indian Contemporary Dance Company under Mayuri Upadhya and Daksha Sheth Dance Company.

Her most recent choreographic projects include; Virtual Ghost – A dance film in collaboration with Gurdeep Sian supported by Akademi’s Seed Commission 2021; Synapse (Dance for Screen) by Aakash Odedra 2 Young Company 2020; Bollywood Jane (Musical) Curve Theatre 2019; Phoenix Dance Youth Company’s Heritage Project Black Waters 2020; BBC 4’s My Asian Family musical documentary 2018 and Bandish Projekt’s Common Tongue 2016.

Photo Camilla Greenwood

Jennifer Irons is an award-winning choreographer, performer and director working internationally across theatre, commercial and socially engaged projects.

Born and raised in the Yukon, and now over 20 years living in the UK, she has been getting people together to dance since she was five years old.

Jennifer is Mass Movement Director for Akram Khan Company, Associate Choreographer with Complicité and Associate Artist with Candoco Dance Company from 2006 – 2016.

She is Co-Artistic Director of award-winning arts and technology collective MakeAmplify and is Founder and Director of ironINC in Africa; arts for cultural exchange program working with local partners across Africa and the Middle East to co-create and deliver arts programs for professional and social development.

Yukon Ho!, her one-woman cabaret style guide to surviving the arctic, is on tour in the UK from Spring 2022.

Photo Ambient Jade

Omari ‘Motion’ Carter is a screendance practitioner, lecturer and body percussionist based in London and, for the past decade, has been choreographing, teaching, and performing for music videos, film, television, and theatre. A first-class BA (Hons) degree in Performing Arts at London Metropolitan University led Omari to perform for 7 years in the West End and international touring productions of ‘Stomp!’. During this time, Omari choreographed, directed, performed, and produced a varied reel of dance on film work with Screendance production company, The Motion Dance Collective, which he founded in 2011.

As a director, videographer, and editor, Omari has created digital-dance and documentary content for Breakin’ Convention Hip Hop Theatre Festival (UK), Parkinson’s UK, Dance Woking, DanceXchange, South East Dance, Akademi (UK), Calmer UK, National Centre for Circus Arts, Jason Mabana Dance, Pagrav Dance Company, and Mouvement Perpétuel (Canada).

As an independent choreographer and dancer, Omari has created works for Google, Britain’s Got Talent, Weetabix, Stanton Warriors, Greenpeace UK, Diabetes UK, and ADAD (Association of Dance from the African Diaspora).

A graduate from the world’s first master’s degree in Screendance at London Contemporary Dance School (LCDS), Omari went on to become associate lecturer in Screendance at the University of East London, University of Lincoln, and LCDS. Most recently Omari was co-curator of Akademi Dance-Film Festival 2021, Digital Creative for Pavilion Dance South West, on the event programming team for San Souci Festival of Dance Cinema (USA), and features twice in Vol. 12 of The International Journal of Screendance which was released earlier this year. motiondancecollective.com

Jesal is a Kathak Dancer trained by her Guru Gauri Sharma Tripathi.

Having trained and performed for over 25 years in this discipline, her dance career has seen her tour all over the UK, Europe, USA and India where she has performed at many major high-profile and site-specific venues.

Jesal leads ‘Dance Well’ workshops, offers performances in hospitals and other projects with Akademi. She also toured and keeps connected with Nutkhut, Half Moon, Sampad and Ankh Dance UK.

After graduating from London Contemporary Dance School with First Class Honours in 2013, Ellyn joined EDge14, touring internationally as a postgraduate company. She went on to complete her MA at LCDS in 2018, focusing on the significance of dance education in young males. This interest stemmed from observations made while teaching at The Place for a number of years and was heavily influenced by outreach work carried out in schools in the Camden and Lambeth areas of London. Ellyn continues to teach adults and children at The Place, as well as delivering workshops for dance organisations such as Chisenhale Dance Space and Age UK.

Geni Lou is an independent hip hop dance artist and producer. Originally from Montreal, Canada, Geni has established herself as a strong female voice within the UK’s Hip Hop dance scene by performing on multiple platforms, presenting her own work (The Place, V&A, Woman Srsly, 100Luxe, Breakin’ Convention), teaching for renowned organisations and judging events throughout the country and abroad.

Geni has contributed to dance ecology by working as a Producer for Bust A Move Festival, Bboyizm Dance Company, The Place (Changemaker Programme), A.I.M Collective and is an alumni of the first cohort of WeMove Programme. Geni is currently the Strategic Manager for the Street Dance CAT Programme at Swindon Dance and a member of the board of trustees of B. Supreme UK.

Photo Summer Dean

Takeshi Matsumoto is a Japanese inclusive dance artist, performer and choreographer. He is also a qualified dance movement psychotherapist, having experience in working with children with autism and learning disabilities both in the UK and Japan. Growing up in Japan, his practice both in life and performing art is influenced by 和-Wa, harmony, peacefulness, quiet and contentment ways of living and balancing with others and environment.

As a dance performer Takeshi has worked with Christian Duarte, Henry Oguike, Darren Johnston, Beatrice Allegranti, Paul-Andre Fortier, 2nd Hand Dance and is a long-term collaborator with Hagit Yakira.

Takeshi has also been engaged with dance projects for and with children and adults with learning disabilities (SLiDE, Icandance, RADiate) and people living with dementia (Beatrice Allegranti) in the UK. On a global level, he has led dance projects for families who survived nuclear disaster in northern Japan and stateless refugee children in Thailand collaborating with other artists.

He continues to explore possibilities of dance and performance as a way of acknowledging differences and creating mutual understanding with particular emphasis on empathy, communication, empowerment and body mind integration.