Staff A-Z

Recently his disc of solo violin works by Kurtág and Bartók drew praise in The Strad Magazine as a “luxuriantly detailed reading” and in Gramophone Magazine for “his thoughtful, sympathetic performances”.

He has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Philharmonia, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Recitals have included the Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room. He has performed extensively across Russia with recitals and concerto performances from Moscow to Vladivostok, and played concertos in Hong Kong and Beijing. His repertoire ranges from baroque to contemporary and he has a number of ongoing projects to expand the violin repertoire through commission and rediscovery of lost works.

A committed chamber musician, Simon was a member of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Octet, performing in concert halls and broadcasts worldwide. Other projects have included the release of a CD of duos and trios by Kodály and Dohnányi.

In addition to masterclasses throughout the UK, he has visited and taught in institutions such as Central Conservatoire, Beijing; Academy of Performing Arts, Hong Kong; Zhiganov State Conservatoire, Kazan, Russia, and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and School of the Arts in Singapore. In 2018 he will be giving a class at the Moscow Conservatoire. He has been on the jury for international competitions, including as chair of a new competition in Kazan, Russia.

He plays on a Rogeri violin, made in 1708. He acts as a consultant to Viaduct Violins in Paris.

In 1986 Dele and Femi left Egypt 80 to form their own band called Femi Anikulapo-Kuti and the Positive Force of which Dele was the musical director and bandleader, he was again responsible for recruiting and training the new band members. He was also the rhythm keyboard player and keyboard soloist. They toured the world extensively and played in several of the major jazz festivals, from Montreux to the North Sea Jazz Festival to the Montreal Jazz festival. They band produced the followin albums – No Cause for Alarm POLYGRAM, NIGERIA,1989, Mind Your Own Business (MELODIE, FRANCE 1991) and Wonder Wonder (TABU/MOTOWN USA, 1995). The Positive Force was also invited to perform at the Jazz Club of Nigeria Festival alongside other renowned musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Randy Weston, Toshiko Akiosu and Didier Lockwood.

Dele at this time also developed his other musical influences and interests by working and playing with an Afro Jazz Quartet/Quintet and by working in collaboration with a French Bassoon Player called Alex Ouzounoff, to produce a CD titled Made In Nigeria (European music productions 1993) courtesy of the French Cultural Centre, Lagos, Nigeria.

Dele left Femi Anikulapo-Kuti and the Positive Force in December 1995 and moved to London.

In London Dele set about forming a new group, and the resulting projects reflect London’s multicultural environment, with a strong influence of jazz and shades of deep funk and latin music, but all underpinned by the heavy grooves of Afrobeat’s Yoruba rhythm with Dele’s vocals very strongly in the Afrobeat tradition.

In 1996, he started playing as a resident musician in some of the London Nigerian venues, initially playing as a duo, then later on forming Gbedu Resurrection, which he led to several London venues, such as the Africa Centre, (Covent Garden) and The Shrine (then held at the Brixton Fridge). By this time Dele had honed his skills as a composer, singer and entertainer, incorporating the piano into Afrobeat. Dele’s collaborations in this period included working as lead pianist with The African Jazz Explosion All Stars, lead by Claude Deppa and featuring Toni Kofi, Jason Yarde, Byron Wallen, Fayaz Virgi, Jean Tousaint, Thomas Dyani, Harry Brown, Sam Djengue, Francis Fuster to name a few; and also with Lucky Ranku and the African All Stars, lead by the legendary Lucky Ranku and featuring Claude Deppa, Fayaz Virgi, Bukky Leo, Frank Tontoh to name a few.

Following his first solo album Turbulent Times (Eko Star 2002), he was invited to select the tracks for the 3-CD compilation entitled Essential Afrobeat (Universal/Family Recordings, 2004). He was producer and co-writer of Calabash Volume 1: Afrobeat Poems by Ikwunga, the Afrobeat Poet (Rebisihut 2004). He is a central member of the Wahala Project, whose single Wahala appears on Puma’s 2006 Soccer World Cup Compilation CD (Wea/Beacuse 2006). He has also featured on British rapper TY’s recent album Closer (on the track Sweating for your Salary Big Dada 2006), and his track Turbulent Times is featured on Nu Afrobeat Experience (Shanachie 2002), Essential Afrobeat (Universal/Family Recordings, 2004) Sound Affects Africa (Paul Oakenfold Remix Malmaison 2005) and Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project (Modiba 2006). The Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project (2006). His new album Identity out on limited edition pre-release (22 June 2007) is in the final stages for Official release in November 2007 (Helico Records).

His live shows are ALWAYS electric, and the crowd response is ALWAYS massive. He has performed all over the world (for example, the Montreux Jazz Festival, Joe Zawinul’s Birdland (Vienna Dele was invited to perform as a guest alongside the late great Joe Zawinul at his Charity Event for survivors of Hurricane Katrina), the Treibhaus (Innsbruck), Paradiso, (Amsterdam), Bimhuis (Amsterdam) Oerol Festival (Terschelling, Holland), the Ollin Kan Festival (Mexico City), Afrikadey! Canada Afrobeat Summit in Calgary, Canada (August 2007), Sensommer Int Musikkfestival 2007 Oslo, Norway (August 2007) and in London (frequent appearances at the Jazz Cafe, The Kemia Bar at Momo’s. The Shrine, and the South Bank Centre (Queen Elizabeth Hall & Purcell Room), to name a few.

Currently based in London, Dele is an educator and instructor in Afrobeat (via his Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Foundation, and as a Visiting Lecturer in Music and Media, London Metropolitan University). Dele performs in one of three formats, each as compelling and funky as the others, a 15-piece Afrobeat Orchestra (featuring a 5-piece horn section and dancers), a 6-9 piece band (the most frequently used format) or a trio/quartet (with bass and drums/percussion.

Sosimi is abetted by a group of musicians, most of whom have either played with him on previous records or have gigged with him on the live circuit. They all have chops to spare and the communication between them is near telepathic. Afrobeat is lovingly given the virtuoso treatment by a combination of Femi Elias, whose Bass growls, twists, turns, pulsates & grooves, Kunle Olofinjana on drums who meshes perfectly with Elias and like a dream machine the groove never lets up. The gear changes are seamless, no accent or punctuation is missed, Phil Dawson who delivers tasty, funky rhythm guitars and some truly exquisite solos from a wide range of angles, again revealing the endless possibilities of what can be done with this music, Maurizio Ravalico on percussion adding colour and The horns – delivered with laser-like precision by Justin Thurgur on Trombone, Tom Allan on Trumpet & Eric Rohner on Tenor Saxophone.

Steven comes to Trinity Laban after being Head of Department for Creative Industries at Kingston School of Art, Kingston University and the Course Leader for Musical Theatre at the London College of Music, University of West London as well as teaching courses, guest lecturing and delivering masterclasses in Canada, Holland, Lithuania and South Africa.

He was also the Associate Executive Director of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association. As a performer his credits include Scrooge (West End – Palladium and multiple tours), Doctor Dolittle (UK Tour), Flora the Red Menace (All Star Productions – Landor), 13 Days (Grimeborn Festival – Arcola Theatre) as well as many concerts, cabarets, operas, film and TV. Recordings include Dracula and an album of Sondheim duets, It Takes Two.

Steven is the founder of The Thriving Creative offering business and marketing training and coaching for creatives. He’s published in academic journals (Journal of Arts Entrepreneurship Education, Journal of Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance) and in the press (The Stage, Drama Student Magazine) and is writing a book for Routledge on freelancing the creative economy.

He holds a PhD in Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship from Goldsmiths, University of London and is a certified Mindfulness Teacher (UK College of Mindfulness Meditation).

In his early career, Daniel worked as a dancer with Michael Clark and Matthew Hawkins, as well as appearing as Tadzio in Britten’s Death In Venice at Glyndebourne.

After moving to the Big Apple, aged 20, Daniel worked for many years with Merce Cunningham, performing around the world in theatres including Palais Garnier & Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Staatsoper unter den Linden & Schiller Theater (Berlin), the Roundhouse, the Barbican, Tate Modern (London), Festival Theatre (Edinburgh), Kennedy Center (DC), New York State Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Rose Theater & City Center (NYC); with musicians including Radiohead, John Paul Jones, Sigur Rós, Takehisa Kosugi & Sonic Youth.

He was a core member (actor, videographer, musician) of Marisela La Grave’s inter-media group Magnetic Laboratorium  for many years, and has worked with, (among others), Philippe Parreno, John Kelly, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Paulina Olowska.

In 2013/14 he was Curator for the Dance Program for the exhibit Dancing Around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, and Duchamp at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

In 2018 he performed a free-improv trio as part of the Hoping for Palestine benefit with guitarist Thurston Moore and drummer Steve Noble, with an audience of 1,700 people at London’s Roundhouse.

His 2019 staging projects for the Merce Cunningham Trust include Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event — for the occasion of Merce Cunningham’s 100^th birthday — at London’s Barbican, as well as staging Merce’s work on the Royal Ballet and Dance On Ensemble.

Rebecca is an artist-scholar specialising in the documentation and mediation of experience through digital media and methods. Her monograph Video Annotation in Dance and Performance (2025, Palgrave Macmillan) explores how we can work with time-based media to develop the analytic capacity and deep attention of human (rather than computational) subjects. The book examines video markup as a reflective, analytic, organisational, and publishing tool for performance scholarship.

Rebecca’s research also focuses on the impact of the arts on health and wellbeing. She is the Principal Investigator for The Language of Pain (2023-present), a co-produced research project exploring the expression of pain narratives through arts-based methods. Interested in the postphenomenological experience of our encounters with digital media, Rebecca also explores online and blended environments for community arts practice.

Rebecca is co-editor of special issues of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Training for Movement, Physical Activity and Health 2025) and International Journal of Performance Arts & Digital Media (Digital Annotation and the Understanding of Bodily Practices 2021). Rebecca’s work has been published in edited books (Intellect, Palgrave Macmillan, Routledge) and journals including International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, and Theatre, Dance and Performance Training.

Rebecca is an editorial board member for International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media. She is a peer reviewer for International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, Journal of Dance Education, and Thinking, Skills and Creativity.

Rebecca has a BA (Hons) in Dance Theatre with First Class Honours from Laban (2008) and an MA in Dance with Distinction from London Contemporary Dance School (2010). She completed her PhD at the Centre of Dance Research in 2019.

Selected publications

Stancliffe, R. (2025). Video annotation in dance and performance: Attention, thinking and thinking. Palgrave Macmillan.

Stancliffe, R. (2025). The Language of Pain [project report]. Trinity Laban.

Stancliffe, R., Wakeling, K., Evans, L. & Howard, S. (2022) ‘Beyond the Walls’: The Artist-Researcher and Performative Dissemination. In R. Prior & T. Fischer (Eds.) Applied Arts and Health, Education and Community: Building Bridges. Intellect.

deLahunta, S., Rittershaus, D., & Stancliffe, R. (2021) Editorial. International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media 17(1), 1-6

Stancliffe, R. (2021) Differentiating (an)notation practices: an artist-scholar’s observation.  International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media 17(1), 69-85

Stancliffe, R. (2021) Moving (together) in a distributed setting: The impact of online music and dance delivery for older adults’ lived experience. In L. Bissell & L. Weir (Eds.) Performance in a Pandemic. Routledge.

Stancliffe, R. (2019) Training the Analytical Dance Eye: Video Annotation for Dance. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training 10(2), 273-288

Stancliffe, R. (2018) Video Annotation for the Articulation and Transmission of Dance. In S. Ellis, H. Blades, & C. Waelde, C. (Eds.) A World of Muscle, Bone and Organs. Coventry University, pp. 358-381.

Stancliffe, R. (2018) Mediating and Visualising Steve Paxton’s Material for the Spine. In S. Whatley, R. K. Cisneros, & A. Sabiescu (Eds.) Digital Echoes: Spaces for Intangible and Performance-based Cultural Heritage. Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 213-230

Wendy is a professional dance artist and educator whose career has included roles as a performer, mass movement choreographer, movement and rehearsal director, teacher, lecturer and company manager. Currently working primarily in education, she specialises in developing and supporting the delivery of the primary curriculum through dance and the performing arts, working with teachers across the UK and internationally.

Wendy’s roles as a dancer and choreographer have included work in film and theatre as well as in art galleries and stadiums. A highlight of her career was working as part of the Mass Movement Creative team for the London Olympic and Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies in 2011 and 2012, a role which included co-leading the audition and rehearsal process and directing the large-scale cast rehearsals.

Leanne’s interest in Dance Science developed during her BA in Dance Performance at Middlesex University, where she studied dance science modules and completed her dissertation exploring the wellbeing of dancers with scoliosis. During her MSc Dance Science at Trinity Laban, her research focused on the relationship between hypermobility and proprioception in dancers. Prior to this, Leanne trained vocationally at London Studio Centre and now continues to participate in dance, applying principles of dance science both in her own practice and when working with dance students.

As an active member of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS), Leanne has previously volunteered on the Student and Promotions Committees and is currently a member of the Research and Publications Committee and the Dance Educators Specialist Interest Group. She is also a qualified Group Exercise to Music instructor, incorporating her knowledge of exercise and conditioning into her teaching on the Foundation and BA Contemporary Dance programmes.

Beyond Trinity Laban, Leanne has worked as Communications Coordinator and is now an Advisory Board Member for The Bridge Dance Project, a collaborative initiative connecting leaders in dance medicine and science with the competition and commercial dance sector.

After graduating from the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Julian Baker and Pip Eastop, Richard spent his early career working with many of London’s top orchestras including playing principal horn of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Philharmonia and BBC Concert Orchestra. He also worked and toured with some of the country’s finest chamber ensembles including the Haffner Wind Ensemble, Fine Arts Brass and the Galliard Ensemble.

Richard has always had regular work in the West End, holding positions in the orchestras of Into the Woods (Donmar), Kiss Me Kate (Victoria Palace), Scrooge (Palladium), Whistle Down the Wind (Palace),The Producers (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s) and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella (Gillian Lynne).

Richard teaches at Trinity Laban, Junior Guildhall, Guildhall Young Artists Brass Training Programme and Bromley Youth Music Trust where he champions horn teaching in state schools and hosts the annual Bromley Horn Day, which is attended by over 50 horn players from across South-East England.

In 2023, Richard released his debut book Don’t Fear the Horn: A comprehensive guide to the French horn for all brass players, which was a finalist in the Music & Drama Education Awards 2024, and is currently being released as a YouTube video series. He is the editor of the British Horn Society’s magazine, The Horn Player, and contributes to other publications, including writing teaching resources for Music Teacher magazine.

Although he is proud of all these achievements, his most memorable moment was opening “Live8” with Paul McCartney and U2 playing “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” dressed as John Lennon!

Stephen is a member of Endymion Ensemble, The Fibonacci Sequence and Capricorn. He has taken part in many critically acclaimed recordings, including Mozart’s entire output for wind ensemble with Chamber Orchestra of Europe and his second recording of the Brahms Horn Trio, with the Florestan Trio, released by Hyperion to rave reviews, and a ‘Gramophone’ award nomination.

Initially developing dance and theatre school provision, Victoria moved swiftly into further education and apprenticeships in performing arts and sport, with programmes receiving external recognition such as ‘Outstanding’ judgements (Adult Leaning Inspectorate), Beacon status for teaching and learning, and professional industry acknowledgement. This led to partnerships with higher education providers, and the development of the musical theatre provision at Trinity Laban.

As a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Trinity Laban Senior Teaching Fellow, Victoria is committed to access and participation, and the development of teaching and learning environments that support progression and achievement. Most recently, she has utilised her MSc in psychology to research the area of mental health and wellbeing in tertiary musical theatre education settings, identifying how programmes and interventions can be established to support the development of good mental health in educational setting, and when transitioning into employment.

Victoria believes that the student is the absolute centre of the learning journey, and that it is important to support personal development beyond the core curriculum outcomes, fostering the unique individual and personal identity within the learning community.

Victoria is a Trustee for a growing Multi Academy Trust in Kent and External Examiner for other Musical Theatre programmes across the UK .

Creative Outputs

Performance credits include: Aladdin, Cinderella and Humpty Dumpty (Millfield Theatre), A Chorus Line (MYT), Fran in A Christmas Carol (Terry Hawes Productions), Aida, MTV, Dream Team (Hewland International), 100 Years of Cinema (Mermaid Theatre), Lead vocalist and dancer for various cabarets.

Choreography Credits include: Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Bugsy Malone, Oklahoma, Little Shop of Horrors, Dick Whittington, Wizard of Oz, Oliver, Corporate Events, Cabarets and College Showcases.

Anita Strevens’ career is a varied mix of orchestral, chamber music and solo performance, teaching, workshop leading and adjudicating. She has played with most of the London chamber orchestras – City of London Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, Orchestra of St Johns, Primavera – and is a member of Accordare Quartet and Trio Vita. Recent solo performances have included Haydn’s C major Cello Concerto and all six Bach Unaccompanied Cello Suites in JAM on the Marsh Festival and in Garway Bach Festival. She teaches cello and Dalcroze Eurhythmics at Junior Trinity and Sevenoaks School and is a visiting lecturer at Birmingham Conservatoire, teaching pedagogy.

For Pro Corda she directs Pro Corda West and coaches on the mainstream and Special Educational Needs courses as well as heading the programmes for Young Music Makers. She leads Dalcroze Eurhythmics workshops for educational organisations, orchestras and local authorities.

She has had education articles published in Primary Music Today, NAME, Dalcroze Society Journal and Music Teacher magazine.

She plays on a cello by Henry Lockey Hill and a bow by Vigneron.