Martin HARGREAVES
Programme leader, MA The Body in Performance
Martin leads the MA The Body in Performance programme. His research interests lie between boredom and hysteria at the meeting between queer cultural practices and minimalism. He graduated in 1997 with First Class Honours in Contemporary Dance from De Montfort University, Leicester and in 2003 was awarded a PhD at De Montfort for a thesis entitled ‘Performativity, Spectrality, Hysteria: the performance of masculinity in late 1990s British contemporary dance’. In 2000 he was awarded the Selma Jeanne Cohen award by the Society for Dance History Scholars.
Martin’s practical work centres around the reconstruction and re-imagination of seminal works from the 1960s and he has collaborated with major galleries such as Tate Modern and The Southbank Centre in the exploration of the crossover between dance and visual arts practices. Last year he was a performer for Tino Sehgal’s These Associations and also published writing on the performances of Raimund Hoghe.
Emma REDDING
Head of Dance Science
Emma is leader of Trinity Laban’s Dance Science department which is world leading within the field. Emma graduated from Laban, London, England, in 1993 with a BA (Hons) Dance Theatre degree and gained her Masters in Sports Science at the University of Essex in 1999. Her PhD, obtained from City University, London, in 2009 was an investigation into dance specific ways of testing and training for physical fitness in contemporary dance. The MSc Dance Science Programme was the first of its kind in the world and Emma helped devise, write and validate the programme in 2001.
Emma has published original research in various academic journals, including the Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, Journal of Special Education, Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, and Social Behaviour and Personality.
She is a member of the Board of Directors and Past-President of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS). Emma recently led a three year investigation into talent development in dance among young people and a screening and profiling project for musicians and dancers. She is soon to embark on a four year funded research study into musicians’ health and well-being.
Tony THATCHER
Programme leader, MA Choreography
Educated at Falmouth School of Art and Goldsmith’s College, Tony Thatcher has built an enviable career as a choreographer and educator. Winning the Greater London Arts Choreography prize early in his career, he became a choreographer noted for work that often featured live music – from large ensembles (‘De Ereprijs, Holland; ‘Muziek Lod’, Belgium), to percussion quartets (‘Studs’/Jim Fulkerson, USA), electro-acoustics (Christof Hilman, Holland) and Trombone (Jim Fulkerson/Hilary Jeffrey/ Joost Buis). Tony completed his training as a teacher of the Alexander Technique in 1993 at ATON, Amsterdam and achieved his MFA degree at Bard College, New York, in May 2001.
Tony has recently been commissioned to choreograph a new work at The National Opera and Ballet Company Belgrade. He is also in the process of further developing ‘SCORE’ with Danish composer Kim Helweg, first performed by Ina Dokmo (dance) Nic Pendlebury (viola) at the Fabbrica Europa Festivale, Le Murate, and Stazione Leopoldo, Florence, May 2012. Other recent choreography has included ‘Mingus’ for On the Roof musician and dance collective at The Vibe Gallery, London, April 2013 and ‘Shizingaku’ composer/sonic artist John Drever and painter Shuji Okada, Goldsmith’s, at St James’ Hatcham, New Cross, London, February / March 2013.
Recent directing and mentoring activities have involved working with HanPac Theatre company’s Emerging Choreographers Group, Seoul. An initiative funded by the Arts Council of Korea.
Tony’s research interests include: negotiating the role of choreographer through notions of score, somatic direction and psychophysical interaction; collaborative processes in performance making; duration, time and memory affecting choreographic construction from the choreographer/performer perspective; the practice of drawing as scoring method, the tracing of time and space and memory; film / screen / camera as choreographic installation – design production and post-production; investigating, questioning and integrating notions of presence and embodiment in choreographic practice; resourcing and reflecting upon the moment of seeing – improvisation / choreographic response from the visual (painting); the creation of listening space – sound-scape and choreography.