Hanna Gillgen (Co artistic director of h2dance/choreographer/performer)

Originally from Sweden Hanna trained at London Contemporary Dance School 1991-1994. As well as co directing h2dance, Hanna is currently part time lecturer at Roehampton University where she teaches Release technique, improvisation and composition.

Her choreographic work has been performed in several venues around the UK and internationally such as The Biennale for Arts in Turin, Italy 2000, Monty, Antwerpen, Belgium 2003, Kanon Hallen Copenhagen, Denmark 2004, Gavalla Theatre, Zagreb, Croatia 2003, Theatre de Caen, Caen, France 1997, Dansens Hus, Stockholm, Sweden 2003 and Post Hof Teater in Linz, Austria 1997.

Hanna has choreographed three dance film works: “Concrete Wasp” (2000) which won a Dance on Screen Production Award, “Love Me Not” (2001) - an Arts Council of England Capture Commission in collaboration with film director Thomas Gray and “GOLD” (2003) in collaboration with director Rachel Davies (winner of IMZ Dance on Screen Award 2005).

As well as her work for h2dance, Hanna has choreographed for EDGE09, London Contemporary Dance School 2009, MAPdance (Chichester University MA Performance Group) 2008, Brighton and Hove Youth dance company in 2007, Sweden's national contemporary dance company NorrDans 2003 and for LUDUS Dance Company 2001.

Hanna was commissioned by the Place in 2005 to undertake research in collaboration with animator Gemma Burditt, exploring choreography and projection, and is currently researching with Rachel Davies for her film installation working titled Balancing Act.

As a performer she has worked with among others Bedlam Dance Company, Physical Recall, David Massingham, Istoc Kovac, Colin Poole, Artgenossen (Germany) and Cie Tandem/Michele Noiret ( Brussels, Belgium).

Hanna teaches regularly, both professionals and under graduates, at The Place, Greenwich Dance Agency, London Contemporary Dance School, Laban and at various dance academies in Sweden.

Heidi Rustgaard (Co artistic director of h2dance/choreographer/designer/performer)

Heidi came to London to study dance at The London Studio Centre in 1992. Since 1999, Heidi has co directed h2dance and created work as a choreographer and designer and performer of their productions.

Heidi has taken up residency at NES artist residency, Iceland, Union Scene Drammen, Norway 2010, The Place Choreodrome, London, Scenerommet Vestfossen, Norway, Devir CAPa, (Centro de Artes Performativas do Algarve) Portugal 2009, Taipei Artist Village in Taiwan, 2007 and Gaara Dance Foundation in Kenya, 2001.

In October 2004 Heidi won the Shrinking Cities competition (German Federal Cultural Foundation and Archplus) in Germany with the project Cow – the udder way in collaboration with Ulrike Steven (artist/architect) Gareth Morris (architect) Susanne Thomas (choreographer) Eike Sindlinger (architect) and Paul Cotter (film maker). The work was shown at DAZ (The German Architectural Centre) and Leipzig Gallery of Contemporary Arts, autumn 2005. The exhibition has since toured to New York, Detroit, Cleveland, Manchester, Dortmund and Montreal.

She has delivered commissions for The Place, The Victoria & Albert and Natural History Museums in London and choreographed for students at The Circus Space , London Metropolitan University, Dartington College of Arts, London Studio Centre and Manchester Metropolitan University.

As a performer Heidi has worked for companies like Duckie, Clod Ensemble, seven sisters group, Colin Pool, Silence Crossing and Rorschach Collective.

Heidi teaches regularly in both the UK and in Scandinavia ranging from young children to professional level at places like Laban, The Place, Millennium Dance 2000, London Contemporary Dance School, Gallery 37, Gratis Daglig Trening, Independent Dance, Greenwich Dance Agency and Youth Dance England. She is currently teaching creative movement at The Circus Space.

Darren Anderson (Performer: To Die For)

Darren Anderson studied at the Queensland University of Technology and the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. After graduating in 2004 he has worked with Jam-Bird Co Lab in multi media dance pieces Dispatch and Dispatch 2. In 2005 Darren performed with Company 44 in the Resolution! season at The Place. Darren worked with Vincent Dance Theatre on the highly acclaimed work ‘Broken Chords’ and toured the show in 2005/2006/2007. In 2006 he worked for Welsh Independent Dance on the ‘Dance Bites’ touring through out Wales, and the Chris Haring Project. Darren performed in Opera Norths ‘Dido & Aeneas/Les Noces’, which Aletta Collins choreographed and directed. Summer 2007 Darren worked with Vincent Dance Theatre on research and development for a new show to be created next year. To Die For is Darrens first collaboration with h2dance. Darren is currently working with CandoCo.

Laura Doehler (Performer: SAY SOMETHING, To Die For, Left Behind and På Gränsen)

Laura completed her Ba(hons) Dance theatre in 2004 and went on to work as a professional dancer in the field of contemporary dance, dance theatre and improvisation. She has worked with Companhia de Dança do Norte (Portugal), Perform(d)ance (Germany) and h2dance (London) for many years amongst others and continues her research in the field of improvisation and performance. She is currently undergoing her Masters in Performance Making as well as realizing solo improvisation performances. She also teaches dance and improvisation at various venues across London.

Gareth Green (Performer: SAY SOMETHING, ON/OFF and To Die For)

Originally from Cheshire trained at London Contemporary Dance School, studying for a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Honours, Postgraduate Diploma and Masters Degree in Contemporary Dance.

Gareth works as a freelance dancer and dance teacher. He has worked for various companies including h2dance, English National Opera and is part of the improvisation group Neat Timothy. He has taught extensively throughout the UK as well as Denmark, Portugal, Spain and the Basque Country.

He also works as a freelance Production Manager and Lighting Designer and has lit work for and production-managed companies including: h2dance, 5 Men Dancing, EDge, Eva Recacha (Place Prize Finalist 2011), Jose Vidal (Place Prize Semi Finalist 2008), Made By Katie Green, London Contemporary Dance School, Lost Dog, MWAG (Place Prize Semi Finalist 2006), Oskola (Euskal Herria), Rick Nodine & Neat Timothy amongst many others.

Gareth is currently touring with Wired Aerial Theatre as a Climber in their international tour of 'As The World Tipped'.

Nicholas Lawson (Performer: To Die For)

Nick Lawson studied dance at London Contemporary Dance School, and went on to perform for EDge post graduate dance company, working with choreographers such as Siobhan Davies, Sue MacLennan, Trisha Brown and Annais Bout. Since graduating Nick has enjoyed free lance teaching and performing, dancing for Aletta Colins, Jen Irons and Marc Brew.
He enjoys improvisation and investigative work and he also does a variety of teaching and education work for companies such as CandoCo. To Die For is Nicks first project with h2dance.

Anne-Gaelle Thiriot (Performer: SAY SOMETHING)

Anne-Gaëlle grew up in Burgundy, France. She studied contemporary dance at Laban and Contact Improvisation, yoga and Body Mind Centering between Paris, Italy, Israel and UK. She currently studies Choreological Studies at Laban, a research course on Laban's theory and practice contemporary developments. She works as a dancer, teacher and dance-maker for companies or choreographers such as Giannalberto De Filippis and Michal Mualem (Sasha Waltz and Guests), Joe Moran, Plan B, City Lit and Candoco, working with professionals as well as giving some people their very first dance experience. She has also collaborated with companies Tadam (Noa Zamir, Israel) and Dirty Market Theatre since 2008, and taught for Dance United in Bradford and on their Destino project.

She loves improvisation and instant composition, performing and watching performances in all possible contexts, official, anonymous, hidden, spontaneous, etc. Working on SAY SOMETHING is her first project with h2dance.

Peter Jansson (Performer: På Gränsen and SAY SOMETHING)

Originally from Sweden where Peter graduated from the Ballet Academy, Stockholm in 2004. Since then has worked with a range of choreographers and dance companies in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, USA and the UK. He has worked for choreographers and companies like Jasmin Vardimon, Björn Säfsten, Fernando Magadan, Halla Olafsdottir, André Mesquita, Anna Koch/W.E.L.D. Cross Connection Ballet Company, Linda Forsman/Korda Dans, Fuse Company, Cecilie Martha Dancecompany, Skanes Dancetheatre, Lidia Wos, Christopher Aruoni and h2dance.

Sylvia Hallett (Composer: Choir Project:Attention, SAY SOMETHING and ON/OFF)

Sylvia Hallett trained at Dartington and in Paris, and works as a composer and improviser. She has worked extensively with dance (Extemporary Dance Theatre, Miranda Tufnell, Lost Dog, From Here to Maturity, Sue Maclennan, Jacky Lansley, Eva Karczag, h2dance) and with theatre, (RSC, Young Vic, Wonderful Beast). She has composed music for a number of BBC Radio dramas, and also plays experimental improvised music combining electronics with instruments such as the violin or the bowed bicycle wheel. Recent solo performances have been in Museo Vostell in Caceres, Spain, Cafe Oto, and The Vortex in London. She has released several CDs - 3 solo CDs and numerous albums in collaboration with other musicians (Clive Bell, Mike Adcock, Jochen Irmler).

Her work with h2dance has been developing over the last 3 years, from creating the music for pieces choreographed on students at London Met and The Place, to researching and composing music for the Choir Project: Say Something, and ON/OFF .

www.sylviahallett.co.uk

MOTO (Composers: To Die For and På Gränsen)

MOTO is a sound engineering/ percussionist duo that consists of percussionist Henrik Gillgren and sound engineer/flutist Olla Eliasson. They have composed sound scores for amongst others Swedish Television, Bo Landin, Discovery Channel as well as making scores for both short and feature film.

MOTO has composed sound scores for h2dance on their last two productions; To Die For, 2007 and På Gränsen/On the Limit that premiered at Värmland’s Opera in Sweden autumn 2005.

Henrik studied percussion in Sweden and at Guildhall School of music and drama and freelances playing for dance and musicals as well as opera, cabarets and various bands such as National Anthems.

Ola studied sound engineering and started making sound for nature and science documentaries. He is now part of a film production company in Sweden where he directs the sound.

Mark Whitelaw (Dramturg)

Mark graduated from Crewe and Alsager College in 1987 with a first class honours degree. He worked with Steve Purcell and Co on A marvel we had (always longed for) at Riverside studios and touring. He then formed the Glee Club Performance Company with whom he created 14 performances that toured nationally and internationally. These include At last, the sea (1988), Cotton Mathers Wonders of the invisible world (1995, winner of M.E.N Theatre Award and Barclays New Stages) and Beatrice on the Frankfurt Express (1997).

As well as his work for the Glee Club he worked with numerous other dance and theatre companies, including Dutch Performance artist Peter Zegveld, Mem Morrison(directing Kit, Showroom and Lilac), Ursula Martinez (co writing and directing Family outing, Show Off, OAP and My stories Your emails), The People Show (People Show 101 and 103, Insomniac productions (l’ascensore, if we shadows), New Art Club, Bedlam Dance company, Ludus Dance company (directing Perfecting Eugene and Trapped) He directed DUCKIE’S christmas show C’est Vauxhall that won an Olivier Award and and co directed The Class Club at Barbican in 2006. He worked with Hanna Gillgren on Stor stärk cowboys for Norrdans and he was dramaturg on h2dance’s Butterfly belly, Faked and Silent Movie as well as Stair works.

departs ltd (Tour Producers)

dep arts ltd is a UK-based independent producers and arts consultancy company. dep arts ltd was established by David Edmunds in April 2006. David has an extensive working knowledge of the arts industry having worked for numerous arts organisations throughout his career including the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, the RSC, Phoenix Dance Theatre and The Lowry. David has an extensive knowledge of touring both in the UK and overseas and has been responsible for setting up and managing tours and productions in numerous countries including Holland, Germany, The USA, Spain, Cyprus and Greece, as well as tours to all scales of venue in the UK.
The company is based at Yorkshire Dance in Leeds and has been since April 2009. It has a core staff team of four people.

dep arts ltd as Producers specialise in Dance and Physical Theatre. As a result, they have an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the art forms. dep arts also has experience of setting up and managing site specific and mass public participation projects. They have progammed and curated work for arts festivals & venues and advise venues on their dance and physical theatre programmes.
The scale of companies / artists they work with varies to include everyone from independent choreographers to large scale international companies. They have extensive experience and a particular passion for working with emerging artists in a producer capacity.

In addition to their core staff team they also work with a number of partners from Fundraisers and Marketing / PR specialists to Technical and Production support staff, all of whom can be brought in by the company to provide additional support and enhance the work of dep arts on any given project.