About

Current Artistic and Managing Director of Rosendal Teater, Trondheim, Norway.

I work as a curator, artist, dramaturg and educator based in Norway.

Originally from the UK, I relocated to Iceland in 2012. My practice there was deeply connected to collaborations that took place in Reykjavík, but simultaneously I continued to work extensively with venues and platforms, as well as artists, across Europe and beyond.

Whether curating, making performances or developing learning situations, my work is highly collaborative and centres upon creating conditions within and through the performing arts for amplifying the visibility, audibility and agency of bodies and voices that are often lesser seen and heard in the places where we live.

During my first years at Rosendal Teater, I have been focussed on a five year development strategy of the theatre under the title Transforming the Performing Arts. Here my focus has been on driving an artistically bold programme that simulataneously:

  • grows, broadens and more deeply engages audiences of diverse ages, backgrounds, abilities and orientations

  • significantly improves resources and infrastructure for the independent performing arts field locally and nationally

  • drives change locally in ways that makes Trondheim and the surrounding region a more nourishing and sustainable place for independent artists to be based

  • develops and implements compelling models for how performing arts institutions can thrive into the future by rethinking how they are modelled economically, how they engage socially with an inclusivity and accessibility mindset, and how they use their voice and stages to engage diverse publics in the climate and environmental crisis.

Previously, I was Co-Artistic Director of the international performing arts platform Reykjavík Dance Festival (2014-2020) and Co-Artistic Director of artistic and curatorial initiative Teenagers in Reykjavík (2015-2020) – both with fellow curator Ásgerður G. Gunnarsdóttir.

Together we have been approaching the performing arts as a site for community-building where anti-racist, pro-queer, anti-colonial, interspecies and feminist ways of being together can be sought after and fought for. Our work has focussed on how the city and those dwelling in it can be empowered to speak and act through the performing arts, and simultaneously how artists can be empowered to bring their questions and practices into significant conversation and collaboration with the city.

Central to this work has been the reimagining and remodelling of organisations they work with (Reykjavík Dance Festival, Iceland University of the Arts, Teenagers in Reykjavík) towards modes of institutional being that are more porous, inclusive and fluid – and consequently more able to respond to the communities in and around them.

Additionally, I am one half of an artist duo with choreographer Ásrún Magnúsdóttir. The work focuses on stretching the dominant modes of dance and performance, and developing work in collaboration with people whose voices are often lesser represented. Our collaborations take different forms, spanning from co-authors, to choreographer and dramaturg, as well as artist and curator. Together we have made works with teenagers, residents of a housing block, as well as performance situations for people’s houses, among other things. Our work has been and will continue to show in Iceland with shows of Teenage Songbook of Love and Sex booked for an extended run on the main stage of the Reykjavík City Theatre in 2021, the commission of a new work by the Reykjavík Arts Festival for June 2020 and a new work with the Iceland Dance Company in Spring 2022. Our work has been nominated for and won various awards and continues to tour extensively all around Europe.

Furthermore, I work as a curator for one-off programmes, symposiums and events independently – both with partners in Iceland and internationally (Onassis Stegi Athens, Zodiak Centre for New Dance Helsinki, Downtown Contemporary Art Festival Cairo, among others). He has written for various significant journals and publications (Performance Research, Sarma, Choreography Anthology and Choreography: Autonomies). I have given workshops and talks in venues and various platforms across Europe and beyond (Tanzfabrik Berlin, Black Box Oslo, Zodiak Centre for New Dance Helsinki, Festival TransAmeriques Montreal, Workspace Glasgow and BUDA Kortrijk, among others). And works with different artists for one-off projects in a dramaturgical capacity (Dance for Me, Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, Saga Sigurðardóttir).

I have also been working as an Associate Professor and Programme Director for the Performing Arts MFA at Iceland University of the Arts between 2016 and 2020, and before that as co-Head of Theory within the Performing Arts Department at the same university.