I began my training in dance and theatre at The Katrina Hughes School of Dance and Theatre in Yorkshire . As a member of the performing company, The Katrina Hughes Dancers, I toured Austria, Germany, USA and the former USSR . Following courses with the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, with tutors including James Simmonds, Patricia Doyle and Imogen Clare, I performed in Lionel Bart's BLITZ! at the Playhouse, London, working with director Edward Wilson and choreographer David Toguri, and subsequently with David Toguri in cabaret at the Grosvenor House Hotel performing with Barry Humphries and Elton John.  

I was a student at Queens ' College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA ( Hons ) in English literature in 1994. The course enabled me to study the history and development of drama and literature, including Renaissance studies and   Shakespeare in Performance. My first dissertation considered how Shakespeare incorporated renaissance dance forms into his plays, and my second examined the use of parody in Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta, Patience, which lampooned Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetic Movement of the Nineteenth Century.

It was while at Cambridge that I first began to be involved in the production side of theatre. In my first year, I directed The Maids   ( Jean Genet) with an all-male cast, and used my experience in dance to choreograph Babes in Arms and Fiddler on the Roof with Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G) as Tevye . As an actor, I played Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Spenser in Edward II, and toured to the Edinburgh Festival with a Cambridge Footlights show ( Robin Hood 2 ) and La Cage aux Folles . In my second year, I directed and choreographed Grease, which was extended due to its sell-out success!

I was responsible for musical staging SEXPO 93 – a charity variety show produced by Matthew Mitchell at the Cambridge Corn Exchange with Stephen Fry and 200 University students, and I choreographed the University Fashion Show in aid of Barnados with Yasmin le Bon and directed by Claudia Winkleman . During the summer, I choreographed Ghetto (Joseph Sobol ) directed by Laura Harvey that toured Ireland, and directed Hay Fever (Noel Coward) for the Cambridge Festival and Dafni (a revival of a Scarlatti opera) for Cambridge and Munich Early Opera.

In my final year I established a Performance Art group, Big Bang, comprising students interested in dance and movement, and I worked as the choreographer on productions of Cabaret, Blues in the Night, and the Cambridge Footlights National Summer Tour. I was director/choreographer of Patience (Gilbert & Sullivan) at the Corn Exchange. The enormous venue and large cast of sixty performers made the event a visual spectacle, and my production began in the authentic Victorian style of 1881 before being overturned to the hippified 1970's with the arrival of the new “fashionable poet” in Act II. In the summer, I directed an open-air production of Much Ado About Nothing and directed, choreographed and played Timothy in the musical comedy Salad Days .

In 1994 I began studying the M.A. in Dance Studies course at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London (LABAN). The course enabled me to develop my choreographic experience, to study Visual Design (Lighting/Set/Costume), and to consider theories of movement relevant for the actor and singer. I was involved in performances at the Laban Centre and at the Place Theatre, and choreographed the world premiere of Elgar's opera, The Spanish Lady, in November 1994.

In the summer of 1995 I was involved with two productions performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I directed and choreographed a new production of West Side Story for Threshold Theatre Company, which received a 5-star Scotsman Review, and launched an experimental performance group: The Synaesthetes, which explored taste and smell in a studio performance at the Southside Café based on tea tasting.

In 1996, I worked as assistant director to Sue Lefton (Movement Director, RSC) on a production of Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea at the Bridewell Theatre, London with Alex Kingston in the title role. In this position I was given responsibility to co-ordinate, manage and direct actors in educational workshops for schools, exploring the practical application of the theories of Artaud, Brecht and Stanislavski. Following this I gained work experience at the English National Opera, shadowing David Alden (director) and Michael Keegan-Dolan (choreographer) on the production of Handel's Ariodante and shadowing Stuart Hopps (choreographer & revival director) on David Poutney's production of The Cunning Little Vixen . As part of the Battersea Arts Centre Opera Festival, I directed and choreographed a fully-staged production of Handel's masque, Acis & Galatea, expanding the involvement of the chorus to produce a highly physical ensemble piece.

After being awarded a Distinction for my work at the Laban Centre, I was employed to create the musical staging for Upstage Productions' revue: Oedipus – the Pantomime at the Pleasance Theatre, London with David Mitchell and Robert Webb. The musical numbers were created through collaboration between the composer, the writers, and myself and the choreography incorporated several parodies, including the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony and the Irish Riverdance !

In 1997 I was awarded the Bonnie Bird Choreography Award, and in 1999 was awarded the Lisa Ullman Scholarship to further my work in dance and opera. This research has led to a project involving opera singers, dancers and actors that was developed at the BAC, London .

Since 1997, my freelance work has been extremely diverse (see Professional Credits ). I have worked for UK companies such as English Touring Theatre, Music Theatre London, The King's Head Theatre, Greenwich Playhouse, Croydon Warehouse, BAC, The Bridewell Theatre and travelled to Norway to work for the Haugesund Teater and to the City Theatre in Reykjavik, Iceland . Opera work has taken me to Milan, Hong Kong, France and USA (with Columbia Artists Management) in addition to work at the Holland Park Festival and in the regional UK theatres, Hoxton Hall in London, and the Linbury Studio of the Royal Opera House. With European Chamber Opera I have choreographed and directed productions that have toured throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East with my work touring to theatres in UK (Buxton Opera House, Gordon Craig Stevenage, Poole Arts Centre, Brighton Theatre Royal, Gawsworth Hall, Richmond Theatre, Framlingham Castle, Marlowe Canterbury, Queen's Barnstaple, Reading Hexagon, Jersey Opera House, Cambridge Corn Exchange, Longborough Festival, Norwich Theatre Royal, Malvern Theatre, Oxford Playhouse, Yvonne Arnaud Guildford, Bath Theatre Royal, Hever Castle Kent, Isle of Man Gaiety Theatre, Sheffiled Lyceum, Hall for Cornwall Truro, Civic Theatre Darlington and Greenwich Theatre London.)

In musical theatre, I have choreographed Guys and Dolls for RADA, and worked on several Sondheim musicals including the UK Premiere of Anyone Can Whistle at the Bridewell Theatre, Merrily We Roll Along ( Greenwich ), Assassins ( Landor, with transfer to Bermuda Festival directed by Nick Bligh) and Into the Woods (RADA). I staged a Tap Dance cabaret show, based on Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, which premiered at the Arts Club in Mayfair , London . In 2005 I will work as director/choreographer on a new production of CHICAGO for Dubai .

My work has also included cabaret, revue, variety and circus . In 1999, I was assistant choreographer to Terry John Bates at Legoland, Windsor in the circus tent. In 2003, I worked with the acrobats for ZIPPOS CIRCUS who received the CFA award for best acro -balance act.

My skill as a movement specialist, choreographing crowds and dance scenes, has been put to good use in television and film. With experience at the National TV & Film School and the New York Film Academy, I have worked for BBC, Carlton TV and Granada on a number of TV dramas and children's TV series, and appear in the dance scene in the Mike Leigh film VERA DRAKE.

In 2006, I was appointed Artistic Director of NONSUCH History & Dance. (www.nonsuch-history-and-dance.org.uk)

I am interested in Dance Research and have continued my research into the theories of Rudolf Laban, undertaking postgraduate research (PhD programme) at the LABAN in London, and using my practical experience of the Laban system to teach movement to singers and actors. I have also researched the development of dance through history, including dances from the courts of Europe (Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Nineteenth Century, Ragtime & 1920's) with Nonsuch History & Dance, and at the English Folk Song & Dance Society. I am currently Honorary Secretary to the European Association of Dance Historians, organising conferences on dance history throughout Europe .