BIOGRAPHY
Photo by Agnès Villette
Darren Royston is an established international choreographer, director, dance consultant in opera and drama. He is also a specialist in historical dance and movement for actors. He works regularly in theatre, musicals, opera, film and television.
Darren is the artistic director of Nonsuch History & Dance, a council member for the UNESCO International Dance Council, a drama consultant at the Laban Guild International. For two decades he was Associate Tutor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). He is also a freelance dance consultant working in theatres, including the National Theatre and the Old Vic.
TV credits include being Dancing Master on BBC4’s Dancing Cheek to Cheek, appearing on The Alan Titchmarsh Show for ITV, Supersizers Go... Restoration with Sue Perkins and Giles Coren, Armstrong & Miller and on the BBC’s Blue Peter.
In film, Darren worked as choreographer for Werner Herzog’s Queen of the Desert starring Nicole Kidman. Other credits include Robert Young’s Wide Blue Yonder starring Lauren Bacall and Brian Cox and Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake starring Imelda Staunton.
His choreographic work for stage is immense, including She Stoops To Conquer at the National Theatre and The Duchess of Malfi at the Old Vic both directed by Jamie Lloyd, a multitude of Shakespeare productions with The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the UK première of Stephen Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle, and numerous plays in different genres, including contemporary, modern and classic.
In Opera, Darren was founding Stage Director at PopUp Opera where his credits include Die Entführung, Don Pasquale, Così Fan Tutte, L’Elisir d’Amore, Serva Padrone and Docteur Miracle. Internationally, Darren has worked in Spain, Norway, Iceland and Thailand, including at Opera Siam and Bangkok Youth Opera. His choreography for The Bartered Bride at Garsington Opera received 5-star reviews!
Darren publications include books and articles, including Dramatic Dance: An Actor’s Approach to Dance as a Dramatic Art (Bloomsbury/Methuen), and a chapter entitled “Filthie groping and uncleane handlings: an examination of touching moments in dance of court and courtship” in The Senses in Early Modern England 1558-1660 (MUP, 2015).
Darren began performing as a child actor in musical theatre, studied at Cambridge University, Trinity Laban in London, and is currently PhD candidate at Faculty of Music & Performing Arts at University Pendidikan Sultan Idris in Malaysia. Teachers of Rudolf Laban’s work included Marion North, Valerie Preston-Dunlop, Geraldine Stephenson, Jean Newlove, Warren Lamb, Gordon Curl, Walli Meier, Ann Hutchinson-Guest. He gained experience as a choreographer at the New York Film Academy and National Film and TV School, won the Bonnie Bird Choreography Award, the Lisa Ullman Scholarship and the Motus Humanus Scholarship, Minnesota. He has taught all levels of students, from kindergarten to postgraduate, including several projects in Thai national and international schools, and as lecturer at Bangkok University, Mahidol University, Silpakorn University, Thammasat University and projects with the Siam Society under Royal Patronage and Goethe Institute.