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CREATION, CHOREOGRAPHY & COLLABORATIVE PROCESS
My creative contribution within educational and professional settings includes choreographing bespoke works with student or professional cohorts and guiding them through the full creative lifecycle — from initial R&D, through rehearsal process, to public performance. Vocational, conservatoire and lab projects I have worked on include:
PRACTICE, EMBODIED INQUIRY, IMPROVISATION, MENTORINGI teach and facilitate choreographic and research-led practice with an approach that is embodied and formally grounded — enabling performers to cultivate clarity of form and deep presence simultaneously. I draw on my training in Modern Jazz, Contemporary, Butoh, Somatics, Laban and Yoga.This rich background allows me to tailor my approach to different contexts and groups.
I taught contemporary dance technique classes for 10 years at all levels, at Danceworks, Pineapple Dance Studios, Urdang Academy, The Place, and Margaret Howard Theatre Schools, among others. Today, I lead creative workshops for dance and performing arts courses, institutions and professional groups. These recently included CAT at London Contemporary Dance School and Swindon Dance, and SIB Dance Lab. I also provide private coaching and 1-to-1 mentoring. Workshops can involve:
Intensives and residencies provide more time together for:
My teaching promotes clarity and discipline alongside a playful, experimental attitude. I encourage authenticity and bravery, deep awareness and individuality of expression. In working with James you were able to engender his confidence by asking him to demonstrate moves which he felt comfortable with. When refining choreography, you asked questions which made him consider how his body moved to its best advantage. You spoke to him as an equal, in a calm and encouraging manner and always took his ideas and preferences into account, ensuring therefore that he had ownership of the work. Alongside my role as a dance artist and facilitator, I offer live DJing and sound-scaping as a tool within creative workshops and research-led processes. Used as a responsive artistic tool, sound can accompany structured improvisation, enhance time/space awareness and support compositional research.
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EMBODIED PRACTICE AS RESEARCHThese workshops support creativity, research, and performance through body, perception, and sensation — not as an alternative to thinking, but as a complementary and highly precise mode of inquiry.
Working within structured improvisational and physical frameworks influenced by somatic practices, participants develop embodied tools for authentic creation, presence, storytelling, and problem-solving. The work cultivates attentiveness, clarity, and agency, supporting expressive freedom, originality and formal decision-making. While rooted in performance training, this practice extends beyond dancers and actors. I have delivered Embodied Practice workshops for designers, musicians, sound practitioners, and technologists, enabling participants to access transferable strategies applicable to their own disciplines and working contexts. My methodology has evolved over more than 15 years and is adaptable to different groups and formats, from single masterclasses to multi-day intensives or short courses. Recent and ongoing contexts include SIB Dance Lab (Norway), VRINN Immersive Learning Cluster (Norway), Leo Cosendai’s sound-healing training programme (UK), and higher education settings. Since 2010, I have worked closely with the MA/MFA Scenography programme at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, delivering intensives that support designers and performance-makers in understanding materiality, scale, and collaboration through physical exploration. Alongside this, I have been commissioned to choreograph works for BA Design students, accompanying them through production meetings and tutorials on collaborative and professional processes. Scarlett’s workshop at the Nordic VR Forum was truly a breath of fresh air. It challenged us to think deeply about our bodies and how physical awareness shapes immersive experiences. The session was highly interactive, engaging, and left a lasting impression — I still reflect on what I learned, even months after the event. An inspiring and transformative workshop that I would recommend to anyone working in XR or creative experience design. - Keith Mellingen, VR/AR Director & VRINN Business Cluster Manager Scarlett has been a formidable collaborator in her continuous willingness to keep developing workshops over the years based on changing material conditions as well as feedback from students and staff. Her workshops...remain a profound influence on the students' practice throughout the rest of the course and in their professional career thereafter. - Dr Simon Donger, Course Leader MA/MFA Scenography, Royal Central School of Speech & Drama. "Scarlett and I have collaborated on several occasions over the past few years. I find great pleasure in working with her through the creative process, she combines the flexibility of devising with fine choreography, for it all to come together. Scarlett has the ability to work with all kinds of people, leading them through creations where fine precision and quality are cherished." - Annette Brandanger, Artistic Director of SIB Dance Lab (Norway) Scarlett's workshops have been immensely valuable for my trainees. I admire her approach and her novel perspective on internal and external movement. - Leo Cosendai, Creative Director & Sound Facilitator, Founder of Third Ear. In 2019, I founded the Forum on Embodied Practice, an opportunity for peer exchange, research and growth for a range of practitioners and artists who participate and lead sessions in turn. The Forum collaborated with SIB Dance Lab in Norway and received support from the Lisa Ullman Travel Scholarship Fund. Read more about the FEP here.
[The Forum has] an open and flexible form, still there's a clear framework and continuum. |