Thea Stanton DANCE
ABOUT THEA
My name is Thea Stanton, and I’m a South-American born British choreographer. If I had to chose one word to describe my work, it would be 'connection'.
I create site-specific performances that using choreography and theatre imaginatively engage both audiences and performers with unusual and beautiful settings, and create shared active experiences.
Drawn to both psychological and historical subjects my productions tell stories about what it is to feel human, vulnerable and complex –and encourage performers and viewers alike to forge connections with each other and within themselves. Creating and immersive experience begins with work in the dance studio, and carries right through to all elements of the performance, from location to to the tickets, to leading the audience in and out of the space.
My movement style is influenced both by rigorous classical dance forms and more explorative somatic and contemporary practices, juxtaposing lyrical bright lines with more chaotic moments of contact contacts and intense physical floor-work.
I completed a Masters in Choreography as a Scholar at Trinity Laban, graduating with Merit in 2013. I have previously choreographed works for the Place, The Bridewell Theatre, Lanterns Studio Theatre, TripSpace, The Royal Academy of Arts, Asylum, Edinburgh Fringe, and contributed to Big Dance (Trafalgar Square) 2012.
I have collaborated collectives Bastard Assignments, Ensemble Lumiere, as well as founding my own successful cross arts venture, Spun Through Shadows. I have also had extensive experience project managing events at venues such as the Southbank Centre, The Horniman Museum and Gardens, The Barbican Centre and the arts festival, ‘Spontaneous Combustion. Most recently I have been invited to lecture on immersion, the body and cross arts collaboration at Goldsmiths, Trinity Laban and Arts University Bournemouth.
Colleagues
"Thea Stanton choreographed and devised an experimental programme of dance and music performances which took place in March 2015 in the RA’s Burlington Gardens building over two evenings. It was a bold and creative way of engaging with the buildings spaces and history, demonstrating the links between movement, sound and architecture.The performances beautifully encouraged audiences to move around the RA’s more formal spaces differently, with many lying down on the floor as performances came to an end – enabling a more sensory engagement with architecture."
Kate Goodwin, Head of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts
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“Working for Thea was like swimming in a river full of inspiration, driving and positive energy, creativity and fulfillment. I felt fully appreciated as
an artist and nourished to go further.”
Verena Schneider, Dancer
Audiences
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“As a visual artist, interested in the moving figure in space, I find that Thea Stanton’s choreography has had a lasting impact on how I think about
movement's expansive outward reach and it's condensing impact with the floor.”
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Wendy Robin, Artist, age 73
“As someone unfamiliar with contemporary dance I found the evening an open and engaging experience. Spun Through Shadows encouraged
me as an audience member to see the performance space as an integral and dynamic part of the piece, not merely a backdrop. I want to see
more!”
Katie Norman, Social Worker, age 26
Critics
“As the violinist walks onto the darkened stage to join the other players…we know this will be a work of intensity and intrigue…Dancers Gordon
Raeburn and Verena Schneider are locked together in a needy, knotty duet, driven forcibly by the shrill rousing strings and an inner kinetic
power. A visceral portrayal of Carl Jung’s notion of The Shadow!”
Josephine Liesk, The Place Review
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