Rachel Dean

Rachel Dean is a contemporary choreographer and dancer based in Leeds. She graduated from The Northern School of Contemporary Dance in 2006 before doing a Graduate Apprenticeship with The Cholmondeleys and Featherstonehaughs. In 2007 and 2009 she was selected for the International Danceweb Scholarship at Impulstanz Festival. During 2007/2008 she taught technique, somatic practice, contact improvisation and creative practice at The University of Chester. She has recently been selected by Yorkshire Dance to be a member of The Fourteen training programme.

She has a particular interest in collaboration with other artists and art forms, site-specific work and contact improvisation. Recent collaborations have been with a composer, dressmaker and theatre devisor. Earlier this year she directed Entwined, a dance theatre piece performed by a dressmaker and a dancer (Supported by Arts Council England, Chisenhale Dance Space and Yorkshire Dance). In 2008 she created Love in Idleness, a site-specific dance theatre piece made and performed in the gardens of a stately home on Midsummer Night (Commission from Dance in Herts). She has performed for Wayne Sables, Out of the Box, Faceless Theatre and The Body Cartography Project as well as in her own work.

Rachel originally developed Nativity as part of the Open Space scheme at Theatre in the Mill

Nativity from Rachel Dean on Vimeo.