Peppy Hills
Peppy has worked internationally for major dance and theatre companies and as a creative practitioner, trainer, evaluator and lecturer within education, health and community settings. Peppy is particularly interested in how movement and dance can integrate into everyday learning opportunities to strengthen relationships and support the healthy development of babies and children.
Her work specialises in physicality and creative learning in early years settings, and initiatives that engage individuals & communities who are often excluded from a mainstream provision. Peppy is also a qualified Play Therapist and trainee Filial Coach. Peppy is passionate about creating safe spaces for people to inhabit their bodies wherever they are at in their lives and helping people to relinquish imposter syndrome!
Lou Cope
Lou is a UK-based dance & theatre dramaturg who has worked across the UK, Europe and in the Middle East. She is the founder of CoAD - The Centre of Applied Dramaturgy and specialises in collaborative practice. Recent/current collaborations include: Garry Stewart & Australian Dance Theatre, Aakash Odedra, Gary Clarke, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet; Rhiannon Faith, Stopgap Dance.
Lou also offers Practice Dramaturgy – working with artists outside of productions, and has a podcast called Downtime. Past collaborations include: Phoenix Dance Theatre; Scottish Dance Theatre; les ballets c de la b; Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui & Damien Jalet.
Aakash Odedra
Aakash was born in Birmingham, UK and lives in Leicester. He is a globally recognised award-winning dancer and choreographer. He trained in bharatanatyam, kathak and became a student of Bollywood choreographer Shiamak Davar. As a British-Asian, Aakash uses his choreographic voice to push boundaries, translating ancient and contemporary movement to tell new stories.
Major highlights have included winning a Bessie (New York), Dora (Canada) and an Amnesty International Award. He’s collaborated with Turner-Prize winner Chris Ofili in a commission for the Royal Ballet and celebrates his company’s 10th anniversary in 2021. He’s an Associate Artist at Curve Leicester and Birmingham Hippodrome. Aakash Odedra Company is a National Partner Organisation of Sadler’s Wells and an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.
Photo credit: Mehrban Hussain.
Nikki Watson
Hailing from a working-class background, Nikki is a neurodiverse female choreographer and performer. Nikki has been making professional and community-led dance productions since 2013. She has a passion for making art with social conscience, specialising in creating dance theatre through participatory methods that put people's voices and lived experiences at the heart of the work.
The voices of communities, shared, and lived experiences are fundamental in shaping her work. Nikki believes that audiences know more about what artists can say than just the artist themselves, but she believes as artists we have a gift and a vehicle to tell those stories in unique, innovative and unusual ways that enable people to connect in ways they didn’t know they could. Nikki collaborates with visual artists, composers and performers, using multimedia and digital technology to discover and explore ways of engaging new audiences and existing participants in dance.
She believes that as artists, we should be problem solvers, and although we don’t have all the answers, she thinks that through collaboration and imagination, we have the ability to solve problems of not only what we present to audiences, but how we present those. Nikki generally doesn’t present work in traditional dance spaces as she thinks we should be challenging ourselves to find new ways to engage audiences on their terms. Nikki believes in thinking big!