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Neil Callaghan & Simone Kenyon have been a partnership for the last seven years. They make work that moves between dance, theatre and visual art. Their work takes place in traditional theatre settings as well as work for sites and journies through landscapes. Their work takes many forms but at its heart is a deep interest in the physical body and the physical experience of the audience. Individually hey have worked for some of the UK's leading theatre and dance makers including: Uninvited Guests, Deer Park, Hauser, Nic Green, Reckless Sleepers, Improbable, Lea Anderson's Featherstonehaughs, Requardt & Rosenburg, Maresa von Stockert, Emilyn Claid, Nicola Conibere. They also both received a Rules & Regs commission to make solo work at the Nuffield Theatre Lancaster. Their own studio based work has been commissioned by venues such as Exeter Phoenix Arts Centre, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Arnolfini Bristol, Nuffield Theatre Lancaster, BAC London. The work has toured across the UK, and been presented as part of the prestigious SPILL national Platform and PL:ay festival Plymouth. They have led a DIY project for the Live Art Development Agency and were commissioned by You & Your Work and Arnolfini to make a piece engaging the community of boaters living and working on Bristol's Floating Harbour. More recently they have been commissioned by Dance4 to create a series of score cards for NottDance and Lincoln Dances, offering ways for people to experience their surroundings in new ways. Their most recent commission was to create an audio walk for ECLATS festival in France. They both have extensive experience as teachers and workshop facilitators. Leading workshops, walks and faciliating discussions for numerous orgainisations and education institutions. As producers they have organised many Body Weather workshops with Dutch artist Frank van de Ven and all of the UK's Body/Landscape workshops that have taken place in remote locations in Wales, UK and Scotland over the last 5 years. They have continued this work in Czech Republic, Iceland, Ireland and France. Together with Joon Lyn Goh and Stoke Newington International Airport, they have presented the DISTANCE festival which in 2010 present 40 artists work over three days and in 2011 commissioned 6 artists to make new pieces which were presented as a mini-festival within three larger festivals: Homo Novus Lativa, LIFT London and Wunderbar Newcastle. Simone Kenyon has been a performer, artist and producer for the past 15 years working within a variety of contexts between experiemental dance, theatre and work that explores walking and environments.She has worked as a producer for Battersea Arts centre and is co-artistic director of DISTANCE festival. In 2011 she was the UK ambassador at the iDans residency in Istanbul. Her interest in walking practices has seen her develop the long distance walking project with Tamara Ashley: 'The Pennine Way: the legs that make'us' and delivered lectures and performances across the UK. She is co-curator of the Walking Institute and has been commissioned by Deveron Arts to develop a long distance walking path in East Scotland over the next 12months. She is about to lead a walking project for Lincoln Dances 2013, and will be leading a walk as part of Two Destination Language's Ashley Woods Farm Festival. Simone is currently training to be a Feldenkrais practitioner and will be co-leading a Walking with Movement Awareness weekend in Wales with Fiona Wright. Neil Callaghan has been making work for the last 12 years and is currently an associate artist of The Point Eastleigh. He has recently presented a new solo show 'A Certain Shaft of Light' as part of Forest Fringe's Gate Theatre season, What Now festival for Independent Dance and for the opening of the new Caryl Churchill theatre at Royal Holloway University. He is currently working on a Kedja dance commission with Janina Rajakangas in Ainaizi, Latvia and will conclude the project in Stamsund, Norway in early 2014. This August he will go to Vienna to work with choreographer Doris Uhlich on her new piece More Than Naked. He will then be performing in 'Ours Was The Fen Country' with Dan Canham's Still House in Edinburgh Festival. Neil has directed summer courses for the National Youth Theatre and performances for the Dukes Youth Theatre, Lancaster and BAC's homegrown project. For the last two years he has taught repertoire and choreography modules at Cantebury & Chirstchurh university. This Autumn along with Laura Simi from Caen he will deliever a youth exchange project for The Point as part of Dansce Dialogues2.
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