ALISON CURTIS-JONES

Alison Curtis-Jones, Artistic Director of Summit Dance Theatre, is an internationally recognised dance artist and leading exponent of Rudolf Laban’s Dance Theatre work (1913-1928). Ali is a specialist in Choreology and teaches on the Dance Faculty at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London.

Ali’s re-creations include Laban’s Nacht (1927), in London 2010, 2011 and 2014 and with Summit Dance Theatre for Laban Event in Ascona, Switzerland, 2013, Green Clowns (Die Grunen Clowns, 1928) with Transitions Dance Company for The Laban International Conference: The Dynamic Body in Space, 2009, with Trinity Laban dancers in 2008 and commissioned to re-create Green Clowns in 2014, to commemorate the centenary of World War One and the Auschwitz Memorial in the UK, 2015.

Ali has presented conference papers and lecture demonstrations on her current practical research in practical historiography, re-creation and her method of technical dance training for contemporary dancers internationally. She has established a reputation as an internationally recognised leader for dance education and training, offering high quality master classes, lecture demonstrations and professional development for many dance and performing arts organisations. In October 2012, Ali taught master classes in embodying Laban’s radical dance theatre works, in Beijing, China. In 2013 and 2014, she taught and presented her research on Movement Choirs in relation to Flash Mobs, recreation processes and choreological principles in contemporary technical training, for the Laban Event International Conference in Ascona, Switzerland.

Her most recent work examining the influence of Dalcroze on Laban’s choreographic practice was presented at the Second Dalcroze International Conference in Vienna, in July 2015.

Ali’s current doctoral research examines practical historiography and questions the retrievability/irretrievability of ‘lost’ works, the issue of interpretation and the use of mental imagery in creative practice and technical training. She recently presented interdisciplinary approaches to learning and teaching for contemporary dancers in conservatoire training at the IADMS Conference in Basel, and the World Dance Alliance Global Summit in Angers, France. The Swiss Office of Culture awarded in 2014 the project to re-create two Laban works and Summit Dance Theatre will perform re-creations of Laban’s Ishtar’s Journey into Hades(1913) and Dancing Drumstick(1913) in Monte Verita, in October 2015.