Photo: gavinevans.com The Phoenix Dance Company was formed in 1981 by David Hamilton (Artistic Director), Donald Edwards and Vilmore James. These three young men had their enthusiasm for dance sparked by the tuition they received in school. Their fresh approach to contemporary dance won them support amongst audiences and critics and they quickly built a following beyond their home city. In 1987, Phoenix made some major changes - moving out of Chapeltown and establishing a permanent base at Yorkshire Dance in Leeds city centre. Phoenix also employed female dancers for the first time and increased to a company of ten. Since 1981, Phoenix have worked with a diverse range of choreographers including Phillip Taylor, Shapiro & Smith, Bebe Miller, Michael Clark, Mark Baldwin, Dwight Roden, Rui Horta, Henri Oguile and the late Tom Jobe. We have worked with musicians and composers including Courtney Pine, Jocelyn Pook and Orphy Robinson and have commissioned music from South Asian Arts UK. Highlights in the company's performing history include the 1996 Cultural Olympiad in Atlanta, where Phoenix was the sole representative of British dance and the following year, when the company was commissioned to perform at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Edinburgh. In 2007 Phoenix were invited to perform at the 5th International Festival of Contemporary Dance - La Biennale di Venezia, where it was an honour for us to present the closing performance of the festival. For their 2006 Stories in Red tour, Phoenix were awarded the Company Prize for Outstanding Modern Repertoire by the Critics’ Circle. Phoenix received two nominations in the 2005 Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards and, in the same year, were also nominated in the Dance category of the South Bank Show Awards. We have been awarded the Grand Prize for Ballet Theatre at the International Choreographic Competition in Bagnolet, France and a Digital Dance Award, were nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award and were Finalist in the EMMA Awards. As testimony to the artistic choices made at Phoenix since the appointment of Javier De Frutos, the company received recognition at the 2007 Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards. Dane Hurst, one of the new generation of dancers at Phoenix won the Spotlight Award for Best Male Modern Dancer for his performances with Rambert Dance Company. Whilst Kialea Nadine-Williams, a past Phoenix dancer, won the Spotlight Award for Best Female Modern Dancer for her performances with Phoenix, which included Jane Dudley’s solo Harmonica Breakdown (1938). De Frutos was also nominated for Best Choreography(Modern), for Los Picadores and Paseillo, both of which were created for Phoenix in 2007 and remain in the company’s repertoire. Phoenix Dance Theatre recognise the contribution that previous Artistic Directors have made to our history: David Hamilton (1981 - 1987) Neville Campbell (1987 - 1991) Margaret Morris (1991 - 1996) Thea Nerissa Barnes (1996 - 2000) Darshan Singh Bhuller (2002 - 2006) Javier De Frutos (2006 - present)