Phoenix Dance Theatre

ISIRA MAKULOLUWE  |  CHOREOGRAPHER

British choreographer Isira Makuloluwe was born in Sri Lanka. After a degree in Molecular Biology at the University of London, he studied ballet with Manola Asensio & Mohsen El Wakil, Graham with William Louther and finished his training at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Centre in New York. He has danced in Europe and Asia and  the USA from 1992 to 1998 for various companies and choreographers.

While residing in France from 1998-2008 he made 13 works for his company VIVID, with the support of the French Ministry of Culture. His first invitation was for the Geneva Ballet in 2008 in a program shared with Jiri Kylian. 

Isira now divides his time between London and Paris, with his production company, www.dancetheatremedia.com . He choreographs and teaches internationally. Locked in Vertical for Phoenix Dance Theatre is his first work for a major UK company. 

All of Isira's works and news about his future projects can be seen on his website, www.dancetheatremedia.com.

FRANçOIS CAFFENNE  |  COMPOSER

Self-taught François Caffenne began his life in theatre as a technical director for Turak Théâtre and Le Grabuge Le Bonhomme. A meeting with renowned French choreographer Dominique Boivin during the creation of A quoi tu penses? led to him moving into the area of full-time sound creation and in 2004 he created an urban sound score for the town of Riorges as part of the Lyon Dance Biennial, repeating the project in 2006.

In 2006 François started his most significant collaboration to date with choreographer Olivier Dubois, beginning with his first work Pour tout l'Or du Monde and followed by Révolution (with arrangements for Ravel's Boléro). Recently François made the score for a large-scale ballet work, Le Spectre, again by Dubois, for the Ballets of Monte Carlo and in 2009 he created the score for Bolvin’s Don Quichotte which is still touring internationally.

François first worked with Isira Makuloluwe as technical director for Makuloluwe’s dance company VIVID from 2005 to 2007. Locked In Vertical is his first work as sound designer and composer for the choreographer.
 

MICHAEL MANNION  |  LIGHTING DESIGNER

Michael is a partner in the lighting consultancy Eye for Detail. He specialises in designing for dance. He has had numerous commissions throughout Britain, Europe and South Africa, and his work has spanned designs for touring companies, site-specifics and installations. He has created designs for Rambert Dance Company, The Birmingham Royal Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Javier De Frutos, Ashley Page, Athina Vahla, Protein Dance Company, Shobana Jeyasingh, Hofesh Shechter, Rafael Bonachela, Charles Linehan, CandoCo, the re –opening event at the Royal Festival Hall and many others.

Michael also conducts courses in lighting design at Tertiary, BA and MA level, in London, Denmark and South Africa. He has taught lighting master classes for the British Council in Kazakhstan. 

LORNA CLAYTON  |  COSTUME DESIGNER

Since graduating from the Arts Institute at Bournemouth in 2006, Lorna has toured nationally and internationally as a Wardrobe Mistress with a diverse range of productions. These include Eclipse Theatre’s The Hounding of David Oluwale and Birmingham Stage Company’s Horrible Histories and Kensuke’s Kingdom. Lorna has also worked at Northern Ballet Theatre, Opera North and with Raymond Gubbay Productions.

Whilst still working as a freelance costumier, Lorna has been working with Phoenix Dance Theatre since 2007 and in 2009 became the Costume Supervisor, designing and making for, amongst others, Isira Makuloluwe’s Locked in Vertical, Richard Wherlock’s Switch and most recently Kwesi Johnson’s SoundClash.