Meet the glorious freelance dancers who perform in our touring productions.
Vince Virr
Vince Virr trained at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, graduating in 2006 with BPA(Hons) degree. He then joined Transitions Dance Company at Laban and toured the UK and parts of Turkey and has a MA in Dance Performance (Distinction).
Vince has worked with Hofesh Shechter, Henri Oguike, Ben Wright, Pablo Ventura, Cristian Duarte, Jenni Kivela, Aszure Barton, Debbi Pertil, Luca Silvestrini and Natasha Gilmore.
Vince is a qualified fitness instructor and is interested in the body from a physiological viewpoint as well as artistic interpretation. Vince was a part of the teaching staff at the Urdang Academy and a Lecturer at Scottish School of Contemporary Dance.
Vince and Tommy rehearsing 'Falling Man' from the 'Within This Dust' programme. Photo: Josh Hawkins.
Vince danced with Thomas in Smallpetitklein from 2007 to 2015 collaborating with him on various projects. Vince embarked on a world tour with New Adventures in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake. Vince currently performs in Thomas Small’s critically acclaimed Within This Dust and in new work The Unwanted. He also performed in Thomas' Shakespeare Shuffle project as part of the BBC Shakespeare Festival in 2016.
#IWannaDanceWithSomebody
Who would Vince like to dance with?
Sia and Diana Payne-Myers MBE again!
Lisa Hood
Lisa was born in England and raised in Scotland. She began her professional dance training at Edinburgh’s Telford College before continuing her training at London Contemporary Dance School where she completed a BA Hons in contemporary dance in 2005.
Since leaving LCDS, Lisa has worked for various different companies and choreographers both nationally and internationally. These include Avant Garde Dance, Rosie Kay Dance Company, The Generating Company, Ffin Dance, Ijad Dance Company, Arthur Pita, Sheron Wrey, Rachel Lopez De La Nieta and Ben Ash.
Lisa performing in CUT.
Lisa worked with Thomas in Smallpetitklein from 2013 to 2015 and now performs in Thomas Small’s critically acclaimed productions Within This Dust and The Adventures of Isabel
#IWannaDanceWithSomebody
Who would Lisa like to dance with?
TBC!!
Miranda Mac Letten
Miranda performs in Thomas Small’s Paper Moon and The Unwanted. She has also performed in The Drive, which premiered at Chris Evans’ CarFest in 2015, and Shaper/Caper’s critically acclaimed production The Adventures of Isabel. Miranda appeared in Thomas' Lost But Found film inspired by stories from Children In Need, his BBC Radio 2 films Shakespeare Shuffle and a collection of children's dance films.
Miranda has a 1st class Hons degree from London Contemporary Dance School. After graduating she became an apprentice for Punchdrunk’s and the English National Opera’s The Duchess of Malfi. She has continued performing professionally in The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable, the biggest and most ambitious production yet from the award winning Punchdrunk and has also most recently re-staged Sleep No More Shanghai.
Interactive and immersive theatre have heavily featured in Miranda’s career. For instance working with other companies in this style like Secret Cinema , The People Pile and Gideon Reeling
Miranda is also a keen actress. Working for theatre companies such as Shared Experience “Mermaid” and Bold Tendencies “Titus Andronicus” in association with Parkour UK. Other companies she has worked for include Protein Dance, John Ross Dance, Mischief, Etta Ermini Dance Theatre, James Cousins Company, Runhoratio, C-12 Dance Theatre, and Bicycle Ballet. She is also founder of her own company Kerfuffle Dance.
Miranda first worked with Thomas on his production of Wheechin Aboot project in 2014.
Miranda performing in Thomas Small's 'Wheechin Aboot'. Photo: Jordan Anderson.
#IWannaDanceWithSomebody
Who would Miranda like to dance with?
Dracula would be very exciting!
Robert Anderson
Born and raised in Newcastle Upon-Tyne, Robert began B-boying at the age of 15, quickly joining the world renowned Bad Taste Cru, with whom he battled, taught and performed with internationally, and continues to do so.
In 2015, Robert graduated from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance with a first class honours degree and the Carolyn Woolridge award for outstanding performance. He then went on to tour with the post-graduate company Verve 16, under the artistic direction of Gianluca Vincentini, performing across the UK and Europe.
Over his performing career, Robert has worked with choreographers such as; Anton Lachky, Richard Chappell, Renaud Wiser, Robby Graham, Josh Hawkins, Efrosini Protopapa and Anthony Lo-Guidice.
At the beginning of 2017, Robert began creating his own work after being awarded a commission from Dance city. “Them..” a duet choreographed in collaboration with Clementine Telesfort, premiered at Dance City as part of Dance Edits in October of the same year.
Rob first performed with Shaper/Caper for the opening of V&A Dundee and now performs in Paper Moon and The Unwanted.
Rob as one of the Dennis the Menace’s as part of the V&A Dundee opening performance.
#IWannaDanceWithSomebody
Who would Robert like to dance with?
Definitely Gene Kelly!
Ellis Saul
Originally from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Ellis found dance at Dame Allan's Schools and began training as part of the Dance City CAT scheme. Ellis graduated from London Contemporary Dance School with a first class honors degree and a recipient of the Peggy Hawkins Scholarship for outstanding potential.
Upon graduating, she was part of the post-graduate company EDge 2016, touring widely around the UK and Europe. Ellis went on to complete her Master’s degree with distinction at LCDS in 2017.
Ellis has since performed with Tony Adigun’sAvant Garde Dance, in the role of Nancy, touring ‘Fagin’s Twist’ around the UK as well as China and South America. She has performed works by Crystal Pite, Alexander Whitley, James Cousins, Renaud Wiser and Joseph Toonga.
Ellis became an alumni choreographer in Youth Dance England Young Creative’s programme and choreographed work in collaboration with Wimbledon College of Art and for the Newcastle CAT. She is the choreographer to circus artists, Nikki & JD and collaborated in ‘Knot’, which has since won the Total Theatre & Jacksons Lane award for Circus 2019.
Ellis joined Shaper/Caper in 2019 dancing as Poppy in Paper Moon before joining the cast of Within This Dust.
Lewis Cooke
Lewis began dancing with NYDC for 2 years (National Youth Dance Company) where he worked with Jasmin Vardimon & Akram Khan touring the UK and premiering both years at Sadler's Wells. He then trained at London Contemporary Dance School working with Hofesh Shechter Compan , Hannes Langolf, Marso Rivere and many more artists. During his time in training, Lewis participated in external opportunities such as, an internship with Alleyne Dance, understudy for Jasmin Vardimon's Pinocchio and multiple workshops with Jos Baker, Tomislav English, Anton Lachky, Edivaldo Ernesto and Alleyne Dance. Since graduating, Lewis has choreographed for Ergo Dance Collective (Athens), created and performed a solo at Resolution 2018, and performed The Borrowers at DanceEast, Ipswich.
Lewis first performed with Shaper/Caper for the opening of V&A Dundee and now performs in The Adventures of Isabel.
Malcolm Sutherland
Born in Scotland, Malcolm completed his professional training at Central School of Ballet in London in 2007. After a year as an apprentice with Ballet Basel, Malcolm was hired for the 2007-08 season as a member of Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett under the directorship of Goyo Montero. Malcolm spent 7 successful years in Nürnberg, performing in works from choreographers such as: Jiri Kylian, Nacho Duato, Ohad Naharin, Mats Ek, Johan Inger, Crystal Pite, Mauro Bigonzetti, Cayetano Soto, Douglas Lee and Goyo Montero. Since leaving the company in 2015, Malcolm has performed in several projects including: Dance Theatre Luxembourg, Focus Dance in Sweden, Company Shang-Chi Sun in Berlin/Taipei, Kollektiv 52°07 in Berlin/ Bern, Shaper/Caper in Dundee/Belgium and Interdans festival in Belgium. Malcolm has an MA Choreography and has created numerous works including three full-length productions.
Malcolm first performed with Shaper/Caper for the opening of V&A Dundee and his first performance of Within This Dust was in Belgium.
Ellen Cobbaert
Born in Belgium, Ellen attended school at the Royal Ballet School in Antwerp (Belgium). After this she completed her bachelor diploma at Northern School of Contemporary Dance (UK) where she won the Carolyn Woolridge graduation prize for outstanding level of studying.
She then joined Scottish Dance Theatre as apprentice in 2010 as part of the apprenticeship scheme at London Contemporary Dance School where she graduated with a postgraduate diploma in June 2011. There she worked with choreographers such as Benjamin Levy, Kate Weare, Janet Smith, Carolyn Bowditch and Marc Brew, also performing current repertoire choreographed by Ruth Janssen, Ben Duke, Hofesh Shechter and Liv Lorent.
She is now based in Belgium where she started her own collective, just finished La Loba by Laura Eva Meuris and has re-created 'Who we are', which premiered in spring 2013. Combined with her own work she also teaches children and adults about music, dance and theatre.
Ellen performing in The Adventures of Isabel. Photo: Josh Hawkins.
Ellen has worked with Thomas for a number of years on various productions and performs in Thomas Small’s The Drive, which premiered at Chris Evans’ CarFest in 2015. She also performs in the title role of Isabel in Thomas’ critically acclaimed production The Adventures of Isabel.