The Body

Emily Briggs

she/her

Emily Briggs is a dance and theatre artist from Shetland, now based in Edinburgh. She started her training at Performing Arts Studio Scotland with a BA(Hons) Dance and Drama before continuing to graduate from an MA in Acting at the Institute of the Arts Barcelona. Her goals for this year are to connect with the Scottish performing arts community, develop her creative and performance portfolios and learn as much as possible from her first few months of navigating the professional world.

Emily joined The Body to help her achieve these goals through meeting other emerging artists and is grateful for the support of Shaper/Caper in easing her transition into life post-graduation.  

Melissa Huang

she/her

Melissa Huang is a theatre maker, actor, dancer and video creator. She finished her Bachelor degree at Wuhan university and Master at Glasgow University. She has participated in many projects including opera, musicals, and plays (mostly Chinese speaking). 

Her goals for this year are to walk out of her comfort zone and participate in as many projects as she can. The reasons she joined The Body are to  meet more “crazy” people and do more “crazy” things!

Taiye Ojo

he/him

Ojo Taiye is a Nigerian eco-artist and writer who uses poetry to hide his frustration with society. His goal for this year is to create digital contents (i.e. literature, publishing, film, podcasting etc.) that engages communities from a place of abundance and care. This means collaboration over competition, celebration over comparison. He aims to focus on human-centred design narratives and demonstrate how love and community practice can inform practical approaches on universal themes like race, gender and politics. He joined The Body because of its passion for creative communities to flourish and interact on a global stage whilst responding to local needs. 

Kata Wojewodzka

she/her

Kata Wojewodzka studied contemporary dance in Poland and in Scotland, obtaining her HND in 2021 from the Scottish Contemporary Dance School. She particularly enjoys Cunningham’s technique and floor work. What she likes the most about dance is being present, expanding her boundaries and experiencing a certain sense of freedom. 

Kata is currently working in hospitality organising events. She enjoys planning, predicting, and even double-checking, and she has experience running events of up to 150 people. Kata is looking to connect both these experiences as a new member of The Body after she recently joined Dance with Parkinson’s classes as a volunteer and got to know the fantastic Shaper/Caper team.

Photo credit: ZbyZiel

Antonia Hamilton

Jennie Fraser

she/her

Jennie Fraser is currently in 3rd year studying Dance at The Scottish School of Contemporary Dance in Dundee. She has worked with arts projects in East London and Brazil before going back to training. She loves collaborating with other art forms, and her goal is to continue to find more imaginative ways to tell the stories of others. She believes dance is for everyone, and loves connecting through movement with people from all walks of life.

She joined the Body to meet and learn from other local artists, and to explore creativity together. 

Melissa Heywood

she/her

Melissa Heywood is a dance artist from rural Aberdeenshire who has spent the last five years training in Contemporary Dance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, and in Musical Theatre at The MGA Academy of Performing Arts.

She decided to join The Body because of Shaper/Caper’s impressive portfolio. Over the year, Melissa wants to learn more about the behind the scenes work that goes into imagining, drafting up, and delivering projects with community and storytelling at the heart of them.  

Ciara Hannon

she/her

Ciara Hannon was born in Mayo, Ireland and began dancing when she was five. In 2020, She joined Dublin Youth Dance Company. As part of DYDC, she travelled to Portugal as well as working with brilliant Irish choreographers such as John Scott, Liz Roche and Selma Daniels. At present, Ciara is in her BA year in the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance in Dundee. She is also part of the National Youth Dance Company Scotland, with whom she will tour to Estonia and Dublin this year. 

Ciara joined Shaper/Caper-The Body to connect with likeminded people and develop herself creatively as a dancer. She is very grateful to be part of the body and is excited to get to work alongside all the other amazing artists on the board. Ciara also joined The Body to form connections in the dance sector in Scotland after moving to Ireland this year. 

Ciara’s goal this year is to grasp as many opportunities as she can. As it is her last year in dance education, she wants to make the most of it by doing as many classes and seeing as much work as possible.  

Tsoi-Huen Wong

she/her

Tsoi-Huen Wong is a performing artist studying Contemporary Performance Practice at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She works across dance, performance, theatre and socially engaged arts. She is passionate to create performance through a democratic and interdisciplinary approach. 

Tsoi-Huen join The Body to connect with fellow dance artists, and continually develops her movement practice.  

she/ her

As an artist, Antonia Hamilton is a lot of different things. Creativity is the essence of all the work she do. As an individual, she dreams of a world where all the arts work together in harmony.  

When making work herself, she likes to concentrate on the collaborative aspects. Whether that be different minds, styles, or disciplines coming together. She has found that when you add a different perspective that is often where the most unique and interesting work is born. 

The Body is funded by Women's Fund For Scotland, administered by Foundation Scotland.