Dance City, in partnership with University of Sunderland, runs two higher education courses: BA (Hons) Professional Dance and MA Advanced Dance Performance.
Dance City has a team dedicated to delivering, teaching and facilitating the Higher Education courses. Each team member has a different role to play, from programme delivery to lecturing to choreographing. Read the staff profile below to find out about the team who make the Dance City undergraduate and postgraduate degrees possible.
You can find out more about each of the courses by clicking here.
Like what you see? Both courses are now open for applications, with very limited places available for 2022 entry. Email adam.dutton@dancecity.co.uk to find out how to apply.
Dr Gillie Kleiman
Interim Head of Higher Education
Dr Gillie Kleiman is a choreographer, performer, curator and writer. Her acclaimed sole-authored and collaborative work is presented at major international venues and festivals including Sadler’s Wells, Dance Umbrella, Nottdance, Fierce Festival, and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. Gillie’s specialisms lie in contemporary experimental performance, community and non-professional dance, and philosophical approaches to the study of dance. She is an external examiner at the Danish National School of Performing Arts, and sits on the Board of People Dancing, the foundation for community dance.
Dr Shantel Ehrenberg
BA & MA Programme Leader
Dr Shantel Ehrenberg is a researcher, artist, and academic. She has held positions in dance programmes across the UK and USA, most notably the University of Surrey, Trinity Laban, Bath Spa University, New York University, and University of California, Irvine. Shantel’s choreography, performance, research and teaching cross practice and theory and span site-specific, studio, stage, written, and digital contexts. She is the author of Kinaesthesia and Visual Self-Reflection in Contemporary Dance (2021) and her research can also be found in journals such as Choreographic Practices, Research in Dance Education, and Dance Research Journal.
Adam Dutton
Dr Lucía Piquero Álvarez
Senior Lecturer
Dr Lucía Piquero Álvarez is a researcher and choreographer. She has presented her choreographic work internationally, including several commissions and residencies (ŻfinMalta Dance Company, Spanish National Dance Company, Le Performance (France).
She completed her PhD at Roehampton University in 2019 on the emotional import of contemporary theatre dance. She was a lecturer in dance at the University of Malta 2012-2022 and head of the dance department 2019-2022. She researches embodied cognition and the experience of emotion in dance, influenced by philosophy and psychology, and has presented research in conferences internationally, as well as directed several practice research projects.
Sophie Douglas
Senior Lecturer
Sophie Douglas is a dance artist, practitioner and projects manager with interests in community dance, site-adaptive performance and somatic practices. Before joining Dance City, Sophie has taught extensively in educational and community settings across the SW, including leading the artistic direction of Coast Youth Dance Company between 2018-2021. Sophie’s passion for outreach and engagement has led her to work with a broad range of dance companies and organisations including Pavilion Dance South West, Arts University Bournemouth, Trinity Laban Conservatoire, Made By Katie Green, ZoieLogic Dance Theatre and Dorset Mind. Sophie’s research interests are centred around working in natural environments and investigating her movement practice through a lens of somatic enquiry.
Dr Victor Fung
Associate Artist & Senior Lecturer
Victor Fung is an award-winning choreographer, performer, researcher, educator, and mentor. He is the Artistic Director of Victor Fung Dance and recently Associate Artist at Swindon Dance and recipient of the DanceXchange Choreography Award. He has been involved in various international networks including CROWD (2021), OzAsia Dance Lab (2017-2019), and SPAZIO (2013-14). Victor’s choreographic works have been presented internationally across four continents. Aside from his artistic practice, his is highly involved in the cultural sector through his roles as Clore Fellow (2016-17) and Trustee of Swindon Dance amongst others. He was awarded a doctorate for his research in creativity and dance training in collaboration with Middlesex University and Dance4.
David Lloyd
Associate Artist & Senior Lecturer
David Lloyd joined Dance City in 2019 from dancing with Jasmin Vardimon Company and leading JV2. He graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in 2006 and immediately commenced a successful performing career. David moved to London in 2008, working with Luca Silvestrini, Gary Clarke, Mad Dogs, Neon, Barebones, and Jasmin Vardimon over the next few years. Film and TV credits include BBC’s Atlantic series 1 playing the role of Nereus and Paramount Pictures World War Z.
David started The Mischief Company in 2014 with Natascha Metherell, a director working with Terry Gilliam. Mischief Company has produced and toured a number of works and grown to a Company of 14.
Angela Reay
Lecturer
Angela trained in Classical Ballet, National and Modern Dance techniques at the Northern Ballet School in Manchester. On completion of her training at the age of 18 she secured a position as a soloist ballet dancer with the Stadtischen Buhnen Muenster in Germany. She then went on to have an extensive, international, 12 year career as a professional dance artist predominately in the State Theatres of Germany performing in Classical and Neo-Classical ballets, Contemporary dance works, Musical Theatre Productions, Dance Theatre, Operas and Operettas as well as working in television. She later trained as a specialist classical ballet teacher with the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) and worked as a freelance RAD teacher for 4 years before joining the Performing Arts Academy at Newcastle College where she worked for 21 years teaching ballet technique across the dance and musical theatre degree programs. She has taught the ballet technique on Dance City’s Masters in Advanced Dance Performance for the past 2 years.
For the past eight and half years she has also worked at Dance City delivering the Professional Ballet Classes for the region’s professional dance artists.
In July 2019 Angela completed the Advanced Teacher Training Program with the Society of Education and Training was awarded Advanced Teacher Status (ATS), Fellow of the Society of Education (FSET) and Chartered Teacher Status (Cteach) from the London College of Teaching.
Angela is passionate about instilling a love of ballet and ballet technique in young dance artists whilst also determined to help them achieve their full potential.
Giulia Coti Zelati
Lecturer
Originally from Italy, Giulia is a dance artist and film-maker based in the North of England. She completed a BA (Hons) at London Contemporary Dance School as well as her MA, for which she toured the UK with balletLORENT. Some of her performing highlights also include Sweetshop Revolution, Fertile Ground Dance Company, Exit 12 Dance Company and Lizzie J Klotz. Giulia is also the co-creator of Tiny Dances, a local dance film-making project, and the creator of online ballet studio Giulia’s Home Ballet. Giulia has taught ballet and contemporary in the UK and internationally, and she is also an international teacher with MindLeaps, an NPO that creates educational paths for the most vulnerable children in the world through a creative arts program that is built on data-driven metrics. With MindLeaps she has traveled to and taught in NYC and Guinea, West Africa.
Giulia is very passionate about dance education, and is excited to use her knowledge and experience to support the next generation of dance artists in their training.
