John Scott is a Dublin born, choreographer, performer, founder/Artistic Director of Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Dancer from the Dance Festival and member of Aosdána. Scott studied and performed at Irish National College of Dance/Dublin City Ballet 1982-85 in works by Anton Dolin, Anna Sokolow, Pearl Gaden and Babil Gandara. His choreographic works include ‘Divine Madness’, ‘Inventions’, ‘Cloud Study’, ‘Everything Now’, ‘Lear’, ‘Fall and Recover’, ‘Actions’ in Ireland at Dublin Dance Festival, Galway International Arts Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival and internationally at John F Kennedy Center, Washington DC, New York Live Arts, La MaMa, Danspace Project at St Mark’s Church, PS 122, New York and Dance Base, Edinburgh, Sounded Bodies Festival and Queer Zagreb, Croatia, Les Hivernales, Avignon, Tanzmesse Dusseldorf, Forum Cultural Mundial, Brazil. He danced in Oona Doherty’s Hard to be Soft, Meredith Monk’s Quarry (Spoleto Festival) and for Yoshiko Chuma, Sarah Rudner, Anna Sokolow and Thomas Lehmen. He also collaborated with Pan Pan on Beckett’s ‘QUAD’. John was awarded African Refugee Network’s Culture Award for his work with Refugees and Survivors of Torture and is a subject of Sadler’s Wells’ 52 Portraits by Jonathan Burrows, Matteo Fargion and Hugo Glendinning.
Alessandra Azevedo is an Afro-Brazilian dancer, Capoeira performer and instructor from Salvador, Bahia in Brazil. Since moving to Ireland in 2015 she has championed her culture by setting up a Capoeira training and performance group. From 2018 Alessandra established herself as a leading Afro-Brazilian dancer with performances at major festivals with her group Criola Dance. Since coming to Ireland, Alessandra has begun working in contemporary dance with John Scott/Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Catherine Young, Selma Daniel, Andreia Williams, Barra O Flanniagh, Yves Lorrhan, Tatiana Campelo, Shiv Ross, Vivian Brodie Hayes, Justine Doswell and Deirdre Murphy.
Ashley Chen trained at the CNSMD in Paris. After one project with Thomas Duchâtelet, he joined the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in New York in 2000. He moved back Europe to after four years to join the Lyon Opera Ballet where he performed works by William Forsythe, Trisha Brown, Philippe Decouflé, Christian Rizzo, Mathilde Monnier. In 2006, Ashley Chen became freelance and worked with different choreographers throughout Europe, such as John Scott and Liz Roche, Michael Clark, Michele Ann de Mey, Philipe Decouflé and Boris Charmatz. He also worked with Robert Swinston as performer and assistant on works by Cunningham. In 2012 he established Compagnie Kashyl based in Normandy (France). He has a strong desire to investigate his individual creative process leading to significant and unconventional works. He has since created Habits/Habits (2012), Whack!! (2015, in collaboration with Philip Connaughton), Chance, Space & Time (2016), Unisson (2018) and Rush (2019). He is currently working on a group piece for 10 performers, Distances (January 2021).
Magdalena Hylak is a Clifden based dance artist. She studied cultural studies, including theatre and dance, at University of Wroclaw, Poland. She has worked with companies and choreographers including Michael Keegan-Dolan | Fabulous Beast Dance Company (Irl), Liz Roche (Irl) and Lea Anderson (UK) as part of Step Up Dance Project; John Scott | Irish Modern Dance Theatre, United Fall/Emma Martin (Irl), Ciotóg | Ríonach Ní Néill (Irl), Catherine Young Dance (Irl), Mary Wycherley (Irl), Laura Murphy (Irl), Cathy Coughlan (Irl) and Jacek Gębura (Pl) amongst others. Her dance productions were shown during Dublin Dance Festival, Galway Culture Night and commissioned by both Galway Dance Days and Clifden Arts Festival. Her work ‘Two Years Later’ was shown in Italy with the support of Culture Ireland and Galway Dance Project. Since 2017, she has been working and performing internationally with Compagnie Nacera Belaza (Fr).
Favour Odusola is a Nigerian-Irish multidisciplinary artist based in Dublin, and a professional member of Dance Ireland and Create Ireland. He has worked across several contexts from traditional dance & percussion, to commercial work and contemporary theatre for over 15 years both in Nigeria and internationally. He was the recipient of the 2021 Arts council Agility award to research on developing the relationship with artistic collaborators centred around community engagement and incorporation. He is also a recipient of the 2021 Create Autumn School on cultural diversity and Collaborative Practice.
Oran Leong is a multidisciplinary dance artist in the genres of traditional Irish, contemporary and aerial dance. Oran creates original works that cross over fields of theatre, abstract and spectacle performance. An alumnus of the Dublin Youth Dance Company and Step Up Dance Project, he holds an MA in Contemporary Dance Performance from the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick. Currently Oran is working with Fidget Feet, Croí Glan Integrated Dance, Infinite Pants Contemporary Circus Company and Irish Modern Dance Theatre – all for new shows in 2021 / 2022.
Sarah Ryan is a dance artist based in Dublin who has worked extensively as a freelancer for the last 8 years. She particularly enjoys working in collaboration with other artforms. Sarah is delighted to be back on stage with IMDT.
