SUZANNAH MCCREIGHT
CHOREOGRAPHER
PERFORMER
TEACHER
ABOUT ME
I started off life as Suzannah West growing up in Cornwall (England), where I discovered contemporary dance through the Cornwall Youth and National Youth Dance Companies. I went to London in 1993 to train at Laban, where I gained my BA (Hons) before joining Transitions Dance Company in 1997. I went on to dance for Scottish Dance Theatre with Janet Smith, and have since danced for Attik, Springs, Cathy Seago and Maiden Voyage Dance.
I returned to Laban (now Trinity Laban) in 2000 to study choreography at MA level under Ana Sanchez and Rosemary Butcher. I also joined the faculty, teaching technique and movement analysis. Other work has included being Rehearsal Director for BareBones and Maiden Voyage Dance. I had been developing my choreographic practice on the side of all that with small projects and commissions here and there.
I became Suzannah McCreight in 2007 when I married Derek, the ski intructor I met up a mountain in Switzerland! (Pronounciation tip - 'McCreight' rhymes with the number 'eight'). Since then I focussed on developing my choreography more.
In 2021, I set up Green Light Dance Company to try to create opportunity for dancers in Northern Ireland. The focus will be on professional development (including my own!) and enthusing the wider community about dance. Check out grenlightdancecompany.org to find out more.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
About my choreography: Movement, to me, is the way human beings connect through common passions, a shared pulse and imagery that captures a feeling or makes a statement. In dance-making, I use improvisation research to find the language of each piece I make. From this, the vocabulary grows. I think every work should have a point to make, whether poignant or lighthearted. Finding that point is, for me, the key to a piece having coherence. I like to find images that accentuate the point and weave them into the flow of the dance. I often look for the imagery that conjures poetically what the piece is about. This helps the audience connect with the movement and with the performers. I work with dancers as people, not just bodies. There is always personal expression, theatricality and passion. In my process, I like to take dancers' own contributions and find ways for them to share of themselves. In themes for my choreography, I have had both extremely specific and open-ended briefs, but no matter what I make, I tend to find human themes, human concerns and the drama in relationships.