During our 30-year history, we have collaborated with an impressive roster of renowned choreographers, including Emilyn Claid, Siobhan Davies, Javier de Frutos, Fin Walker, Arlene Phillips, Yasmeen Godder, and leading disabled choreographers Marc Brew and Claire Cunningham. In 2011 and 2016, Candoco with Trisha Brown Dance Company created Set and Reset/Reset – a restaging of Trisha Brown’s seminal Set and Reset with its first cast of disabled and non-disabled dancers. In 2015 and 2017, we presented Jérôme Bel’s award-winning The Show Must Go On. Our work is programmed across the globe and we have visited more than sixty countries.
Former Artistic Co-Directors Stine Nilsen and Pedro Machado were appointed as Celeste’s successors in 2007. Having danced with the company for seven and nine years respectively, they brought a natural understanding of the company’s ethos to the role and continued to push the boundaries of the definition of dance with bold and diverse commissions. They took the company from the Bird’s Nest in Beijing to the Olympic Stadium in London, performing at the handover ceremonies in 2008 and returning, alongside Coldplay, at the Paralympic Closing Ceremony in 2012.
In 2018, Ben Wright and Candoco founding member Charlotte Darbyshire joined as Artistic Co-Directors. Under their directorship, Candoco created a sensation when we became the first contemporary dance company to appear on the BBC’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, performing to more than 10 million people.
Our ground-breaking approach to teaching was a precursor to programmes such as the Candoco Foundation Course in Dance for Disabled Students (2004–7), and a pioneering two-week residential Training Intensive for young disabled and non-disabled dancers, supported by fashion giant ASOS. From Armenia to Jakarta, Taiwan to Rwanda, through a diverse repertory and extensive learning programme, Candoco continues to expand perceptions of what dance can be.
