Phoenix Dance Theatre has grown over the last thirty years to become a renowned and respected British dance company. Founded in inner-city Leeds, the company has become a leading contemporary company and now completes both national and international tours in the aim to bring inspiring and entertaining dance to the widest possible audience.
Founded in 1981 by David Hamilton, Donald Edwards and Vilmore James, Phoenix’s fresh approach to contemporary dance won much support from its audiences and critics. The company began with just male dancers and went on to appoint female dancers from 1987 following the appointment of Neville Campbell as Artistic Director. Cambell worked to expand the company to ten dancers, and also expanded the company’s repertoire. In this year also the company established its permanent base at Yorkshire Dance in Leeds city centre.
1991 saw Margaret Morris take over as Artistic Director, and with this saw the expanding of the company’s UK and international touring. In 1996 the company were the some representative of British dance at the Cultural Olympics in Atlanta, and the company continued to grow under two more Artistic Directors, establishing an archive and rebranding the company. Phoenix has seen many styles of directorship and many growing facets as a result: under Javier De Frutos, for example, the now multi-cultural company won the ‘Company Prize for Outstanding Repertoire (Modern)’ at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards.
Current Artistic Director Sharon Watson was appointed in 2009, re-introducing the company to diverse and mixed programmes of work and revived classic pieces from the companies rich repertoire. The company now aims to be the leading middle scale dance company in the UK, having just celebrated three decades of dance. The company’s new home at Quarry Hill means Phoenix can continue producing high quality work for even longer.