Meet the Penkridge choreographer making dance theatre that aims to change the world

Through her dance theatre, the choreographer and director aims to raise awareness, evoke empathy and create a sense of belonging.

Her creative process draws autobiographical stories from the people she works with and her pieces have tackled themes ranging from loneliness and isolation to domestic abuse.

Since founding the Rhiannon Faith Company, her work has been performed at major theatres and festivals including the Edinburgh Fringe.

The company's most recent piece, Lay Down Your Burdens, focussed on the meaning and importance of community and was inspired by lived experiences.

It saw Rhiannon, who grew up in Rugeley, nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance earlier this year and invited to Buckingham Palace for a Garden Party celebrating the creative and cultural Industries.

Describing the nomination as “a pinch me moment”, she says: “It was really unexpected and felt really special. I got to go to my first Olivier Awards and got to walk the green carpet and have my photograph taken.”

It’s been quite a journey for the 40-year-old, who lives in Penkridge with her husband Merlyn and her daughter Dolly.

Rhiannon, who attended Cardinal Griffin Catholic Catholic High School and Stafford College, had a passion for performing arts from a young age.

She studied Performing Arts at De Montfort University and went on to complete a MA in Contemporary Dance Theatre Practice.

During her studies, she found herself drawn to “making pieces of art from scratch” rather than performing on stage.

“I thought I was going to do musical theatre but over the years it gradually turned into me becoming a choreographer and director,” says Rhiannon.

Her time at De Montford opened her eyes to contemporary dance theatre that didn’t adhere to the traditional rules such as London-based DV8 Physical Theatre.

“I was interested in companies that were trying to say something about the world,” says Rhiannon. “I liked the idea that art could be a platform for change,” she adds.

After leaving university, Rhiannon worked as a freelance artist, teaching in a range of educational settings and running her own performance company.

“In 2009, I decided to quit full-time teaching work to focus on the company. I had moved to Essex to be closer to London,” she says. “I started to do choreography for pieces for other people, including Secret Cinema, as well as making my own work.”

In 2010, she began working with performer Maddie Morgan, who shared her vision for boundary-pushing dance theatre and is now executive director of the company.

Together, they devised a show, titled Scary S***,  for Edinburgh Festival Fringe about friendship, being a woman and asking for help.

“We started quite small by making a show that could travel to Edinburgh in a suitcase,” recalls Rhiannon. “It went really well in Edinburgh and I made it into a small tour.” Her next project was Smack That (a conversation) which was created in partnership with Harlow-based domestic abuse charity Safer Places and their service users.

It was developed through a series of creative workshops and interviews with more than 60 female survivors of domestic abuse. The final work was devised and performed with four service users from Safer Places and three professional dancers, all with lived experience.

It also created a legacy by delivering domestic abuse awareness training to 240 venue staff.

The company has its own counsellor, Joy Griffiths, a qualified psychologist, to ensure artists, participants and the audiences get any support they need after the show.

The Rhiannon Faith Company is based at Harlow Playhouse where Rhiannon has been an Associate Artist since 2018. Drowntown saw Rhiannon travel to coastal towns where communities were living with great levels of poverty and deprivation.  She also worked with Brighton Dome and Cascade Creative Recovery Cafe, meeting people in recovery.

Participants created autobiographical solos around the themes of loneliness, being let down by the system, living by the sea, and what changes they would like to see in the world.

This fed directly into the work, alongside the experiences of the devising cast.

The show toured the UK and China, reaching more than 1,500 audiences.

The Care House Project works with the Harlow community to improve mental health and wellbeing, celebrate care and community, and provide hope for a better future.

"This was a lovely project. We worked with a group of people who wanted to talk about their experiences living with care or without care in their lives."

It involved the creation of a new dance theatre show, 9 Acts of Care, which raised awareness of care.

Lay Down Your Burdens, which was shortlisted for a 2023 One Dance UK Award for ‘Innovation in Dance’, is set within a pub and grew out of conversations with communities and developed from the lived experiences of company members.

"It was all about community connectedness and the burdens we carry in our lives and how isolating it can be to carry a lot of stuff and what it might feel like to say 'let me carry that for you'," says Rhiannon.

The Rhiannon Faith Company has recently been granted Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation status, securing three years of funding. "I feel really lucky," says Rhiannon.

With each piece of work, she loves helping people to share their stories and get their voices heard.

"The most special part is meeting the participants that we work with. We might do a creative project and they enter the room not quite sure about it or not having that much confidence but by the end of the project, the light within them is shining," says Rhiannon.

For more information, see www.rhiannonfaith.com