“Film in the flesh… They throw out provocative dialogue with the same ease as they throw each other.” - criticaldance.com
“Intoxicating, thought provoking drama exploiting the theatre space to its full potential… Everyone should see this.” - Dance Europe
UC Santa Barbara – Feb 22, 2006 Skirball Culutral Center, Los Angeles - Feb 23 & 24, 2006 University of Florida Performing Arts, Gainesville – Feb 28 – March 4, 2006 VSA Arts of New Mexico, Albuquerque – March 8 – 11, 2006 Performance Space 122, New York – March 14 – 19, 2006 Pittsburgh Cultural Trust – March 21, 2006 Dance Affiliates, Philadelphia – March 22 – 26, 2006 Wexner Center, Columbus, OH – March 28, 2006 Harborfront Center, Toronto – March 30 – April 1, 2006Artis Website: STAN WON'T DANCE
Liam Steel: Joint Artistic Director Liam works as a performer, director and choreographer and performed the role of Robert in the original tours of Sinner. For eight years he was a core member of DV8 Physical Theatre as both a performer and Assistant Director of the company. Productions worked on included MSM; Enter Achilles (including the award winning film version); Bound to Please; The Happiest Day of My Life; and The Cost of Living. Other performance credits include work with Nottingham Playhouse; The Royal Court; Manchester Royal Exchange; The Kosh; Volcano Theatre Co; Roundabout Theatre Co; Gay Sweatshop; Theatr Powys; Footloose Dance Company (Powys Dance); Nigel Charnock and Company; Theatre Centre; Frantic Assembly; Royal National Theatre Studio; Graeae Theatre Co; The David Glass Ensemble and Complicité. Recent directorial/choreographic work includes Dirty Wonderland, Brighton International Festival/Frantic Assembly, Hymns,(Revised version: 2005 and original: 1999) Lyric Hammersmith/Frantic Assembly; Paradise Lost, Northampton Theatre Royal; Pericles, RSC/Cardboard Citizens Theatre Co; Strictly Dandia, Tamasha Theatre Co /Lyric Hammersmith; The Shooky, Birmingham Repertory Theatre; Devotion, Theatre Centre; Frankenstein, Blue Eyed Soul Dance Company; Heavenly, Frantic Assembly/Soho Theatre; Vurt, Contact Theatre Manchester; The Fall of the House of Usher, GraeaeTheatre Company; Look at Me, Theatre Centre; Sparkleshark, Royal National Theatre; The Flight Restless Dance Co. (Adelaide Festival-Australia); 15 Degrees and Rising, Circus Space; The Secret Garden; Beauty and the Beast; Tom's Midnight Garden, The Ghosts of Scrooge; Library Theatre, Manchester. Presently he is creating "Knots" for Cois Ceim Dance Theatre/Dublin Theatre Festival and will be doing Oliver Twist for the Library Theatre in the Autumn.
Rob Tannion: Joint Artistic Director Robert Tannion is a London based director/performer/choreographer. Outside of his work with Stan, Rob is currently working as Associate Choreographer to Peter Darling on the stage version of Lord of the Rings, which is due to open in March 2006 in Toronto. His work has includes collaborations with DV8 Physical Theatre (95-2000), and Complicité (02-04) and Russell Maliphant (98,2001). In 2002 and 2003 Robert was short listed for the larger Jerwood Choreography Award, London. Robert was Artist in Residence at London’s South Bank Centre in 2003/04 and Stan Won’t Dance now has this honour for 2005/06. His Choreographic/Direction work includes: "Intent" - 11 minute duet, Sept. 03, Purcell Room, South Bank, London. "Fetish:Stories" - 85mins, August 2003, City Hall Theatre, Hong Kong."Dinner" - 60 mins, March/April 2002, National Palace of Culture, Sofia. "Q", - 10 mins, Shaw Theatre, London June 2003, for Bird College. His current collaboration with Austrian cross media artist Klaus Obermaier resulted in “Appariton” which has toured internationally in 2005 and 2006 to great acclaim. Screen credits include: "Stig of the Dump" (BBC 2001, won International Emmy), "Resident Evil" (feature film, 2001), "Function at the Junction" (short, 2001),"flex" (Chris Cunningham short, 2000), "Enter Achilles" (dance film 1996, won an International Emmy), "The Truth" (dance film with Ricochet Dance Co, 2003).
Ellie Beedham: Executive Director Ellie began working in the cultural industries in 1991 managing a range of projects including festivals, galleries, dance companies and theatres. As a Trustee with Southwark Arts Forum between 1998-2003 she focused on regeneration and sustainability through the arts in the London Borough of Southwark. This included consultation on the Tate Modern, Peckham Library and Laban. Ellie produced 8 new dance works at Wapping Power Station (2001) - 'Jerwood Stairworks' and worked with DV8 Physical Theatre on the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival Commission 'The Cost of Living' (2000). Prior to this she was Company Manager of Transitions (1997-1999). Ellie specialises in branding and communications. Between 2000-3 as Head of Marketing & Sales, she repositioned the Lyric Hammersmith by building a specialist team, rationalising operations and rebranding. She worked strategically on artistic programming and ACE's stabilisation programme with the Lyric's Directors. Ellie is currently Head of Communications at Laban, Advisor to the Bonnie Bird Choreography Fund, and the Deptford X Festival. She is on the board of Directors of Kaos Theatre Company.
Ben Wright – Performer: Ben began dancing at nineteen years old and trained at the Ballet Rambert School. Whilst a student at Rambert he was a member of the National Youth Dance Company from (1989-90), working with Shobana Jeyasingh, Earl Lloyd Hepburn and Jacob Marley. In 1991 he joined Adventures in Motion Pictures to create Town and Country and Spitfire with Mathew Bourne. The show toured nationally and culminated in a spell at the Royal Court Theatre in London as part of the Barclay’s new stages award season. Later that same year he joined London Contemporary Dance Theatre, where amongst others he worked with Mark Morris, Christopher Bruce, Amanda Miller and Liat Dror and Nir Bengal, Aletta Collins and Angelin Prejlocaj. After the closure of LCDT in 1994, he went on to work with The Richard Alston Dance Company and Amanda Millers Company Pretty Ugly. In 1995 he was invited to study as a scholarship student with The Trisha Brown Company and later that same year returned to England to create the Role of the Prince in Matthew Bourne's production of Swan Lake. At intervals over eight years he went on to perform the role to great critical acclaim throughout the UK, London’s West End, Los Angeles, Japan, Korea, and at the Neil Simon Theatre on Broadway. Ben was also seen in Amp's production of Cinderella in the West End and LA. In 2000 Ben became a member of the dancer lead ensemble; Ricochet Dance Company where he worked with Shock headed Peter’s director; Phelim McDermot, Russell Maliphant, Gary Carter and Stephen Petronio. In 2004 made his acting debut when he joined Nicholas Hytner’s premiere season of ‘His Dark Materials’ at the National Theatre, where amongst other roles he created the part of the Golden Monkey.
Choreographic mavericks Liam Steel and Robert Tannion return with a provocative new work. Collaborating with acclaimed writer Patrick Neate, the company combines explosive choreography with words of mass destruction to create the ultimate act of dance terrorism.
Nothing and no-one is safe, as an all-male cast composed of some of this country's finest physical theatre performers fly straight into the face of convention to ask fundamental questions about the Britain in which we live. Written entirely in dynamic street verse, the piece places a lost voice back in the mouths of a strangled population.
Violent but beautifully choreographed polemics collapse our safe ivory towers of political correctness, and the audience are compelled to sift through the wreckage to uncover the truth of their downfall in the shards of sound-bites, celebrity and brand recognition.