Profile: Natasha Gilmore

Natasha Gilmore became Artist in Residence at Dance House in Glasgow in 2006, where she has been developing her own artistic work at the same time as working with various community groups.

Natasha is a graduate of Laban, and on leaving there in 1996 she co-founded and managed the dance company Rose's Thoughts with Ruth Segalis and Amy Voris.

The award-winning company made character based pieces for the theatre, site-specific works and dance films in the UK, Israel, and France.  In 2001, she joined Protein devising and performing Publife, The Banquet and, most recently, The Big Sale. In 2003, she worked with Brazilian choreographer Jean Abreu on his duet Hibrido, performing in both the UK and Germany. In 2005, she joined The Institute for Crazy Dancing, under Artistic Director Jason Hird, as dancer/choreographer for their site specific, audience involved work. Other choreographic works include a duet for Afro Beehive, a collaboration of contemporary dance and African percussion with Abass Nii Dodoo, of Adzido, commissioned for a festival in Berlin.

She also choreographs for music videos; recent videos include Veronica and Basement Jaxx.

Within both Rose’s Thoughts and Protein Dance she has been central to the companies' education work leading a range of creative dance and chorographic workshops. She has also worked as a freelance dance artist choreographing a wide range of community dance projects.  This summer she has worked on two projects based on the Olympics for East London Dance - the first, a site specific performance with 30 children at Stratford tube station and the second, a piece with 120 children site specific in Canary Wharf.  She has also been working on the devising and teaching of The Big Dance Class for the BBC and the Arts Council of England – an attempt to break the world record for the most people to simultaneously do a dance class.  Natasha is the ‘Dance captain’ for London – teaching to 1,200 people on Millennium Bridge and St Paul’s Cathedral.

Natasha is currently presenting a double bill, To Glasgow...with Love and Madame Bazié, which will be performed at St Bride's, Edinburgh on Friday 16 February as part of the International Festival of Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace.

To Glasgow...with Love is a collaboration with members of the Maryhill Integration Network - an organisation seeking to integrate refugee and asylum seekers with their host community in Glasgow. With an innovative mix of dance, text and song, the cast - made up of performers aged between two and sixty two - explore their relationships with Glasgow against Tiff Griffin's emotive soundscape. To Glasgow...with Love, with its infectious rhythms and engaging honesty, is an inclusive event that celebrates diversity.

Madame Bazié is an autobiographical solo that established Natasha as the 'Catherine Tate of the contemporary dance world' when it premiered in London in January. Inspired by her weekly work with Maryhill Integration Network, Natasha uses this quirky yet charming solo to reflect her own cultural heritage, relationships with places and ultimate journey to Glasgow.