Mixed Bill: Repertoires and Improvisation

Monique Jonas (she/her) began dancing with the Chance to Dance programme before training at the Arts Educational Schools London. She completed her training at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, and received her Masters Degree from London Contemporary Dance School, passing with distinction in 2017.

Monique joined the Richard Alston Dance Company as an apprentice in 2016 and has toured extensively, both nationally and internationally with RADC, until their final performance in 2020. She is currently touring in Mathew Bourne’s New Adventures’ production of Nutcracker!

Externally, Monique founded her own dance company, Jona Dance. She has been choreographing, movement directing, teaching and producing work both online and in person, with the aim of amplifying silenced voices through contemporary dance in the UK. Jona Dance have created for Ballet Black, Rambert School, Pegasus Opera, Reebok and London Fashion Week, to name a few. She looks forward to her next creation with Serendipity Leicester.

Monique is also a contemporary tutor at English National Ballet School and teaches as a guest for London Contemporary Dance School, National Youth Ballet, Dilek Taptik School of Dance, Artistry Youth Dance and New Adventures to name a few.

Over the years, Monique has worked with Rambert Dance Company, Sally Marie, Hubert Essakow, Arcade Fire, Theo Adams Company, Clod Ensemble and commercially on the Brit Awards, BBC Drama; The Pursuit of Love, Marvel and Jamie Cullum.

Sung Im Her (Seoul, South-Korea) obtained a master’s degree in contemporary dance at Hansung University. In 2004, she moved to Brussels, Belgium to study at P.A.R.T.S., the acclaimed contemporary dance school led by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker.

After graduating in 2006, she started working with Jan Fabre/Troubleyn , Les ballets C de la B and Needcompany in Belgium.

In parallel, Sung Im Her has been creating works of her own, starting with Philia (2012), En-trance (2013), Tuning (2014) and You Are Okay! (2016). She moved to London in 2016.

In 2019, she created two new works: NUTCRUSHER and W.A.Y. Both works were commissioned by the Korean Arts Council and premiered at the renowned ARKO Arts Theater in Seoul. With NUTCRUSHER, she was elected by the Korean Arts Council as Best Emerging Artist of 2019. NUTCRUSHER was also selected for Aerowaves ’21 and in 2022 was a part of Horizon Showcase, presented during Edinburgh Fringe Festival where she received 5 stars review by The Skinny.

In 2021, Sung Im’s dance piece W.A.Y (re-work) premiered at The Place in London and received four star review by The Guardian.

In 2022, Sung Im created Everything Falls Dramatic for Korean National Contemporary Dance Company and toured in Seoul, Madrid, Brussels, Manchester and London. She received Dance Artist of the Year in 2022 by Korean Ministry of Culture and was recently named as one of ten “stage sensations to watch out for in 2023” by The Guardian.

This year, Sung Im’s new work 1 Degree Celsius will premiere at Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF) supported by Asian Cultural Center (ACC) and Van Cleef and Arpels, The Lowry (Manchester), Southbank Centre (London) and FABRIC (Birmingham).

Charlie Morrissey is a choreographer, performer, teacher and curator working across dance, performance and visual arts. For over 30 years they’ve created theatre, gallery and site-based works, often rooted in improvisation and a curiosity about how we perceive and move through the world. Collaboration is central to their practice, and they've worked with artists including Steve Paxton, Lisa Nelson, Siobhan Davies and Kirstie Simson. Charlie also runs Wainsgate Dances in Yorkshire, an artist-led programme of residencies, workshops, and performances in a former chapel that has become a gathering place for artists and communities. Their work spans performance-making, teaching, and curating but, at its heart, it’s about imagination as a physical act, and about dance as a way of understanding, questioning and reshaping how we live in the world.