Artistic Director

David Massingham

I trained at LABAN before becoming a member of Transitions Dance Company for whom I made several works.  I was founder and Co-Director of Adventures in Motion Pictures in 1987 before establishing David Massingham Dance in 1989.  The Company toured extensively in the 1990s taking work from rural village halls to large-scale theatres.  Its last work, Untold, premiered in Spring Loaded at The Place in 1998. Also that year I founded the Tees Valley Dance Company, as a way of developing a deprived part of the UK. The education work of the company happens in tandem with a professional dance show, and the company continues today as a Regularly Funded Organisation. I was also Choreographer in Residence at Northern Arts in 1995, before returning to perform my own work in 1999 with the Channel 4 Per4mance series.

I have worked in a variety of choreographic fields such as film, theatre and music theatre and credits include Cabaret (Live Theatre, Newcastle), The Red Balloon (The REP, Birmingham) The Soldiers Tale (The REP, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Birmingham) and The Tempest (The National Theatre, London).

I am currently Artistic Director of DanceXchange and of resident dance company Bare Bones, as well as Co-Artistic Director of International Dance Festival Birmingham.  For the festival in 2008 I produced the large scale open air performance event, Watch This Space with Hofesh Shecter Dance Company featuring 30 performers.

Bare Bones specialises in performance ‘in the round’ and in unusual spaces, from factories and air craft hangars to churches and barns, as well as high profile venues such as the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House. My choreographic work for Bare Bones includes With The Company We Keep, for the highly acclaimed Bare Bones tour of The 5 Man Show.

I am also leading on a new initiative called DanceTV through a joint venture company with Maverick Television.