About

Louise Kelsey

Movement Practitioner & Choreographer

Specialising in artistic collaboration

Louise is a movement practitioner and choreographer who has extensive experience performing, choreographing and teaching internationally. She holds a First Class BA (Hons) in Dance Performance, Masters in Choreography, and Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education: Teaching and Supporting Learning. Louise has experience working creatively for a breadth of institutions and companies including The Place, Arts Depot, Hot House Dance, University of Bedfordshire, Dance East, Unfold Motion (Romania), Delve Dance, Kansaze Dance and Middlesex University where she fulfilled roles of Programme Leader for Dance Performance and Senior Lecturer in Dance Technique and Choreography.

As a choreographer her work spans from creating for children, to undergraduate dancers, to professionals. Personal highlights include her choreography for Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in collaboration with The Baroque Collective, BBC singers and Soprano Dame Emma Kirkby (conducted by John Hancorn) for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, plus Frames and Shapes, commissioned for Timișoara, European Capital of Culture 2021 Festival. Working under the direction of Lesley Main, Louise has studied and performed in repertory by Doris Humphrey (Water Study, With My Red Fires). Together, they also re-staged Humphrey’s solo Two Ecstatic Themes which was performed in the UK and USA between 2014-2016, including ‘Transmission: A Performance Symposium’, London and ‘Framing Justice Symposium’, Chicago. During 2019-2020 Louise acted as rehearsal assistant during Main’s re-staging of Humphrey’s Water Study.

Louise was a researcher for The Cohan Collective 2016 (a residency for choreographers and composers created by Robert Cohan and led by Yorke Dance Project) and produced a short documentary film with David McCormick. Her research with Dr Lise Uytterhoeven (The Place) about creative tools for choreography is published in the Research in Dance Education Journal and her writing about being an Independent Dance Artist can be found in the One Dance UK Education Bulletin. In 2017, Louise was selected to be part of One Dance UKs ‘Dance Teaching Mentoring Programme’ and she was mentored by Lauren Baldock (Jasmin Vardimon Company) and Jasmine Wilson (Studio Wayne McGregor). In 2022, Louise was selected to be part of the Royal Opera House’s Creative Learning Practice Programme during which time she received mentorship from Helen Parlour (MOTUS) and tested ideas for Bucks Youth Dance Company, which opens in September 2022 in partnership with Buckinghamshire New University. Louise is an Arts Award Advisor, leading Disover and Explore level qualifications for Moving Waves and BYDC.

In addition, she is a qualified children’s yoga teacher, 200-hour yoga teacher trainee (My Vinyasa Practice), and has completed Yoga for Long Covid, Burnout and CFS led by Fiona Agombar and Yoga Teachers Forum. She currently delivers Online Yoga & Meditation classes for Moving Waves. Louise is passionate about the transformational power movement has and is committed to facilitating exceptional creative opportunities for all.