Our Dancers

Claire Benson

Originally from Oxford, Claire graduated in 2001 from the London Studio Centre with a BA in Theatre Dance. After graduating, she worked with various dance companies including Gelede Dance and Retina Dance Company in 2002, after which she moved to Edinburgh for '6 months' and ended up staying there for 4 years.

During her time in Scotland Claire worked for various companies including Freshmess and X Factor Dance Company with whom she had the opportunity to work with Phillip de Coufle - performances included Edinburgh's Fringe Festivals, The Nuremburg Opera House and The British Dance Edition 2006.

Claire worked with director Gerry Mulgrew in 2007 as part of the cast of St Kilda the Opera and has recently returned to Scotland to play Nannie the Witch in Mulgrew's adaptation of Tam O' Shanter. Before joining Motionhouse in April 2008, Claire worked with Kompany Malakhi on their latest show Boxin.

As a freelance dance teacher, Claire has taught extensively throughout the UK and overseas, from professional classes to community and youth dance.

Martina Bussi

Originally from Torino (Italy), Martina began dancing at early age, studying ballet and modern at Centro Danza Arkè under the direction of Matilde De Marchi and Annagrazia D'Antico.

She moved to London in 2006, where she trained at London Contemporary Dance School and graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Performance in 2008. In 2010 she also gained an MA in Performance.

She has performed with various companies including Henri Oguike Dance Company, TomDale Company and Tavaziva Dance touring nationally and internationally, as well as developing her own work.

She has recently graduated with a BSc in Sport Science form University of Torino (Italy) and she is very much interested in the connection between sport and dance.

Daniel Connor

Daniel is from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. He started dancing aged 14 and joined Cheshire Youth Dance Company and appeared in Youth Dance England performances at Birmingham Hippodrome and The Lowry. Daniel went to Middlesex University before transferring to The Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD) to undertake his professional training. Daniel graduated from NSCD in 2010 and was awarded their Annual Performance Prize. He then went on to become a memeber of Verve11, the Post Graduate performance compnay of NSCD for a European tour. Whilst there, Daniel worked with a variety of choreographers, including Ben Wright, Debbie Johnson, Charles Linnehan, Thoman Nonne and Peter Mika. He graduated with distinction in 2011.

In September 2011 Daniel joined EarthFallDance to tour with the comany's award winning show At Swim Two Boys. Following this in May 2012 he joined Simon Birch Dance Company for the creation and tour of Terranium-Dance in a Bubble. He also performed Willis Dorner's Bodies in Urban Space as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

Daniel was thrilled to join Motionhouse in their 25th Anniversary year for Scattered's first American tour in 2013 and the creation of two new shows.

Junior Cunningham

Junior was encouraged to study Contemporary Dance by his sister, Chantele Harvey, when he was 17 years old. His early teachers in the Midlands were Marion Thraves and Bernard Pierre-Louis.

He joined the Northern School of Contemporary Dance (Leeds) in 1999 and graduated in 2002 with a BPA (Hons) Degree in Contemporary Dance. During this time he performed on tour with NSCD and at the Gross Brittanien Festival in Dortmund, Germany. He also worked commercially in Switzerland and Paris.

Autumn 2002 saw Junior apprentice with Motionhouse. He joined the company full-time in January 2003 and has since been involved as a performer in Volatile, Perfect, Driven, Scattered, Underground, Cascade, Waiting Game, Traction and The Voyage and as a teacher in every project the company has done since. Junior is the Rehearsal Director for the current company.

Luka owen

Our Associate dancer Luka trained in all styles of dance from a very early age at Three Spires Dance School, Coventry. At 16, after competing competitively as a gymnast and moving to aerial training, Luka won the title of 'Britains Most Talented Circus Performer'. After graduating from The Laban School of Contemporary Dance with a BA Hons, Luka went straight into working with C-12 Dance Theatre, performing in Bolero Remix by Jeanefer Jean- Charles at Big Dance. Luka also performed in productions Enough and The Chair and as part of C-12'S UK tour.

 Luka soon returned to aerial work, and trained for a year to perform as an aerilaist in Godiva Awakes, a Cultural Olympiad project ceated by Imagineer prodcutions. This was swiftly followed by an apprenticeship with Motionhouse on the 2012 production The Voyage.

Luka is also passionate about teaching and lead classes for children and adults as part of Godiva Trapeze. She also works teaching Motionhouse Youth alongside fellow Motionhouse dancer, Claire Benson.

Luka will be joining Motionhouse in their 25th year to tour new show, Captive.

Alasdair Stewart

Alasdair trained as a gymnast and competed in national championships from the age of 9. He began his dance training at Barton Peveril College and then joined Hampshire Youth Dance Company and worked as an apprentice with Full Force Dance Company, under the direction of Helen Parlor.

He began advanced pre-vocational training at The Place's Centre for Advanced Training and went on to graduate with First Class BA (Hons) from London Contemporary Dance School. During his training at LCDS he undertook a 4-month exchange programme to California Institute of the Arts where he specialised in dance theatre.

Since graduating Alasdair has performed with Hofesh Shechter Company and Dance United through postgraduate study with the LCDS apprenticeship programme and graduated with an MA in Contemporary Dance Performance from the London Contemporary Dance School in 2010.

He was thrilled to join Motionhouse for Scattered back in 2009. In his free time (which there isn't much of!) Alasdair enjoys snowboarding, watching films and dinner parties.

Rebecca Williams

Rebecca Williams completed her vocational training at the Northern School

of Contemporary Dance in 2010 qualifying with a BPA (Hons) degree.

Since graduating Rebecca began her performance career in 2011 with

Harnisch Lacey Dance Theatre, creating and touring their double bill show,

‘Spin.’ During this time she had the opportunity to make choreography for

Hedfan Youth Company.

Rebecca then went on to work for Watkins Dance, Wayne Sables Project, Company Decalage and Joon Dance.

Rebecca also organizes international break dance events and has her own professional dance company, Dirty Feet. Dirty Feet DC premiered it’s piece ‘Out of Nowhere’ as part of Resolutions! 2012 with a sellout show.

Rebecca also has experience in commercial work and teaching.