 Kevin Finnan
As Motionhouse's Artistic Director Kevin has created, either alone or in collaboration with Louise, each of our major touring productions. This includes all of Motionhouse’s middle-scale theatre productions as well as a series of our shorter festival pieces.
Kevin also undertakes commissions and projects for other companies and agencies. In 1998 he founded Fierce performance company, and in 2000 he created the critically acclaimed True - a performance event for the Tramway, Glasgow, in collaboration with writer A. L. Kennedy and installation artist Rosa Sanchez.
In addition to Kevin's work with Motionhouse and Fierce his credits include: Mamu (1994) for Headlines Theatre Company, Vancouver; Transform (1996) for Copenhagen's European City of Culture celebrations; Peter Pan (1997) for TAG Theatre Company, Glasgow; two commissions for Blue Eyed Soul in 1998 and 2000; Taking Flight for Gravity and Levity in 2005; Shift for Gravity and Levity in 2008 and Us and Them for Headlines in 2011.
Kevin is passionate about exploring and exploding the traditional use of space in performance and has a history of creating extraordinary dance spectacles including the acclaimed Machine Dance for JCB diggers and dancers.
Kevin has an MA in Contemporary Performing Arts from University College Bretton Hall and a PhD in Theatre from Warwick University. |
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 Louise Richards
Louise originally trained as a visual artist and became a professional dancer on graduating from a post-grad course at the Laban Centre in London. She got her first job with New Midlands Dance company in 1985 before forming Motionhouse 3 years later.
In the early days Louise and Kevin created, danced and toured duet productions throughout the UK and delivered an unbelievable amount of educational activity. They believe in making dance accessible for all and they became pioneers for introducing the art form to people with differing needs as well as to people in prison (from youth custody centres to maximum security men's prisons).
Over the years, alongside her commitment to Motionhouse, Louise has undertaken numerous commissions for other companies. She also continues to teach the company's devised style, offering inspirational training to dancers, students, teachers and practitioners both in the UK and beyond including recent invitations to teach master classes at the School of Contemporary Dance in Irkutsk, Siberia and Dance Pedagogy for students in Copenhagen.
Louise is regularly invited to attend and speak at seminars and conferences and acts as a mentor for young performers and organisations. She also sits on the steering group for Dancescape and the Board of Audiences Central and the management group for Mimbre.
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