Sophie Arstall

I see themes, interests and questions emerge in my work: a concern for how and why we move and are moved, an enquiry into where movement creativity is at its most potent, the relationship of imagination to our dancing, and a fascination with the human condition and the theatre of the body, how every action and reaction is loaded with potential information and emotion. The humorous, the tragic, the absurd. I am fascinated by the compositional, spatial, architectural, structural and, essentially, the poetic.

I trained at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance (First Class BA Hons) and took a Masters in Performance at Laban as part of the internationally touring Transitions Dance Company. Since then I have danced for Hagit Yakira, Rosemary Lee, Candoco, Stacked Wonky, Glyndebourne, Paris Opéra Comique and Ingri Fiksdal among others; made work as half of Average Height Ladies with Elizabeth Barker; and taught in professional, community and inclusive settings across the country.

This site is a way of documenting and archiving what I do, and have done, as a dancer, performer and maker: a map of a dance history in images, thoughts and words, grasping at the remaining threads of this ephemeral art form that I live day by day.