{"id":91967,"date":"2025-07-14T10:46:28","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T09:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.modernartoxford.org.uk\/cms\/?p=91967"},"modified":"2025-07-14T10:46:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T09:46:28","slug":"daners-msa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.modernartoxford.org.uk\/cms\/daners-msa\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Artists: Dancers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Throughout the duration of Movements for Staying Alive, <\/em>Jane Castree and her troupe of dancers will be activating the space on selected dates. Discover the team of performers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

JJ Formento<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Photograph by Davis Fisher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

JJ is a contemporary dancer. He trained at Central School of Ballet, danced with the Royal Opera, Miss Saigon (Drury Lane Theatre), Dance Theatre of Ireland, and National Dance Company of Wales.\u00a0 Other productions include Evita, 42nd<\/sup> Street, South Pacific, Samson et Dalila, Oklahoma, A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream (Puck), Aida, Pirates of Penzance, The Tempest (Abbey Theatre, Dublin) and The King and I (UK Tour). He studied Theatre Arts and Music at California State University and Geography at the University of the Philippines. He is the founder of Dublin Youth Dance Company and Ajos Trust<\/a>, a UK-registered charity and social enterprise researching dance as a cost-effective therapeutic intervention for the NHS. JJ works at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and lives with his partner in Oxford.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Davidson<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Paul
Photograph by Elly Welford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paul<\/a> is a contemporary and street dancer, and choreographer. He is a National Youth Dance Company Alumnus (NYDC) and has graduated from London Contemporary Dance School with both a BA (hons) and MA in Dance Performance. As well as performing extensively with Corali Dance Company and with Thick&Tight, Paul has also toured nationally with NYDC (Damien Jalet, Sharon Eyal, Botis Seva) and was commissioned to choreograph\/direct the inclusive dance film, Escape the Nowhere, <\/em>which involved Tin Arts, Wheelfever, Corali and NYDC. He appeared in Tim Yip\u2019s Love Infinity <\/em>and Thick&Tight\u2019s recently released Adieu<\/em>. He makes his own dance videos at Paul Davidson Dance, his YouTube Channel<\/a>. In 2024, he founded Resonance Dance, a production\/dance company dedicated to providing expressive platforms for emergent performers\/choreographers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rachel Gomme<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Rachel
Photograph by Rachel Gomme<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rachel<\/a> is an artist and performer based in London, working in performance\/live art, dance and installation<\/a>. With a background in dance, her work is rooted in the experience of bodily being-in-the-world, in relationship with others of all kinds, and is strongly informed by long-term engagement with Body-Mind Centering, Body Weather and Authentic Movement. Rachel\u2019s practice centres on solo durational performance, often site-specific\/site-responsive, and performative interactions, with a series of one-to-one performances exploring shared embodiment through exchanges of silence, touch, breath and conversation, as well as interactive group walks. Her recent work explores the urban vegetal world, from overlooked plants in gutters and cracks to the street trees, using photography, drawing and guided walks to map and draw attention to this growth. Since 1998 she has presented work and exhibited throughout the UK and internationally (Europe, Canada, USA, Mexico, Aotearoa\/New Zealand, Taiwan). As a performer, Rachel has worked with a wide range of artists in live art and dance, including Marie-Gabrielle Rotie, Gary Stevens, The Strange Names Collective, Philipp Gehmacher, Barnaby Stone, Isabel Lewis, Tino Sehgal and Upswing Aerial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flora Baltz<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Flora
Photograph by Henri Kesielewski<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Flora Baltz<\/a> is an interdisciplinary Brazilian artist, researcher, and movement facilitator based in London. Baltz began her career dancing with Ballet West (Utah, USA), before completing her BA in Contemporary Dance and Somatic Practices from Angel Vianna College, Rio de Janeiro (2017-2019). Following this, she moved to London and completed her MFA in Creative Practices at Trinity Laban (2021-2023). Since then, her practice has evolved into a research-led, collaborative approach rooted in community engagement and embodied knowledge through somatic practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baltz\u2019s work weaves movement, writing, and facilitation, with care at its core<\/a>. She sees movement and installation as interconnected ways of shaping presence and relation. In April 2025, her installation \u2018Islands of the South\u2019 was exhibited at the Albany, the leading arts centre in South East London, and at Deptford Lounge following a community workshop she facilitated as part of the Albany\u2019s Pizza and Pitches <\/em>programme. This followed her 2023 performance-installation, Relational Poetics from Archipelagic Encounters<\/em> (2023, London) that used a collaborative and multisensory approach. In February 2025, Baltz performed in the premiere of Vivian Guyr\u00e1\u2019s TEKOHA<\/em> at The Place, London – a choreographic work performed by artists from the Global South that explores land, belonging, community resistance, and the right to education. She also performed in Pepa Ubera\u2019s Violet Hours<\/em> at Ralph Pucci Gallery, London (2023), CHARCO<\/em>, Brighton (2023), and The Machine of Horizontal Dreams<\/em>, London (2024). Passionate about building community and breaking stigma, Baltz directed, co-curated, and co-produced the first edition of Em Movimento – Rio de Janeiro<\/em> (2023), a publicly funded dance festival in Brazil that brought together practitioners of contemporary and urban dance to offer free classes to the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maiya Leeke<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Elly
Photograph by Elly Welford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maiya Leeke<\/a> is a creative artist: performer, choreographer, and musician. She is a Sadler\u2019s Wells Young Associate 2023-25 presenting work in Sadler’s Wells Main House (2024) and Lilian Baylis Studio Theatre (2023), was the Associate Choreographer of The Creakers<\/em> by Tom Fletcher (2024), and is an Associate Director of Mimbre Acrobatic Theatre Company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maiya is a company dancer touring with Candoco Dance Company. Her further performance credits include Barbie the Movie<\/em> (2023); Eurovision (2023); BBC Proms dancing with Paraorchestra (2024); and Bradford City of Culture Opening Ceremony (2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Youth dance is a passion of Maiya’s and she has worked as a Creative Support Artist for National Youth Dance Company since 2022 under the artistic direction of Sir Wayne McGregor, Oona Doherty, and Boy Blue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maiya’s background includes training in National Youth Dance Company with Alesandra Seutin, a MA from Northern School of Contemporary Dance, and being a finalist in BBC Young Dancer 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout the duration of Movements for Staying Alive, Jane Castree and her troupe of dancers will be activating the space on selected dates. 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