Lise Smith
Director
 

Trained at Trinity Laban, Lise has over 20 years' experience of producing professional touring theatre and participatory projects at all scales with clients including Akademi South Asian Dance, Kate Flatt Projects, VOXED Dance and Kamala Devam Company. Lise recently worked with Shobana Jeyasingh Dance as Company Manager from 2019-2022. She is currently Operations Manager at Russell Maliphant Dance Company, joining RMDC for the UK tour of Vortex in 2022. 

Lise also enjoys supporting emerging and mid-career artists with touring and organisational development. She produced the dance films Story of a Night Pianist with Bricolage Dance UK, and An Evening With Taglioni with Jess + Morgs Films. 

Lise previously worked as a teacher and animateur for organisations including Greenwich Dance Agency, Barnet School Sports Partnership, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds and Artis Education. As a Dance Mama she performed onstage while seven months pregnant with daughter Scarlett, who is now 7 years ol Lise still performs on occasion - most recently at Greenwich World Festival 2017, Notting Hill Carnival 2018, and with Stage and the City in 2022. 

Balbir Singh
Director

Artistic Director of his own company, Balbir Singh Dance Company is originally from Punjab, India. He moved with his parents to the UK as a child, growing up in Bradford, West Yorkshire, where he still lives.

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Balbir Singh studied dance at Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD) after a stint in Law School. Balbir’s restlessness found expression in sport; particularly long-distance running, swimming and cycling, coupled with a passion for literature, language and an inherent urge to move.  On graduating from NSCD, another chance encounter led Balbir to discover Kathak, the classical North Indian Dance form, which until that point had been a closed book for the young contemporary-trained dancer.

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Balbir’s discovery of Kathak immediately felt like coming home – though not for the expected reasons. In fact, it was not Kathak’s cultural provenance, but its precise and mathematical use of numerically defined rhythms that entranced him. Balbir had always had a tendency, sometimes bordering on an obsession, with numbers and letters. Here, at last, was an outlet for his seemingly limitless capacity for finding patterns in the shapes and numbers of everyday life.

Balbir delved further into Kathak choreography as a way of making sense of the myriad thoughts and ideas spontaneously suggesting themselves to him. Ancient as the Kathak tradition is, the art form is nothing if not dynamic. Throughout his career, Balbir has been encouraged by his guru, leading Kathak pioneer and powerhouse Padmashri Guru Pratap Pawar MBE to explore new ways of combining  Kathak and contemporary sensibilities to express his emerging artistic vision. The result is a distinguished body of work that combines Balbir’s artistic interests with his love of collaboration.

Kimberley Hayes
Director

Following a life-long love of ballet, Kimberley studied Arts & Event Management at London Metropolitan University before starting her career in Stage Management. She has worked with English National Ballet as Assistant Stage Manager and the Stage Manager for ENB2’s national tour of My First Sleeping Beauty and My First Cinderella. Her career highlight was Stage Managing Itzik Galili’s And the Earth Shall Bear Again for English National Ballet’s performances as part of Dance GB in 2012. 

Kimberley also worked with Dance Woking and was a Project Manager for Entertaining Dementia, a project with The Phoenix Theatre and Arts Centre to deliver a carefully selected programme to give those living with Dementia easy access to the arts.

Kimberley was made redundant on maternity leave in 2014 and was determined to pursue a career in Law to understand more about how she could safeguard and advocate for mothers in similar positions. She is currently working as a Paralegal and is a Parent Governor for Chawton CE Primary School.