Dance Background

Kym started ballet classes when he was 8 years old but owing to extreme embarrassment about how he was spending his Wednesday afternoons, he foolishly gave it up a year later. When he was 12 he played Peter Pan and the choreographer, who happened to be his old ballet teacher, tried to convince him to return to her and do 'modern dance' instead of ballet, but he refused and didn't return to dancing until the age of 17, when he started at the Jazzart studios. Whilst training to be an actor he met his ideal dance partner and co-choreographer Sia Maw (and he still lives in hope that he will one day have the infinite pleasure of dancing with her again!). After graduating he was employed by NAPAC's experimental theatre company, The Loft. Although principally employed as an actor, he also worked as a writer, director and choreographer for the theatre company, and as if he didn't have enough to do he also managed to convince the NAPAC Dance Company to allow him to choreograph 2 dances for them.

When offered a scholarship to do his MA in Dance Studies at the Laban Centre he couldn't say no and graduated in 1996 having majored in Choreography, with Choreological Studies and Visual Design.

Kym's dance works invariably have some theatrical content and utilise dialogue, poetry, eclectic references and musical pastiche for soundtracks to create a distinctive style. Subject matter and titles are often quirky, and humour always makes an appearance in his work. Examples of this quirkiness can be seen in the following pieces:

"Sorry!" - a duet of manners, not all of them good.

"Not Whistler's, Mine." - A piece about mothers, rubber gloves and impractical shoes.

"We're Not in Kansas Anymore..." - A piece with a piano, a chair and a bath tub. Oh, and a couple of fairies...

"Emotional Hygiene" - why is it so hard to throw photographs away? Why does the past captivate us so? Can you recall what happened just before and just after the photograph was taken?

"Shaken, Not Stirred" - why have therapy when you can have a nervous breakdown instead?

"Seasonal Strangers" - people can change but often we don't want them to and when they do we resent it and say things like: You've changed; you're not the person I fell in love with. The truth of the matter is what we're saying is: I resent you for changing because it forces me to examine my own life to see if I need to change too... What if, in order to understand someone else you have to put yourself in their shoes, but men's feet don't fit into most women's high heels...

If you are interested in employing Kym as a choreographer contact him for a copy of his video compilation and specify what the genre is. He has experience ranging from musical theatre to period drama to an Yves Saint Laurent fashion show to contemporary dance and traditional Greek dancing - he feels certain that he can handle anything else you may throw at him!