Announcing UPLIFT artists 2024
14 May 2024UPLIFT is our Artist Development programme for Dance Artists in the North West.
The programme demonstrates our commitment to raising the bar for dance in the region and supporting dance artists with different voices, histories and stories.
Following a selection process, we’re excited to announce our UPLIFT artists for 2024.
Jen Malarkey (she/her)
Jen is Artistic Director of Encounter, making work across dance, theatre and screen. She has toured and collaborated with organisations including Northern Stage, Soho Theatre, The Yard, The Lowry, The Place, The Albany, Live Theatre, Lancaster Arts, Z Arts, Traverse Theatre and Fuel Theatre. Alongside creating shows with Encounter, she freelances as a movement director and teaches actor movement in Higher Education with a special interest in access and inclusion.
As part of her residency, Jen will work with Carl Harrison, an award-winning performer from Manchester, who has worked with Punchdrunk Theatre, Protein Dance, Encounter and Thick & Tight. Carl recently directed the cabaret in Punchdrunk’s The Burnt City, and he is currently making a solo show called Apocalypse Wow!
Max Lee (he/him)
Max is a choreographer, dancer, actor, movement coach and video designer. He is currently Art Director of creative platform, Room 9 Dance Theatre. After graduating from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and London Contemporary Dance School, he studied contemporary dance at The Place in London.
Max has choreographed for the Hong Kong Arts Festival, performed at the opening ceremony of the Doha Asian Games and created a short dance film, Fish, which was commissioned by Jumping Frames as part of the Hong Kong International Movement-image Festival.
Lily Antonia (she/her) and Maisha Kungu (they/them).
Lily is a dance artist, performer, teacher, and choreographer. Her work centres around storytelling and human relationships, using dance as a form to share inner and outer worlds. As a neurodivergent queer artist, Lily says “I’m here to celebrate individually and empower others to express themselves.”
Maisha is a neurodivergent queer artist, choreographer, performer, and movement director, whose vibrant, kind-hearted, educational, and actively anti-racist work uses structured improvisation to harness authentic groove within body and soul.
Each artist will be in residence at Company Chameleon for three weeks in the Autumn. During this time, the artists will create, adapt and develop dance works with the support of Chameleon’s creative team. Following on, artists will present their work at our Scratch Night in November.
Emmy Lahouel, our Access & Development Producer, said: “We’re excited to be supporting such a fantastic group of dance makers for this year’s cohort of UPLIFT. Jen will be working alongside Carl to explore working class motherhood, Lily and Maisha are taking time to develop a new collaboration and Max will be looking at how architecture and social housing impacts communities. They will start their residencies this Autumn. Join us later in the year to see what they’ve been up to!”