Luke Pell

Often a companion in practice to other artists and arts organisations, Luke Pell (they/he) has worked at the intersections of where dance, choreography and contemporary performance meets with other worlds for over twenty-years. With a particular focus upon ‘thinking through practice’ they collaborate on projects that attend to alterity, in hope of effecting embodied change in the ways people encounter, engage with and reconsider notions of identity and difference; death, dying and loss; interdependence, community, and care.

At the heart of Luke’s practice has been making space for careful conversation, working with words &/as movement they've created a range of poetic-choreographic works online, in print and in person. They primarily work alongside other choreographers/artists whose practices question dominant norms - including Caroline Bowditch, Lucy Cash, Emilyn Claid; Nigel Charnock; Kitty Fedorec, Cruising for Art, Catherine Long; Kate Marsh; Queer by Extension, Farah Saleh and Jo Verrent. Luke has been a practice/production dramaturg for Claire Cunningham since 2014.

Trained in contemporary performance at the University of Winchester and Queen Mary University of London, Luke has held and supported programmes of change with artists and institutions throughout the UK, including time as Head of Learning & Research for Candoco Dance Company convening Masters-in-Teaching modules with the Royal Academy of Dance. Working with artists in the myriad ways they might reveal wisdoms for living, Luke has designed processes for research and the deepening of practice with peers as part of dance, disability, LGBTQIA+ children’s and older people’s movements internationally and been an adviser to funders/researchers such as Invisible Difference: Coventry University, Jerwood Arts, Wellcome Trust and Paul Hamlyn Foundation. They were a chair of the board for Chisenhale Dance Space and are now a trustee of Siobhan Davies Studios.

An Associate Artist of Janice Parker Projects and Fevered Sleep, since Octpber 2023 Luke is a part-time member of the  "Choreography, Dance and Disability Arts" team by Claire Cunningham.