CREW
Bar Groisman - Artistic Director
Bar founded Sababa Co. in 2019 – a contemporary dance theatre company creating physical and theatrical dance works that push the boundaries between movement, text, music, and set. Through her work, she endeavours to share personal insights into everyday human struggles, creating a platform to tackle undervalued and under highlighted issues.
Bar’s choreographic work includes: ‘Aize Balagan’ performed at the Resolution Festival at The Place, ‘Coiled Up’ funded R&D by Arts Council England and ‘Chameleon Life’ for the Sommarlund Arts Festival in Lund, Sweden.
She has Movement Directed for Award Winning Edinburgh Fringe show ‘This Is Not A Show About Hong Kong’ and OFFIE nominated show ‘In This Smoking Chaos’.
Bar is an Associate Artist with award-winning company GymJam Theatre and sits as a co-chair of the NYDC’s Young Person’s Board.
Jasmine Norton - Co-Producer
Jasmine Lily Norton is a Dance Artist, Rehearsal Director & Arts Producer from the UK. She continues to engage with the dance world in a curious and intuitive manner.
Since graduating the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp in 2019, she has worked as a freelance dancer, teacher, producer & rehearsal director. In 2020 she co-founded Another Collective with John-William Watson.
Her artistic credits include: The Fundamentals of Business by John-William Watson (dancer & co-creation), All Under The Same Moon by Ruby Portus (dancer), This is Not A Penguin by John-William Watson (rehearsal direction), Hang In There, Baby! by John-William Watson (Creative associate & rehearsal direction, Lover's Eyes by Renan Martins (dancer), R&D for Greater Than Lion by Kenedy Muntanga (dancer).
As a producer she has successfully raised over £39,000 of public funds for Another Collective (2021) and SABABA CO. (2023) respectively.
Alison Thomas - Co-Producer
Alison is an early-career choreographer, dance producer and creative facilitator with a strong fascination in the human condition. She creates her own work and supports the realisation of others’, motivated by her belief in dance’s communicative power, and its opportunity to connect people.
After an undergraduate degree in Human Geography and Social Psychology from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, she completed an MA in Creative Practice at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, combining her academic and creative work. Now based in London, her current interest lies in telling stories, questioning what makes us human, creating socio-politically engaged work, and facilitating opportunities to engage in the arts. She is passionate about widening access to dance by challenging who can do it and view it, working in public spaces and communities.
Across several projects Alison has worked with Botis Seva, James Cousins, Katrina McPherson, Gary Clarke, Lea Anderson, Studio Wayne McGregor, East London Dance, South East Dance and Dance Xchange. She recently started as the Programme Coordinator at Independent Dance where she works part-time alongside her freelance projects. She is also a Trustee of 2Faced Dance Company.
Milo McKinnon - Composer
Milo’s a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and arranger based in South London.
As a composer, he creates music and soundscapes for a variety of media such as film, animation and installations. He has been lucky enough to compose for and collaborate with a range of clients, including fashion designers, artists, dancers and filmmakers.
Milo loves the new challenges that arise when composing and writing for different projects; he finds excitement in the fact that each collaboration is a fresh opportunity to stretch himself, find ways to bring a new twist to things and put his Milo-shaped stamp on it.
Milo worked with Sababa Co. in 2020 and continues to for a future piece.
Lou Cope - Dramaturg
Lou Cope is a Performance Dramaturg with over 15 years experience in working with artists, organisations and academic institutions to creatively and collaboratively develop both their processes and productions. She works with established and emerging artists across art forms and has worked on projects in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Malta, Turkey, Ireland, Portugal, Abu Dhabi and across the UK. She is also Dramaturg in Residence for South East Dance and works as an Organisational Dramaturg to a number of companies. She is an alumna of the Clore Pulse Leadership course.
Shows Lou has worked on have won: 2 Olivier awards, The Benois Prize for Dance, The Critics Choice Award, UK Theatre Award, Total Theatre Award, Amnesty International Freedom of Speech Award, ACTA Eastern Eye Award, Herald Angel Award & a Lustrum Award.
Lou is known for her creative, pragmatic and lively approach. She is a specialist in collaboration and process, and in getting the most out of the artists and organisations she works with. She’s passionate about trying to ensure that performance projects speak to the contexts they are created and presented in, that audiences are served and respected, and that collaborative processes are candid, creative and impactful.
She has worked on dozens of small, mid and large-scale contemporary dance tours including numerous inclusive companies, large scale ballets, lots of shows for children, and theatre and live art shows too.
She’s also an accredited coach, a facilitator, workshop leader, lecturer, podcast host and published writer
Jacob Elliot Roberts - Costume Designer
Jacob is an emerging costume designer, having previously worked as a performer for the likes of TRIBE// Company, Summit Dance Theatre, Sara Green, theatre company Trah and Chips as well as Jorge Crecis, Fabio Liberti and Hagit Yakira as part of EDGE Dance Company. Jacob has designed and produced costumes for his own choreographic, conceptual and installation work for APT Gallery and as part of Resolution Festival at The Place Theatre. He creates garments with themes of gender, nature and ancient myth, and has most recently been working with The Evening (Imogen Mansfield & Evie Oldham) for a dance film ‘Memories Misplaced’, and is currently collaborating with Sunny Duet on the upcoming ‘Project Outrage(ous)’.
Zoé Ritchie
Zoé is a French and British lighting designer and technician. She trained in lighting for live performance in Paris before doing a Master of Arts of lighting design at Rose Bruford College in London. She works across the UK and France as a lighting designer, associate, programmer, tour re-lighter and technician for dance and theatre productions, while working on personal and collaborative projects and researches. Her credits include: Mère by Ambre Matton (lighting designer), Sucker Punch by Roy Williams (tour re-lighter), Grown Men Keep Breaking My Heart by Joey Barton & Kennedy Junior Muntanga (Co
lighting designer, L.D. Ryan Stafford), Illegal Dance by Avant Garde Dance Company (tour re-lighter), 1983 by Compagnie Nova (tour re-lighter), Charlie and Stan by Told By An Idiot Company (tour re-lighter), 2023 by Noa Genazzano (associate lighting designer), First Touch directed by Jeff
James (assistant L.D. and lighting programmer), Change Tempo for the Dance Umbrella Festival (event lighting manager and programmer) La Réunification des Deux Corées with the Conservatoire Darius Milhaud (lighting designer).
Léa Tirabasso - Artistic Mentor
Léa's work toured in the UK, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and South-Korea. In 2020, she was one of the Twenty20 Aerowaves Artists with her piece ‘The Ephemeral life of an octopus’. Since she created ‘Starving Dingoes’ (2021) and is currently creating her future work ‘In the bushes’ (2024). Physically, she is interested in the notions of tension, brutality, exhaustion and dysfunction. More broadly, her practice questions the idea of instinct.
As a dancer, she worked with José Vidal (CL), Clod Ensemble, Seke Chimuntengwende, James Finnemore, Seven Sisters Group (UK), Jean-Guillaume Weis, Bernard Baumgarten (LU). For two seasons, she was a full time dancer at the Staatstheater Kassel (DE), under the direction of Johannes Wieland, where she worked with Johannes Wieland, Stephanie Thiersch, Michael Langeneckert (DE) and Chris Haring (AT).
Léa has been teaching workshops nationally and internationally, is a guest speaker at University College London and one of charity’s Eve Appeal Ambassadors.
She has been working as a mentor for different emerging artists; she is passionate about supporting reflective thinking about one's practice and infusing energy towards one's vision