Biographies

Rosie Heafford

Rosie Heafford is a performance maker and choreographer. In 2011 she established Second Hand Dance, a company that collaborates with dancers, artists and the public to make thought provoking, joyful and highly visual dance performances for all ages. Her work is often socially engaged, subtly participatory and has been performed in a variety of spaces, from theatres to libraries. She is interested in the celebratory aspect of performance. Something that is full of joy. Where dance is reclaimed from awkwardness into a gift; an exchange between viewer and performer.

www.secondhanddance.co.uk  

Adrian Heafford 

Adrian is a geologist that has explored the arctic, been shipped-wrecked and can often be found on his hands and knees looking at the marble on the Heafford’s kitchen floor. With his packed lunch, socks, sandals and full beard, life is an exploration that is best done on a Brompton bike. Adrian’s dancing career has had many false-starts and his daughter has never been able to teach him to do a proper plié but the occasional barn dance has taught him how to count: we’re hoping this intensive experience will help him leap and bound.

Alexandrina Hemsley 

Alexandrina has been performing & choreographing in London & internationally since 2009. Her practice aims to celebrate & reclaim her identity as a mixed-race woman & challenge the various cultural frameworks that mark, violate & subjugate her/these bodies. She does this through an interdisciplinary process of attempting to undo structural and internalised colonialism, engaging with the wider concern of presenting subjectivities of people from African & Caribbean descent more visibly into the fabric of contemporary performance. Alexandrina believes in dance & the body as a site for expressing felt & embodied politics. She has worked collaboratively on Project O with Jamila Johnson-Small since 2011 and the duo most recently completed their durational work Voodoo (A Sadlers Wells Commission). She is currently collaborating with Seke Chimutengwende on a new duet 'Black Holes’ commissioned by Cambridge Junction, The Place and Chisenhale Dance Space.  She is an Associate at The Yard Theatre and her writing finds its home on Feminist Shakedown.

David Hemsley 

David  is frequently puzzled by contemporary dance and because of his marketing background, has endless ideas and advice about how to make the ever-misunderstood art form more appealing. He has expressed concern that at 73 years old, he may “fall asleep” during the piece but Alexandrina has seen him bust a move on various family function disco floors and knows he’ll soar through!

Helena Webb

Helena is a performance maker and dancer based in London. As a maker, Helena rejoices in quirky displays of wordplay and comic timing whilst continuing to make space for embodiment and poignancy. She performs across a range of settings including; gallery spaces, theatres, gardens and parks and in peoples homes. For artists such as Xavier le Roy, Marten Spangberg, Ina Dokmo and Tino Sehgal. 2018 will see Helena starting the research process for her new children's show about worry, revisiting her 2016 solo Majesty which explores shame, colonialism and activism, and internationally touring Second Hand Dance's Grass.

www.helenawebb.com

Andy Webb 

Andy is an accumulation of non-careers. Coded as a welder, with a music diploma, a pass in the Securities Institute’s Futures & Options exam and a work study engineering certificate – all adding up to virtually no understanding of contemporary dance. However, due to being yelled at frequently by Helena, he has a very strong understanding of what contemporary dance is NOT! IT’S NOT: Modern, Jazz, Ballet, Tap or any of that pseudo-Irish stuff with bodhráns.