About

John Ross Dance was initially set up in 2011 to allow John Ross to explore the connection between theatre and dance and how they can co-exist to tell stories through movement. John has won numerous awards for his choreographic works including The Matthew Bourne Choreographer Award in 2014. In 2015 he became one of the BBC’s 32 Ones to Watch Fellows, hosted by Swindon Dance.

He has worked extensively as a choreographer, DV8, Royal Opera House, Trinity Laban and many more and has won various awards throughout his career.

John Ross has returned to Dundee as a Dance Artist with Scottish Dance Theatre.

Reviews

“Listening, commanding, watching, waiting, Ross evoked the energy, strength and physicality of a soldier, marrying this brutality with a sensitive vocabulary that was first and foremost dance. Using a pen to draw a bullet wound on the chest and turning to reveal its exit mark, created a tension between the enormity of death and the inability to recreate such a scene. The lightness of the act of drawing and the closeness of the man stood before the audience evoked a sense of life’s fragility without undermining the event.” – Rebecca Nice, Total Theatre

Reviews

John Ross Dance came up with a neat idea for Wolfpack; four blokes are out on the razzle when it all goes horribly wrong. Initially, the quartet’s antics are funny as they recreate every crap Saturday night dance move (they don’t spare on the wobbly bellies and snaky eyebrows) but things take a turn for the worse when one of them overdoses after thinking he’s superman.

… It’s an unusual and interesting idea delivered with cheeky humour and a good deal of pathos at its conclusion.

Reviews

“This is a powerful piece of contemporary dance that is compulsive and compelling” – Rich Jevons
“Set to the beautifully haunting music of Composer Greg Haines, no meeting or action goes without a reaction. The themes universal: how we are affected by Influence, human connection and the power of even the smallest incidental meeting.

The performance ranges from dynamic bursts to more restrained actions and tentative movements. Whilst the narrative is not literally delineated we are encouraged to make up stories about the characters and invent narratives around them. Technically brilliant with a fine attention to detail this is a powerful piece of contemporary dance that is compulsive and compelling.”