Achetez un café à Ben Wright

'It’s not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating, they have to be about change' Miles Davis

Hello, thanks for reading this.

My name is Ben Wright, I am presently a choreographer/director and movement facilitator and over the last year it’s become acutely clear that I want to make a change in my life.

I want to be a painter.

I have so much to learn and practice, but I’ve taken risks before. With my creative experience, enthusiasm and curiosity intact, I am jumping in faith and asking myself how new knowledge and skills might enhance my contribution to others.

To do this, I need support, and I have never asked for anything like this in my life before.

Some history - I began dancing relatively late in life at 19 years old, I was studying drama, theatre and graphic design at the time, so this was a curve ball move. It scared the hell out of me, but it felt like a failure not to try. That leap changed the trajectory of my life in immeasurable ways. I have my first teacher to thank for this - Eve Leveaux. She housed me, taught me for free and presented a path that I hadn’t even considered. Without her I wouldn’t be writing this.

Since then, I have used my vocation as a means of paying back her kindness and my career has been wholly multifaceted. Over three decades I have had the greatest privilege to work across a full spectrum of genres in Theatre, Dance, Opera, and Film. I was a performer for sixteen years working with the likes of Matthew Bourne, Nicholas Hytner, Mark Morris, Christopher Bruce, Phelim McDermott, with London Contemporary Dance Theatre, New Adventures, Richard Alston and The National Theatre. I have spent the last twenty years supporting, encouraging and crafting performances from dancers, actors, singers and musicians. You can see some of my performance work at Instagram @ben_wright_movement_ and there’s a showreel of my work here https://vimeo.com/572675783

I was the Artistic Co-Director at Candoco Dance Company 2017- 2020, Associate Director/choreographer for Skanes Dansteater in Malmo, Sweden 2014- 2017 and the interim Artistic Director for National Dance Company Wales in 2021. From 2022 – 2024 I lectured at Northern School of Contemporary Dance specialising in Choreography, Improvisation, Yoga and Performance.

I choose a career I loved, I have always given it my best shot, I’ve sought out creative opportunities, worked for the benefit of other people and relished being a part of artistic teams.

C.S Lewis said 'You have to let go at some point in order to move forward' I left my role in Higher Education earlier this year and began a BA in Painting with the Open University. Right now, I am balancing studies with freelance movement work, but I want to set aside the next two years to primarily focus on my painting. To find out what my intuition and instinct might reveal.

There are images of some of the last year's work on this my instagram page @dancing_differently_now.

Offering to keep in monthly contact with all my supporters, keeping you abreast of my development - let me know if that's of interest. By the end of next two years, I'll give you each of you a piece of work.

If you are interested, please email me at [email protected] with the subject 'I want to buy you coffee'

I extend my deepest thanks for reading this

Warmest Ben x