Staff A-Z

McGregor is Professor of Choreography at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, has Honorary Doctorates from The Royal College of Art London, Plymouth University, University of Leeds, University of Chester, and UAL, and is an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association. He has won four Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards, two Time Out Awards, three South Bank Show Awards, three Olivier Awards, a Prix Benois de la Danse and two Golden Mask Awards. In 2011 McGregor was awarded a CBE for Services to Dance and in 2021 was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Prix de Lausanne. His Majesty The King Charles III appointed Wayne McGregor a Knighthood in the 2024 Birthday Honours List.

She is a founder member of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and she also founded the ensemble His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts, of which she was a member for twenty-five years. She has played with nearly all of the major London orchestras and chamber ensembles including the London Sinfonetta and Nash Ensemble. She also plays Principal Trombone with Garsington Opera and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

She is currently professor of trombone and sackbut at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Centre for Early Music Performance and Research (CEMPR) at the University of Birmingham, and Birmingham Conservatoire. She has also given masterclasses at the Royal College of Music, Trinity Laban London, Mannes College of Music New York and Boston Early Brass symposium in the USA.

She was also awarded a Hon LRAM for her teaching work at the Royal Academy of Music in 2002.

After Transitions Will performed in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake completing two international tours, a UK tour and a Sadler’s Wells season. He then moved into more project-based work whilst developing an interest in teaching and in 2008 joined Trinity Laban as the Graduate Assistant for Technique.

Since then Will has taught at graduate and undergraduate level as well as many youth and community projects and more recently at Arts Educational Schools, London and as the Lead Teacher for the Centre for Advanced Training at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. He is currently the Programme Leader for Contemporary Dance Foundation Programmes at Trinity Laban and is still performing and choreographing professionally. Will co-founded his own company called Anecdotal Evidence in 2013 and continues to make work under this banner.

Jess trained at Guildford School of Acting. Her theatre credits include: The Merry Wives of Windsor (Royal Shakespeare Company), The School for Scandal (Royal Shakespeare Company), As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe), The Vortex(Chichester Festival Theatre), Orlando (Michael Grandage Company/West End), Hamlet (National Theatre); A Christmas Carol, The Tempest, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Open Bar Theatre). Jess’s TV credits includes: Showtrial, Buffering, and I Hate Suzie.

Robert enjoyed a successful and varied career as a performer when he first graduated and has primarily dedicated his professional life to the teaching of singing. He has gained wide recognition for this and has been the subject of several publications and of a BBC2 documentary about his work.

He is happy to have joined the permanent Professorial staff at Trinity Laban, particularly as his great mentor Frederic Cox taught at Trinity during the same period in his own life and Robert is proud to follow in his footsteps.

The summer of 2022 he retired from his full time teaching commitment at the TU Dublin Conservatoire.

Simonetta Alessandri studied Ballet, Modern, Contemporary and Jazz dance in Turin (Bella Hutter school and Teatro Nuovo school) in Rome (Mimma Testa school) and she obtained the TC at the Royal Academy of Dance. In the early 90s, she started to study Contact Improvisation and Improvisation with the foremost teachers: S. Paxton, N. Stark Smith, A. Harwood, J. Hamilton, J. Skinner, D. Heitkamp, and R. Saporah. In 2002 she completed a 4-year programme to become a qualified teacher of the Feldenkrais Method. She is currently working on an MA in Choreography at London Contemporary Dance School.

BA (Dunelm) DMus (Aberdeen)
Hon ARAM, Hon FRSCM, Hon FNMSM

Ralph has conducted choirs for 40 live broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, is a judge for the Llangollen Eisteddfod and has written much music heard worldwide on radio and television. He also teaches at his old school, Tiffin.
In 2015 he co-founded the Pimlico Musical Foundation to enable children from Pimlico Primary Schools to sing in choirs, particularly at St Gabriel’s Church. Since then, in addition to their own choirs, Pimlico’s five primary schools have produced a Pimlico Children’s Choir and, since September 2018, a Foundation Choir which sings regular Evensongs in St Gabriel‘s Church.

In 2012 Ralph was awarded a Doctorate of Music by Aberdeen University. He was made MBE in the 2012 New Year’s Honours list. In 2017, the Archbishop of Canterbury presented him with the Thomas Cranmer Award for Music and Worship. – 2012 Ralph Doctorate of Music by Aberdeen University.

In 2012 Mr Amundsen graduated from The Royal Academy of Dance, Professional Dancer’s teaching Diploma(PDTD).

As a dance teacher Kim has been teaching Ballet, Contemporary, and Boris kniaseff Floor Barre technique (learned from Jaqueline Fynnaert in Paris) for Ballet and Contemporary Companies and Colleges across the UK and internationally. Such Companies and Organisations include:

Moving Art A Nordic Dance Company, Matthew Bourne’s Adventure In Motion Pictures, Randon Dance Company, The Place, Murley Dance Company, Colin’s Performing Art, Master’s Performing Art, London Studio Centre, Dance East Academy, Pineaple Dance Studio, Central School of Ballet, Oslo Danse Ensamble, GDT(Free daily classes for Professional Dancers, Norway), Baardar Performing Art Academy, Akademi, London Amateur Ballet, D&B School of Performing Arts (head of Ballet). Lecture at Kington University, Dance East CAT, Lecturer of Ballet and Contemporary dance at Trinity Laban Conservetoire of Music and Dance (present) Acosta Dance Centre (present) The Hub studios London (present).

Robert Anderson teaches dance improvisation and contact improvisation for actors and dancers in Higher Education and in a variety of settings in the UK and abroad. Robert has been passionately involved with contact improvisation since 1996. Influential teachers have included Kirsty Simson, Nancy Stark Smith, Martin Keogh, Ray Chung, Charlie Morrissey, Angus Balbernie and Rick Nodine. Robert has taught workshops in Austria, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Reunion, Northern Ireland, France, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, Spain, Ukraine, and Italy.

Robert directed London Contact Improvisation (2001 – 2021), a community-based organisation, which delivered a programme of classes, workshops and jams at Moving East and Caxton House. He was also part of the curator team for CI36 in Pennsylvania (2008) and the European Contact Improvisation Teachers Exchange in Ormskirk, England (2009).

Alongside teaching and organising, Robert is actively involved as performer, director and collaborator in many performance projects. Robert has been a company member of Touchdown Dance since 2002. He performed in TACT (2002) and Closer (2005) which throughout the UK. He has also performed in many choreographies and improvised works by artists including Joe Moran, Kate Brown, Tino Seghal, Jovair Longo, Meghan Flannigan, Adriana Pegorer, Lalitaraja, Sarah Shorten, Magdalena Radlowska, and the improvisation collective SoFt.

While Principal Sassoonist with the Britten Sinfonia and Haffner Wind Ensemble (a position she held for 13 years), she was soloist on the Britten Sinfonia recording of Richard Strauss’ Duo Concertante for Clarinet, Bassoon and Orchestra (EMI) with clarinettist Joy Farrall, and in 1999 recorded Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto K.191, and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn and orchestra (with Nicholas Daniel, Joy Farrall and Stephen Bell) for the Classic FM label. Her recording of Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto, with the Britten Sinfonia, was chosen by the BBC Radio 3 Building a Library programme as the best available recording.

As well as performing on concert platforms throughout the UK and all over the world, Julie has spent a considerable amount of time as a studio musician, playing Principal Bassoon on numerous recordings of film soundtracks and backing tracks, including several Harry Potter and James Bond scores.

Damien has undergone training with notable Street, Club and Funk style dance icons including, Elite Force (HipHop), Breed of Motion (Waacking), Mighty Zulu Kingz (Breaking) and more.

Performances include Brit Awards and principle dancer with London’s Big Dance Bus tour, while choreographic credits include The National Theatre and London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.

Damien’s commitment to educating others earned him UK Dance Teacher of the Year (2014) as voted by Dance Today magazine. He has also headlined as a teacher for Unidance resulting in a 5 year tour of Russia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

As director of B-Better dance education company, Damien teaches many demographics and lists American School in London, Royal Academy of Dance and British Heart Foundation as former residencies.

Alexander has made notable radio recordings for BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. His extensive discography consists of 20 different CD albums. Among them is a remarkable recording of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Alexander Gibson.

Alexander has given recitals at the Bösendorfer Hall in Vienna, Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields and St John’s Smith Square in London; Carnegie Hall in New York; Gasteig and Carl-Orff-Saal in Munich; Benaroya Hall in Seattle; and Herbst Theatre in San Francisco.

He frequently gives masterclasses in the UK and abroad.

Listen to Alexander Ardakov’s recordings on his YouTube channel

Photo: Alexander Dymnikov