MARTIN COLLINS - Company Directior

1) Did you have formal training? If so, where did you train?
I trained at the Rambert school of dance and then did a 4th year advanced performance course( Transitions dance company) at the Laban centre

2) What was your first job as a dancer?
My first job as a dancer was with David Massingham Dance

3) What piece of work, as a dancer, are you most proud of?
Thats too hard a question to answer i am proud of most things i have performed in for various different reasons , though i recently performed in a theatre and dance piece at the gate theatre where i worked with a lot of text and it was the first time i had worked with a script and it pushed me out of my comfort zone ,which is a good thing always and i feel proud to have done that.

4) Who in the dance world has inspired you as a choreographer?
I have learnt a lot again from most of the choreographers i have worked with and from just watching pieces of the people i have not had the chance to work with . One choreographer who's work i really enjoy watching at the moment is chris Harring who has a company in Vienna.

5) What, or who, outside the dance world inspires you?
I am mainly inspired by other art forms , lot's of visual artists Juan Munoz, Anthony Gormley have inspired me hugely there use of space and sense of the theatrical also the films of Bill Viola. Images from film and theatre inspire me also and of course music is always a big inspiration i think to most chorographers, i love the music of Elliot smith , Damon Albarn , Hope Sandoval and Godspeed You black emperor all these i have used for inspiration in the studio even though i like creating new sound scores for my work.

6) How would you describe your style of choreography in one sentence?
Taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary

7) What was the first piece you choreographed?
My first pieces were made at college over twenty years ago ,my first professional work was in 2007 , it was a trio for two dancers Pari Naderi and myself and an actor Rick Bland with live music by Wayne Walker-Allen called Romeo Error , it was a black comedy about being buried alive or about the human spirit not giving up on things, to keep going to the bitter end

8) Have you any new work lined up you can tell us about?
I am making a new solo for myself working with the subject of censorship , from an outside enforced censorship to ideas of self censorship. I am going to be looking at examples of music and dance censorship throughout history, taking ideas and images from this for both the sound score and the movement. I am hoping to work with an escape artist as i want to be completely bound and restricted from moving at the beginning of the piece gradually becoming more and more free to move as the piece goes on . I will be working with a writer and a composer for the sound score.

9) What advice would you give budding new choreographers?
Take every opportunity you can to keep practicing your craft just keep making work whenever you can finding the right ingredients and learning how to put them together and make what you want to make not what you think or somebody else thinks you should make.

10) How do you unwind?
Hanging out with my son George who is 12 and a budding rock star, we get our guitars and drums out and play for hours, playing music with friends is the ultimate way to unwind for me .