The inclusive dance company Candoco invites artists from all over the world to create pieces for its dancers, collaborating for example with Emanuel Gat, Trisha Brown, Javier de Frutos and Arlene Phillips. Featuring in prestigious institutions and festivals in the UK and across the world, Candoco’s work is still seldom presented in France.
Founded in London in 1991 by Celeste Dandeker-Arnold OBE and Adam Benjamin, the company has been directed since Jnauary 2024 by Dominic Mitchell and Raquel Meseguer Zafe. In 2018, Candoco was the first contemporary dance company to be invited to Strictly Come Dancing, a BBC programme with 10 million viewers. In 2022, the company premiered Set and Reset/Reset, a rereading of the work of Trisha Brown that won a Bessie Award and was presented at the Tate Modern in London and the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. She also created two new pieces in collaboration with Seke Chimuntengwende and Annie Hanauer. In 2023, Candoco presented Last Shelter created during lockdown in 2021, and the duet I think we should start over in collaboration with Jamaal Burkmar.
The new directors of Candoco, both disabled, are eager to create spaces of freedom both on and off stage and to explore intersectionality as a practice. For their first commission, Over and Over (and over again), they worked with Dan Daw, a former dancer for Candoco who has created his own company, Dan Daw Creative Projects.
Dan Daw Creative Projects
Based in the UK, Dan Daw Creative Projects is a company led by Dan Daw and Liz Counsell, both disabled. Its work blurs the boundaries between theatre, dance and activism, aiming to bring about systemic change for deaf and disabled artists and audiences.
Dan Daw Creative Projects has presented its performances at prestigious venues such as British Dance Edition, the Swedish Performing Arts Biennale, the Sydney Festival and the Rising Festival (Australia), Kampnagel and Sophiensaele (Germany), SoHo Playhouse (USA), and Sadler’s Wells and Battersea Arts Centre (UK).
Between 2023 and 2025, during a residency at Kampnagel in Hamburg, Dan Daw Creative Projects explored the overall meaning of accessibility for a cultural venue: programming, residencies, audience experience, structural development and human resources.
In 2021, Dan Daw presented The Dan Daw Show, a powerful autobiographical piece that has won several awards. The company is currently doing research and development for its new show EXXY.
Stef O’Driscoll
Stef is a critically acclaimed and award-winning theatre director who centres contemporary stories with a social-political heart directing new plays by some of the UK’s most significant theatrical voices.
Stef was the Artistic Director at The Gate, Artistic Director of nabokov, and Associate Director at both Paines Plough and Lyric Hammersmith. Her innovative storytelling spans across multiple art forms including theatre, music, raves, spoken word and film where they push the boundaries of gigs and theatre.
Accolades include the groundbreaking play With A Little Bit of Luck by Sabrina Mahfouz for the first radio play to be broadcast on BBC 1Xtra winning “Best Radio production” at the BBC Radio and Music Awards.
Stef has directed plays with criminal justice organisations Clean Break and Synergy, where she is currently an associate artist.
