Lucy Hind is a Movement Director and founding member of award-winning theatre company Slung Low. Last summer she co-choreographed the London 2012 Paralympic opening ceremony and this month she’ll be running a series of special movement workshops towards a performance at the finale of the National Student Drama Festival.

At the workshops, we’ll be making a physical theatre piece from the opening scene of a classic text, full of adventure and excitement. There may be some text in the final piece, but mostly just some rather excellent jumping around

You don’t need to have any dance experience. Just have an open mind and be prepared to get sweaty. You need to be willing to learn. We only have two days to make something that stands up at the National Student Drama Festival, alongside the best shows selected that year.

In theatre, movement is there to facilitate telling the story. In dance, it’s the sole language for telling that story. A lot of young companies get the transition between text and movement wrong. It’s very hard to achieve – I don’t necessarily always get it right. But it asks a lot of the audience to get thrust from one to the other. Companies like Frantic Assembly and DV8 blend the two together really well. A lot of young companies do some talking, then some music comes on and then they do a dance section. That’s where you lose audiences.

Find a way for the movement to come from the text, so it feels like it is owned by the story. Also, the movement has to belong to the world of the play. You can’t break into contemporary dance in the middle of a period piece. Well, you can, if you choose to, but it has to feel owned by the characters, otherwise it’s jarring.

I describe myself as a Movement Director, rather than a choreographer, because I work primarily with actors and the theatre. It’s a slightly different skill. A lot of actors find movement quite terrifying.

You have to fit in with the director and leave your ego behind. You also need to make lots of references to work the director has seen, because it can be hard for people who aren’t movement trained to be able to articulate what they want. So, if you can use shared references, you’re more likely to stay on the right lines.

I met Jenny Sealey, Co-Artistic Director of the Paralympic Games opening ceremony, at a disabled dance and theatre symposium. Sometimes you just have to be brave, so I asked if I could be involved. I emailed her, didn’t hear back from ages then got a reply saying they were looking for people to join the choreography team.

Every day things changed. There would be a memo saying, “That track is now double the length”. Then, “We’re not using that track any more”. Then, “Here’s a massive tent you have to incorporate”. Then, “The umbrellas you’ve been working with are now twice as heavy and all change colour”. It was brilliant, but certainly kept us on our toes.

My advice is to go and see work, and decide if that’s for you. When I arrived from South Africa, no one had heard of the companies I’d worked for. So I had to start from scratch.

Research companies you like; they’ll probably do professional weekend workshops that you pay for, which are brilliant. It’s a great way to get to know choreographers’ style. A lot of companies also offer open morning classes. If you’re a student or a professional, you can just go along. For example, StopGap, who are an integrated dance company, do a weekly morning class.

In Focus: The Pay Debate

When I joined Slung Low it wasn’t funded and we didn’t get paid. But, for me, the work is far more important than the money.

My daily rate depends on who I’m working for. There’s a TMA choreographer’s day minimum, which I usually say when someone asks me what my fee is.

Things do come round. You can do a little bit of R&D work on a project and then six months down the line they might come back to you with a really well-paid job. Think of it as investing in yourself, while being realistic about needing to make a living.

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Images, from top: In the studio; "The Impending storm" Birmingham International Dance Festival and the SouthBank centre; at the Paralympics; "Extra-Ordinary" with David Toole.