How did you get involved in Slick?

Well actually Slick found us here at Phoenix – it landed in my inbox and it was just one of those things where I thought, “OK, I’ll get round to having a read of this, it looks very interesting.” 

I looked what was on offer and I thought we have got to do this; somehow we have got to make this work. We have a very busy schedule, very busy time of year and then I spoke to Anna (Niland, director of Slick), I had a look at the work that National Youth Theatre did with the S’warm project and just thought, “Yes, I want to do this.”

There are 300 members of the NYT to choreograph. Is that daunting?

It’s not so much daunting as it is exciting; talking to the team about the possibilities and the range of opportunities that this can create. I think that the language of dance is something that has a bigger position within this, and I’m not working with dancers. It’s a case of really tapping into those individuals to seek the information I need to give back to them and that excites me, being able to connect with those young people.

You visited the Park Hill site recently, what was that like?

Oh my God, I was absolutely exhausted when I had finished. It was a lot to take in because not only had I to look at it from a distance, but then you get the history of the site itself and then you obviously get the story of what’s going to happen to it and how collectively Slick is going to redesign that space. It’s a lot to take in, because your mind starts wondering about how you’re going to get these young people animating space with quite a negative feel about it; although it’s been regenerated its history says a lot about the negative environment and yet you’re working in an inspiring way. It had this juxtaposition about it.

The National Youth Theatre and Phoenix Dance Theatre are both very education-led, working to make theatre accessible. How far do you think you’ve come in making dance more accessible? 

The National Youth Theatre has something that the dance sector doesn’t. To have a national youth company of that scale where projects are engaged with annually in different locations – I have an admiration for [that] and I feel there is just something a little missing in dance. It may be that my lesson in this is going to be to understand what it is that keeps those young people attracted to The National Youth Theatre.

Although dance is everywhere now – you see it on the television, everyone’s participating – it still feels quite sporadic. There isn’t that moment where I feel we’ve got a unified voice for young people in particular that can come together and actually feel that they have ownership of something they call nationally theirs.

Want to get involved in Slick? NYT are looking for performers – apply now.

Visit the Phoenix Dance Theatre website.