Shobana Jeyasingh Dance is recruiting for a Lead Dance Artist (Window into the Tempest)

Window into the Tempest is the national engagement programme running alongside SJD’s 2025–26 touring production We Caliban.

We are looking for a Lead Dance Artist, who will co-design and co-deliver the Window into the Tempest programme with fellow artists and the Engagement Team. This is a key creative role in shaping session plans, movement ideas, and workshop delivery, while supporting the development of an Early Career Dance Artist.

To apply for the role please send a CV supported by a covering letter or a video/ audio file to jobs@shobanajeyasingh.co.uk no later than noon, 12pm on Thursday 10 July 2025.

SJD has a strong commitment to a diverse workforce, supporting and encouraging a team from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and skillsets while offering flexible working arrangements. We actively encourage applications from artists who identify as underrepresented, including global majority, neurodivergent, disabled and/or d/Deaf, LGBTQIA+, working class, and/ or from regions outside London.

Click below for our Job Pack and Equal Opportunities form:

SJD- Lead Dance Artist (Window into the Tempest)

Freelance, approx. 30 days between August 2025 – April 2026. £250 per day

Equal Opportunities Form

Deadline: Noon, 12pm on Thursday 10 July 2025.

For invited artists:

Should you wish to submit your application in another way, would like to speak to someone about any adjustments, have any questions or would like to discuss the role before you apply you can email admin@shobanajeyasingh.co.uk. We will work to accommodate access needs and encourage you to share what will support your success in the role.

We welcome your application.

Photo: Foteini Christofilopoulou. Dancers: Catarina Carvalho, Dane Hurst

Shobana Jeyasingh Dance is seeking a male dancer for our exciting new production ‘We Caliban’ based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The work interrogates colonialism as one of the defining issues of our times.

We are looking for a highly experienced and professional performer with a Global South heritage to complete our diverse cast.

The production will tour the UK and internationally and this role is paid at above ITC/Equity rates. Auditions by invitation only.

The role requires:

• An athletic, charismatic dancer with strong partnering skills.
• Acting and narrative skills and the ability to portray a character.
• Ability to devise in a collaborative manner and work under time pressure.
• Excellent contemporary dance technique.
• At least 3 years of professional experience.
• You must be eligible to work in the UK.
• Available to attend a London audition on Friday 6 June (daytime)

Production Schedule

• 14 July – 7 September 2025 Rehearsals in London (w/c 21 July in Oxford)
• 7 – 12 September 2025 Production week at Dance East, Ipswich
• 16 – 20 September 2025 Opening week (premier 20th)
• 22 Sept – end of October 2025 UK tour
• 5 March – end of April 2026 UK tour continues
• July – August 2026: International tour begins
• Autumn 2026 + 2027 Tour continues as per venue requests

Please complete this application form Closing date is 10am on Monday 2 June 2025.

Please note, if we reach capacity sooner than the deadline, the application process may close early, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a short audition on Friday 6 June. You will be notified of the outcome of your application by a member of the team via email.

If you have any queries about access support in general, about completing this application form or if we can support you in another way (including alternative application formats) please contact admin@shobanajeyasingh.co.uk

Thank you for your interest in working with Shobana Jeyasingh Dance.

Image: Chris Nash

Shobana Jeyasingh Dance will be touring a new production in 2025-2026, co-produced by Sadler’s Wells

We Caliban – An inventive, sideways look at Shakespeare’s The Tempest. 

Shakespeare’s brilliant last play, The Tempest, written as Europe was taking its first step towards colonialism, is a tale about power – exercised weakly, usurped violently, and regained through strategy and showmanship.

We Caliban sees this story through the eyes of Caliban, a minor character in the play whose life is changed forever when the power games of distant lands and unknown peoples are played out in his own remote island, making him a “monstrous” servant to a new master and his young daughter.

Jeyasingh’s bold and imaginative new work is presented by Shobana Jeyasingh Dance, co-produced by Sadler’s Wells, brought to life by eight outstanding dancers and a stellar creative team. 

Venues to be announced!

Graham Marchant, who sadly passed away on 28.12.24, was simply the best friend a dance company could have.

We feel deeply honoured to have had his love and support from the time we started. He was our chair of trustees for many years and remained a wise friend, donor and supporter always.

Graham was a rare human being and will always be remembered by us with much love and gratitude.

Photo: Graham and Shobana at Counterpoint, Somerset House, August 2023

Big Give Christmas Challenge 2024

Thanks to your generous support, we have exceeded our fundraising target for our recent Big Give campaign to launch our exciting new Engagement Programme to support early career dancers.

Many early career dance artists are struggling to make a living. Dance is more popular than ever, but it is a demanding, competitive industry to work in. Shobana Jeyasingh Dance (SJD) is committed to offer dance students and recent graduates career opportunities that they would not otherwise have.

Entering a professional dance career has become more difficult than ever before. Most dance companies have not survived in recent times due to devastating public funding cuts and a fragmented workforce following the pandemic – therefore opportunities for high-quality training and paid work at a living wage are few and far between.

Our Creative Engagement programme will provide unique opportunities for dancers in the later stages of training and the early stages of their careers. Each year, a significant number of dancers will benefit, and our deep knowledge of the dance industry will ensure that they are profound and impactful. The programme focuses on training, career-defining performance opportunities and the chance to work closely with choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh CBE and our team of experienced dance practitioners.

This is a project in development. We will post more about our new Creative Engagement programme soon!

Dancers: Fern Kershaw, Ellie Peacock, Alanah Corbridge, Mirabel Huang-Smith.

Photo: Amelia Troubridge

In a recent Guardian article, Artistic Director Shobana Jeyasingh provided a unique behind-the-scenes account of creating our upcoming dance film, (Don’t) Say My Name (available Spring 2025).

The article reveals the intense challenges of filming in the Spanish desert – from snakes and scorpions, fierce winds, blistering heat, and a shortage of tea bags…

Read the full article here.

Dancers: Bryony Pennington, James Finnemore, Jonathan Goddard and Estela Merlos

Photo: Foteini Christofilopoulou

New Production for 2025

Our new live performance production is inspired by The Tempest, Shakespeare’s final play, written at a time when Europe was taking its first steps into colonial expansion.

Caliban, the native of the unknown island, will take centre stage in our retelling of this complex story, in which we explore his complicated relationships with the all-controlling Prospero, Duke of Milan, and Prospero’s daughter Miranda.

Earlier in the autumn we spent seven busy days in the studio, developing new ideas for this exciting project. We feel sure that something “rich and strange“ will emerge as we carry on our creative journey! Please continue to follow our social channels for the latest updates.

Dancers: Dane Hurst, Fukiko Takase, Mickael Marso Riviere

TWO PLACES. TWO STORIES. ONE DANCE.

We are excited to announce that our film (Don’t) Say My Name, in which Claudio Monteverdi’s II Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda is given a contemporary twist, will be available in Spring 2025.

Monteverdi’s piece is set in the first Crusades and describes a fierce combat between a European knight and a female Saracen warrior. In our retelling of this story, a group of dancers rehearse the work in a studio. On tour abroad, they encounter a stranger who seems to have stepped out of their story but does not want to be in it. Shot in locations in London and Spain, (Don’t) Say My Name is a poetic and layered exploration of otherness, conflict and reconciliation.

In this article for The Guardian, our Artistic Director, Shobana Jeyasingh provides a unique behind-the-scenes account of the filming process: ‘Look at the camera as if it’s your enemy’: Shobana Jeyasingh’s desert dance among Hollywood ghosts

Shobana Jeyasingh Dance has announced the appointment of Ghislaine Granger in the new leadership role of Executive Producer. Granger joins from Sadler’s Wells Theatre where she has been Senior Producer, Producing and Touring since 2012, working most recently on the theatre’s monumental production of Pina’s Bausch Rite of Spring.

Granger says: “My passion for dance, performing arts, theatre and interdisciplinary art forms has led me on a 25-year journey and I am delighted to now be joining Shobana Jeyasingh Dance as Executive Producer. It is an enormous privilege to work with Shobana who has established a reputation for creating bold and beautifully crafted work over three decades, in the UK and internationally, from conventional stages to site specific locations. I admire her thoughtful and articulate approach, and I look forward to working with her to excite and stimulate audiences’ expectations, extend the work’s reach, and present thought-provoking productions in the company’s ambitious next chapter.”

Jeyasingh says: “I and all at Shobana Jeyasingh Dance are delighted to welcome Ghislaine as Executive Producer. In these times of change and challenge to the arts we look forward to Ghislaine’s expertise, experience and dedication to dance and performance playing a decisive role in the way we move forward.“

Over her twelve years with Sadler’s Wells, Granger worked on projects including Crystal Pite’s Polaris which won an Olivier Award in 2015; Hussein Chalayan’s Gravity Fatigue, choreographed by Damien Jalet; Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s milonga; Royal Ballet Principal Natalia Osipova’s Pure Dance; and various programmes with Carlos Acosta and Acosta Danza. Before her time there she worked with Secret Cinema, Told by an Idiot and Fevered Sleep amongst others.

Shobana Jeyasingh has created more than 60 critically-acclaimed works for stage, screen and indoor and outdoor sites ranging from Palladian monasteries in Venice to contemporary fountains in London. She has collaborated with scientists, curators, composers, film makers, digital creatives, dancers and designers to make dynamic multi-disciplinary work that places the body centre stage in the dialogue of ideas. Productions have toured extensively in the UK and internationally, a number of her works have been included in the UK’s National Curriculum for Dance and her choreographic commissions include Rambert, Ballet Black, Company Wayne McGregor, the Venice Biennale, Beijing Modern Dance Academy, City Contemporary Dance Company Hong Kong and Opera National du Rhin.