Siobhan Davies + Annie Pui Ling Lok
Dismantling legacy. A conversation with two choreographers.
In April 2021, freelance dance artist Annie Pui Ling Lok will take over as Joint Artistic Director of Siobhan Davies Studios (SDS) in collaboration with producer/curator Kat Bridge. Siobhan Davies originally founded SDS in 2006 in search of a new artistic direction for her own work and as a centre for bringing dance into contact with other disciplines. Since opening, the studios have increasingly directed their resources towards supporting independent dancers, which has led to Siobhan Davies wanting to relinquish the position of artistic director.
This marks a breakthrough moment for both artists, for the organisation and the sector in general. The two artists, who are friends, will discuss change and the need to dismantle legacy as the time approaches when one will take over the studios from the other.
Siobhan Davies, choreographer and director.
Annie Pui Ling Lok, choreographer and dancer.
Siobhan Davies
UK
Siobhan Davies is the Artistic Director of Siobhan Davies Dance and a renowned British choreographer who rose to fame in the 1970s. Davies was a founding member of the London Contemporary Dance Theatre and in 1982 she joined forces with Richard Alston and Ian Spink to create the independent dance company, Second Stride. She founded Siobhan Davies Dance in 1988 and works closely with artists from other disciplines to ensure that their own artistic research is part of the creative process. In 2002, she moved away from the traditional theatre circuit and began to work for gallery spaces. Davies applies choreography in a wide range of creative disciplines, including the visual arts and film. Recent choreographic works have been performed at some of the most prestigious art institutions in the UK and Europe, including Lenbachhaus (Munich), Whitechapel Gallery (London) and Turner Contemporary (Margate).
Annie Pui Ling Lok
UK
Annie Pui Ling Lok has worked as a freelance choreographer and dancer for over twenty years, in addition to being a craniosacral therapist since 2014. She has created around 30 shows with professional and non-professional performers of different ages, backgrounds, and social and cultural backgrounds in the UK and abroad.
Her work as a craniosacral therapist underlines and shapes her artistic practice as a creator, performer, facilitator and pedagogue, making her work specifically in experimentation and research and in interdisciplinary and collaborative contexts. Born in the UK to Hong Kong parents, Annie’s work is always framed and contextualised by the wider diaspora both geographically and emotionally that shapes her cultural and artistic identity.
Annie has worked as a lecturer at a multitude of higher education institutions, including Trinity Laban Conservatoire; LCDS; and Goldsmiths, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Lincoln, Brighton and Roehampton Universities in Master’s, Graduate and Postgraduate programmes. She has been a regular teacher at Independence Dance and London Contact Improvisation and is also the mother of Uma, a 15-month-old girl.
