Rosie Kay (born 27 March 1976) is a British choreographer best known for her show 5 Soldiers, MK ULTRA (produced in collaboration with Adam Curtis) and choreographing the handover in the 2018 Commonwealth Games closing ceremony. Kay is the founder and former artistic director of Rosie Kay Dance Company, Associate Artist at Dance City, and a research associate to the University of Oxford School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography.
Early life
Rosie Kay, born in Scotland and brought up in Devon, began dance classes at the age of three. She trained at London Contemporary Dance School, graduating in 1998.
Career
Rosie Kay first worked as a dancer outside of the UK before founding Rosie Kay Dance Company in 2004.
In 2013, Kay became Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the University of Oxford, using the archive of the Pitts Rivers Museum to create Sluts of Possession with Brazilian dance artist Guilherme Miotto. She worked with the director of The Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Professor Stanley Ulijaszek, research partner Dr Karin Eli, Dr Noel Lobley (ethnomusicologist), Dr Christopher Morton (Curator of Photographs at the Pitt Rivers) and Prof Clare Harris to develop the piece. Performed by Kay and Miotto, Sluts of Possession featured at Dance Base at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, honing in on trance-like states and tribal ritual.
In 2014 producer James Preston joined Rosie Kay Dance Company as executive director, with the pair first meeting at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe whilst Kay was performing her piece The Wild Party in 2006.
In 2015, Rosie Kay's production 5 Soldiers received a Special Commendation from the Royal Society of Public Health's Arts and Health Awards and was nominated for Best Choreography at the National Dance Awards in 2015 whilst the company won Best Independent Dance Company. The show also garnered considerable critical praise, attaining 5 stars in The Scotsman, The Herald, the Observer, the Independent, and 4 stars in The Guardian, and was included in the Best Dance Charts 2015 for the latter three publications. In 2017, it returned to Edinburgh Festival Fringe with a sell-out run presented by Summerhall’s Army@TheFringe and was awarded a Summerhall Jawbone Award for ‘Greatest Festival Moments 2017’. A digital commission from The Space in 2017 enabled a live stream of the show from an Army base in London presented by Sadler's Wells on BBC Arts Online.
In 2015, Kay danced as character Nastya Terpsikhorova and took the role of Movement Director in Irina Brown's stage direction of Shostakovich's Orango at BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall in London.
MK ULTRA, performed in 2017 is politically focused, the final part of a trilogy beginning with 5 Soldiers (on war) and There Is Hope (on religion). In it, Kay explores themes of surveillance, propaganda, and "total war".
Rosie Kay was chosen as the Choreographer of the Commonwealth Games handover performance as the sporting event transitioned from Australia to Birmingham, UK for the 2018 Commonwealth Games. The choreography was put together in ten days and was televised live to an estimated one billion people globally, in a performance that also included the longest ever single-camera shot of a live handover. The performance featured Birmingham Royal Ballet's principal dancer Céline Gittens and blended ballet, street, jazz and contemporary dance. Approximately 1,500 volunteers auditioned to take part with 500–600 participating in the live show.
In April 2018, Rosie Kay Dance Company became an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.
Kay is associate director and choreographer for a large-scale adaptation of Woyzeck, with a community cast of 100+ at Birmingham Repertory Theatre as part of Birmingham International Dance Festival 2018.
In September 2021 Romeo + Juliet premiered at Birmingham Hippodrome, and received four further performances in a double-bill with Birmingham Royal Ballet.