Charles Balfour has designed extensively for dance, theatre and music, lighting over 200 shows since 1987. He has worked with Richard Alston since 1996 and has designed 23 works for his company. Recent other dance includes SHEER BRAVADO (Richard Alston/Ballettheatre Munich), BLOOM (Aletta Collins/Rambert), WOMEN AND MEMORY (Rosemary Butcher), EDEN/EDEN (Wayne McGregor/ San Fransisco Ballet/Stuttgart Ballet), FOUR SEASONS Oliver Hindle/Birmingham Royal Ballet). Charles was technical manager of RADC 1996 - 2000.
Martin Lawrance was born in Leicester and began dancing with Leicester Youth Dance Theatre under the direction of Sue Rosenbloom. He trained at Coventry Centre for the Performing Arts from 1989-1991 and at London Contemporary Dance School from 1991-1994. He performed with the postgraduate performance group 4D where he first worked with Richard Alston. Martin has restaged 10 of Richard Alston’s choreographies, in Britain and overseas. In 2000, Martin was invited by the Meltdown Festival on the South Bank to make THIMBLE RIGGING, to an original score by Scott Walker. He has created three works for London Contemporary Dance School, and two works for the State School of Dance in Athens, where he created GREY ALLEGRO and SILKEN STEEL. In June 2003, Martin presented a full evening of his work at The Place, and in 2004 CHARGE was commissioned for the Place Prize. GREY ALLEGRO and CHARGE were subsequently taken into the Richard Alston Dance Company repertoire. More recently, for RADC, he has created ABOUT FACE, BRINK, BODY & SOUL and TO DANCE AND SKYLARK. In November 2007, Martin retired from dancing and is now RADC’s Rehearsal Director.
Liz Reed graduated from Wimbledon Theatre Department in 1971 and began her career as Designer at Chesterfield Civic Theatre (later getting the sack for not being able to paint!) Next job was as an Assistant Scenic Artist. Liz subsequently ran her own studio at Sadler’s Wells, moving to the Cochrane Theatre when it was rebuilt, painting cloths for the Opera House, ENO, Glyndebourne, the RSC, many smaller theatre companies and most British dance companies. Sometimes designing with choreographers as well as painting, she is particularly pleased to be working with Richard Alston again, having enjoyed many challenging projects with him during his time as Director at Rambert Dance Company.
Peter Todd studied costume design at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama and, since graduating, has designed for a number of theatre productions including RENTS (Confederate Theatre Co), THE WHITE DEVIL and TIS PITY SHE’S A WHORE (Galleon Theatre Co). He also worked as Design Assistant on POMPEII: THE LAST DAY and THE FIRST OLYMPIADS, both for BBC Factual/Drama. Peter recently created his first designs for dance for Richard’s Alston’s LILT SIMPLE and Martin Lawrance’s SILVER, both produced for the graduating students of London Contemporary Dance School. He has also designed costumes for Martin Lawrance’s CHARGE. His designs for Richard Alston Dance Company include ABOUT-FACE and NIGREDO.