Martin 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 1989–91 and at London Contemporary Dance School from 1991–94. It was while performing with the postgraduate performance group 4D that he first worked with Richard Alston. He was a dancer with Richard Alston Dance Company from 1995–2007 having over 25 works created on him in this time.
Martin has restaged 11 of Richard Alston’s choreographies including LACHRYMAE, SLOW AIRS, SUDDEN EXIT, ROUGHCUT, FEVER, RED RUN, GYPSY MIXTURE, MOVEMENTS FROM PETRUSHKA, OVERDRIVE, SHIMMER and most recently THE DEVIL IN THE DETAIL. In 2000, Martin was invited by Meltdown Festival director and composer Scott Walker to make THIMBLE RIGGING to an original score. He has created five works for London Contemporary Dance School, and two works, GREY ALLEGRO and SILKEN STEEL, for the State School of Dance in Athens. 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.
For RADC, he created ABOUT FACE, BRINK, STEALING POISON, BODY & SOUL, TO DANCE AND SKYLARK, LIE OF THE LAND and OTHER THAN I. In November 2007, Martin retired from dancing and is now RADC’s Rehearsal Director. In 2009, he made PENDULUM for the Critics Circle Award winning company Ballet Black and returned in 2012 to create Captured. This summer Martin was commissioned by Scottish Ballet to create RUN FOR IT in collaboration with Turner Prize winning artist Martin Boyce, for Dance GB, an event to celebrate the London 2012 Olympics. RUN FOR IT has also been taken into the Scottish Ballet repertoire. MADCAP will be Martin’s eighth commission for RADC.