Leamington dance-circus company celebrates three decades

Councillors and representatives from Warwick District Council have offered their best wishes to the organisation which enthralled almost 80,000 people across the globe last year.

The company which was founded in 1988 by executive director Louise Richards and artistic director Kevin Finnan, who choreographed the 2012 London Paralympic Games, and since then more than 35 productions have been put on and seen by audiences in the UK as well as China, Japan, the US and Europe.

Performances have ranged from theatre incorporating digital technology, to free, outdoor shows and large-scale spectacles. Recently, two simultaneous performances in South Korea and Romania took place to bring Motionhouse’s world tour to a dramatic finale. In Seoul it was BLOCK, an outdoor show which began its 2018 world tour in April at the Commonwealth Games in Australia and has since been performed 106 times at 35 venues to more than 80,200 people this year. While in TimiÈ™oara, Romania, people were thrilled by Lumen, a site-specific large-scale show on the banks of the River Bega, created in preparation for the city’s 2021 European Capital of Culture celebrations.

Since their beginnings the company has also been working to inspire young people to get involved in dance and performance with more than 10,000 young people taking part in their regular classes, workshops and activities.

Warwick District Council member Noel Butler said: “We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Motionhouse, on their amazing achievements over the past thirty years, in bringing the vibrance, innovation and creativity so inherent in our local community to a world-wide audience and at the same being the inspiration for so much home-grown talent."