C H A R L I E B R I T T A I N is a dramaturg whose passion lies in empowering others to take ownership of their practice and to champion their values through dancing. His practice is distilled through his work as a dancer, choreographer, teacher and rehearsal director. Charlie completed the ‘Artist in Process’ professional training program at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (AT), majoring in choreography. He graduated from the Professional Dance Course at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts (UK), having commenced his formal training at the Centre for Advanced Training, London Contemporary Dance School and having been a founding member of the English National Ballet Youth Company.

Charlie’s independent choreographic work is performed internationally, and he has delivered commissions for English National Ballet (ENBEldersCo; Big Dance), National Youth Ballet of Great Britain, British Youth Music Theatre, MÓTUS Dance Festival, Ignition Dance Festival, SummerSzene Salzburg and London Studio Centre/Images Ballet Company. He continues to nurture ongoing collaborations with Milan Tomášik (SLO/SK), Kirstie Simson (UK/USA) and John Darvell (UK).

Currently a dancer with Russell Maliphant Company (UK), Charlie has performed with Kirstie Simson, Kale Companhia de Dança (POR), Helder Seabra (POR/BE), Christine Hassid (FR), Milan Tomášik, Julyen Hamilton (UK/ES), Helen Parlor (UK), Barnaby Booth (UK/AT), NOCTURN (UK) and in projects with Rambert Dance Company (UK), English National Ballet, the Royal Opera House (UK), East London Dance and Dance GB, amongst others; he has benefitted from workshops and professional development opportunities with Kerry Nicholls Dance, Kevin Finnan (Motionhouse), Southpaw Dance and Gecko Physical Theatre.

Charlie is a sought-after rehearsal director and dramaturg, working internationally within a range of artistic ventures and environments with artists such as Etta Murfitt (UK), Kerry Biggin (UK), Milan Tomášik, Rachel Birch-Lawson (UK), Barnaby Booth, Jo Meredith (UK), Louise Bennett (UK), Helen Parlor and Richard Chappell (UK). He been rehearsal director at Scottish Dance Theatre, SEAD’s BODHI Project Dance Company (interim), Richard Chappell Dance (UK) and the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain; at SEAD he was assistant director to Helder Seabra, Jorge Crecis (ES/UK), Milan Tomášik, Paul Blackman (GR/AUS) and Christine Gouzelis (GR).

Charlie is a passionate educator, regularly invited to lead classes, workshops and masterclasses worldwide. His teaching includes Scottish Dance Theatre, National Dance Company Wales, Tanzfabrik (DE), Dans Punt (BE), Punchdrunk International, Russell Maliphant Dance Company (UK), English National Ballet, Independent Dance (UK), Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (AT), Northern School of Contemporary Dance (UK), London Contemporary Dance School, Zagreb Academy of Dramatic Arts/University of Zagreb (CRO), EN-KNAP Dance Company (SLO), Jasmin Vardimon Company II (UK), Dance Base (UK), Liptovské Divadlo Tanca (SK), Divadlo Studio Tanca – Banská Bystrica (SK), London Studio Centre, National Youth Ballet of Great Britain, British Youth Music Theatre, Dance East (UK), Richard Chappell Dance (UK), University of Suffolk (UK) and STKLH Conservatory (SK).

He is currently Rehearsal Director at Scottish Dance Theatre, having been Associate Artist at English National Ballet and Associate Creative Director of the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain from 2020 until early 2022, where he is currently Artistic Consultant. Charlie is regularly invited as a panellist for ‘work in progress’ events, artistic exchanges and auditions.

Alongside his commitment to the arts, Charlie is a practising Clinical Sports Therapist and Movement Rehabilitator, Musculoskeletal Health Specialist and trainee Integrative Health Practitioner, specialising in the assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of dancers and movement practitioners. 

He is a qualified teacher and assessor, lecturing and examining on professional and higher education Sports Therapy, Coaching and Sports Rehabilitation courses. Charlie has devised courses and workshops on various topics within dance health and well-being, which have been delivered on professional and vocational training programmes throughout Europe. He regularly consults for dance institutes, training programmes and professionals. 

In addition to Advanced Clinical Sports Therapy & Rehabilitation (MDip.ST, ADST), Mat-based Pilates’ Instruction (BASI MTTC) and Advanced Myofascial Release (Dip.MFR), Charlie is qualified in medical acupuncture, spinal manipulation, manual lymphatic drainage and instrument assisted soft-tissue mobilisation as well as in Emergency and Urgent Care. He holds a certificate in Integumentary and Musculoskeletal Anatomy (University of Michigan, X-program) and is studying towards his certification as a human biomechanics specialist.

Committed to integrative practice, Charlie is currently working towards qualifications and certifications in Integrative Health Coaching and Nutritional Therapy, Understanding Trauma for Health Practitioners and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (ABNLP). He has studied under leading experts in the fields of human movement and performance such as Gary Ward (UK), David Grey (IRE), Conor Harris (USA), Christian Platts (UK) and Richard Johnson (UK). 

Charlie is studying for his MSc in Acute Medicine and remains active in frontline pre-hospital emergency medicine with emergency ambulance services.

He is a registered practitioner with the Complimentary & Natural Healthcare Council (CNHCR) and professional member of the Sports Therapy Organisation (MSTO GST) and Trauma Care. He holds membership as an Advanced Provider with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care and is an associate of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, British Association for Immediate Care, College of Paramedics and Royal Society of Medicine.

Artistic direction and choreography: Charlie Brittain & Milan Tomášik
Performance: Milan Tomášik
Music and Sound Design: Jakub Mudrák, Eduardo Raon
Lighting Design: David Cvelbar, Janko Čief
Set and Costume Design: Jasna Vastl

Production: Flota, zavod, Murska Sobota (Slovenija)
Co-production: Cankarjev dom, Flota, Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Financial support: Ministrstvo za kulturo RS, Mestna občina Ljubljana
Supported by: Scenario Pubblico (Catania, Italy), Hrvaški kulturni dom (Rijeka, Croatia)
Created as part of a residency at Divadlo Štúdio tanca (Slovakia)

Arms that never knew me focuses on the interplay between real-time being, and the realisation of infinite movement possibilities. Performance is a connection between the past, present and future; an endless junctional moment where there is no beginning or end. Tomášik employs preacceleration: a movement potential colouring the way movement becomes, including the unseen vibrations. The work considers how pastness envelops futurity, bleeding time into movement and movement into time, continually recomposing itself along new curves, images and intensities. Ever-unfolding possibilities and potentialities actualise as the performer explores the complexity of presence; the simultaneity of a movement as an end-action as much as vibration, or pulse. The work is informed by Erin Manning’s process philosophy, where movement is always on the verge between real and metaphysical – ‘a quasi-virtual experience’: actual because all steps actually take place, virtual because all the microperceptions of pastness and futurity are enveloped in the becoming-movement. The performance is a poetic journey where Tomášik’s unique performativity is threaded through the multiplicities realised by the collaboration and collision of sound, scenography and light. Each element interconnects in multiform possibilities, as they contribute to the collective body-becoming. The power of Tao is sound. The potential of Tao is silence. Arms that never knew me is a real-time sensing of the thin veil between what is and all that could be.