Our Staff

Since graduating, Annalise has built a diverse career as a producer, performer and dance maker. As a performer, she has worked with Birmingham Opera Company, Gaby Agis, Mercurial Dance and Carolyn Deby’s sirenscrossing. As a dance maker, she choreographed and produced her solo Ecstasy for the Follow Me Out Festival in Coventry in 2018. She has also worked internationally, teaching and performing at the Ryan International Children’s Festival in Bangalore, India.

Annalise’s producing career began with Autin Dance Theatre in 2016, progressing from Creative Intern to Senior Producer. She has contributed to national and international tours and projects including Out of the Deep Blue, Parade – The Giant Wheel, Up in the Sky, Brimstone – The Dragon, Zig Zag!, WOW! Fest and Light Up Fest.

Alongside Autin, Annalise works freelance with Shelley Eva Haden, Hague Ensemble and Central Stage Crew. She has previously worked with Ascension Dance Company, Deaf Explorer, OPUS, DanceXchange, Caldonia Dances, CTC Dance Company and Open Theatre Company, supporting tours, community and youth programmes, outreach and platform events.

Her producing work includes 2 Metres Closer, Street Games in the Square for Birmingham 2022, and access producing for Birmingham Festival 2023.

Commissions move between large-scale work, vocational creation, and intimate site encounters for organisations including: Birmingham Royal Ballet, Birmingham Opera Company, Total Insight Theatre, Apple TV, RBC (Acting), Midlands Actors Theatre, Poetry International Festival, OPUS, and many others. Her artistic approach is rooted in dance as both a transformative and vital form of communication and connection, with a fierce attention to human experience. Her work has toured care homes, warehouses, stages, and outdoor spaces.

Helen’s radical new dance adaptation of Max Porter’s Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, developed under her own company, received a major production grant in 2026 and will tour internationally across 2027–28. The work is funded by Arts Council England, supported by One Dance UK, University Centre Leeds, and produced by the Middle Floor.

Teaching is a core aspect of Helen’s work, providing 15+ years of leadership. Working with people aged 3–90, she nourishes connection — to the body, self, and to where it finds expression and flow. She has taught professional classes for Drift Pro, Brum Pro Class, The Playground at Rambert, NSCD, RBC and Ballet Britain, and within vocational training.

Helen also brings nearly 20 years’ professional teaching, and a long-standing love, of Cuban Salsa to her practice, leading community experiences for MAC Birmingham, FABRIC Dance, Canela Fina, Vamos Cuba; and in collaboration with celebrated Cuban artists Damarys Farres, Oscle Ordunez, Lisi Gutierrez, and as part of the European Athletics Championships, 2026.

A very dear friend of Shelley Eva Haden, Helen is thrilled to share the world of Salsa Cubana, with all its spirit and fire, in such a bright and innovative new space.

Esme loves Pilates for its slow, controlled approach and the way it supports the strength, mobility and body awareness she uses every day, not only as a dancer, but as an active person. When teaching Pilates, her number one priority is making sure everyone feels comfortable, safe and seen — no matter their level or ability.

Her approach is centred around moving to feel good in both mind and body. She wants her classes to be a space where people can build strength through stable technique, move their bodies, slow down and take some time for themselves. She’s really excited to bring this approach to STUDIO SHELL.