Zoë Ashe-Browne

Artistic Director

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© Filip

van Roe

Zoë Ashe-Browne is a dance artist and maker from Dublin, Ireland.

Following her professional dance education in 2009 at the English National Ballet School, she has been engaged as a performer with The National Ballet of Ireland, English National Ballet, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (formerly the Royal Ballet of Flanders), and Eastman | Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

Zoë began choreographing for stage and screen in 2014. Her work is rooted in the principles of classical ballet and incorporates the contemporary practices of her diverse performance experience. Zoe has had her choreographic practice supported by The Arts Council of Ireland, Dance Limerick, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Museum of Fine Art Antwerp (KMSKA), Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (OBV), and Dance Ireland where she was the Associate Artist for 2021/2022.

Her work has been programmed for the National Ballet of Ireland, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Valencia Dancing Forward 2022, Ghent Festival of Flanders 2021, CUBO Kortrijk Belgium, Oldenburgisches Staatstheater Gala, WhatNext Festival Limerick, and Dancer From the Dance: Festival of Irish Choreography in association with Irish Modern Dance Theatre.

In 2021 she became the first dance recipient of the Countess Markievicz Award from the Arts Council of Ireland and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media. Zoë has been the recipient of The Arts Council of Ireland Dance Bursary in 2014, 2018, 2020 and 2023. Her next creation has been commissioned by Opera Ballet Vlaanderen - an Autumn performance for the Royal Family of Belgium.

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"This may well be the stand-out show at this year’s Dance Base Fringe... there’s no doubt as to its exquisite excellence... Zoë Ashe-Browne's choreography is startling, full of angular, unexpected poses, hugely experimental and exciting informed by her classical ballet experience as a dancer but also studying under modernists like her mentor, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui."

- Broadway Baby, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2022

Aaron Shaw

Stager & Collaborator

 

Aaron has an extensive background in dance, established in performance and extending to creation, direction, and education.

Since 2012, Aaron has been engaged in companies throughout Germany and Belgium, working with artists including Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damien Jalet, and Alain Platel. His performance career has seen him employed by companies such as Badisches Staatsballet, Hessisches Staatsballett, and the Royal Ballet of Flanders (Opera Ballet Vlaanderen) where he is now engaged as a rehearsal director.

Aaron has frequently collaborated in multidisciplinary contexts throughout his career, engaging in site-specific dance performances, festivals, installations, exhibitions for photo and video, and music videos, in a variety of performance, production, and creative functions.

Aaron’s choreography has been presented at international galas and theaters in Europe, while his experience as both dance artist and creator has culminated in various roles in education for tertiary and secondary establishments, as well as professional companies in Europe and Australia.

Aaron obtained a Master of Arts and a Bachelor of Arts (Dance) from the University of Music and Performing Arts, Mannheim.

Zoe Hollinshead

Collaborator

 

Zoe Hollinshead is a performing artist originally hailing from Atlanta, GA. She finished her formal training at The Juilliard School in New York in 2019, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. Immediately upon graduating she became a member of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, in Antwerp, Belgium under the direction of world renowned choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Outside of her rigorous schedule at OBV, she is a frequent collaborator with freelance creatives based in Antwerp, with a focus on building relationships with artists representing a wide variety of backgrounds, in pursuit of diversifying a predominantly white male led community (Fabien Montique, Black Lives Matter Belgium, INCONNU). During her time in New York she became an original member of the HIVE Creative Company and has since collaborated on multiple interdisciplinary projects with the group, most recently completing a residency in northern California culminating in a dance film that premiered in January 2021.  Zoe is extremely inspired by her peers and is constantly striving for opportunities to explore her voice in collaboration and alignment with the next generation of leading artists.

Nathan Cornwell

Collaborator

 

Professional Dance Artist Nathan Cornwell was born in Kent and currently lives in Hamburg. Upon completing his vocational training at The English National Ballet School, Nathan went on to obtain a B.A. Honors at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, graduating in 2010. Thereafter he worked with leading companies such as Micheal Clark Company, BallettVorpommern, Rambert Dance Company, Irish National Opera and Ballet Ireland. His professional career credits include choreographers such as Itzik Galili, Brigel Gjoka, Marguerite Donlon, Sabra Johnson, Bryan Arias, Ohad Naharin, and more. Nathan has collaborated with Zoë Ashe Browne Dance Collective since 2016 and he’s been integral to the creations of several works including Us, Ballet Atha Cliath and Flux.

Howard Jones

Collaborator

 

Howard is a filmmaker from Ireland. Since majoring in Film Studies at Trinity College Dublin in 2012, he has worked in the film and television industry in the camera department. His credits include TV dramas such as Vikings, Ripper Street, Into the Badlands, Krypton and Amazon's Modern Love, in addition to numerous feature films such as The Professor and the Madman, The Last Duel, Netflix's The Wonder and Disney's The Little Mermaid.

In 2016, Howard created, produced and directed Ballet Átha Cliath, a site-specific, dance film that served as a visual love letter to the city of Dublin. The film went on to screen as part of Dublin Culture Night and The LA Dance Shorts Film Festival2018 after a sold out showing in Dublin's The Sugar Club. In more recent years, Howard has engaged in a wider variety of multimedia collaborations, notably creating soundscapes and sound designs for original choreographic projects by Zoë Ashe-Browne (US, Flux, The Space Between Us and Spiro) and Nancy Osbaldeston. These projects have been performed at festivals and theatres across Ireland and the UK, throughout Europe, as well as Japan.