Miss Sian Hopkins

Biography

Siân Hopkins is a performer, creator, and teacher. She holds a First-Class Honours degree in Ballet and Contemporary Dance, and an MA with Distinction in Dance Performance with Specialisation in Ritual from Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. Since graduating, she has had the pleasure of working with a variety of companies, independent artists, and projects both near and far.

The most inspirational time she spent dancing was in cathedrals and sacred sites with Moving Visions Dance Theatre as a principal artist (2006-2018) under the direction of Dr Ross McKim, seeking the numinous and exploring meaning in the arts. Choreographic commissions include collaborative screendance productions and various site-specific and cathedral-based projects along with creating dance for Cantata Dramatica's choral dramatisations.  Siân co-founded Kamavera Dance Theatre with musician and composer Tom Kirkpatrick in 2019, engaging in collaborative creativity and expression through screendance and live performance. Themes explored through the company’s work aim to inspire curiosity and reflection, going hand in hand with the belief that dance enables us to become more empathetic, open, and generous human beings.

Siân’s research interests lie in teaching methodologies focussing on the cultivation of positive self-perception through dance training and performance, and the connection and experience of dance and ritual.

Having been a dance lecturer at Rambert School and guest teacher at dance institutions around the UK as well Japan, Singapore, Vietnam and Canada, Siân is currently Lead Lecturer for Contemporary Dance with the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD), training teachers and examiners in pedagogy, assessment and the ISTD contemporary syllabi.

Siân has been part of the dance faculty at Middlesex University since 2016, and is currently Programme Leader for BA Dance.

Teaching

DAN3001 Advanced Technical Training (Module Leader / Lecturer)

DAN3002 Creative Practices III (Lecturer)

DAN3004 Performance Symposium: Independent Project (Module Leader / Lecturer)

New Horizons Dance Festival (Event Manager / Choreographer / Repertoire Director)