Hannah is a interdisciplinary artist based in Bristol, working with performance, theatre, dance, writing, audio, singing and collaboration. Her practice is rooted in contemporary movement, writing and devised theatre. She has made solo theatre shows, participatory and site specific performances, workshops, collaborative bookworks, experiments with film, community audio pieces and most recently two short story collections.
Hannah has made work on dancing, singing, drawing, anger, darkness, music, gardens and the use of public space, among other subjects.
Hannah is currently interested in and exploring routes to making new work about women, DJing, night time, aging, looking, bell ringing, folk, duets and dancing.
Her artistic process aims to uncover or delve into something she feels needs to be re-defined, or space created for. Her own writing often results in honesty and detail. Her work is described as tender and inquisitive. Her movement practice is cheifly improvisational, and currently taking influence from choreographer Deborah Hay (training undertaken in 2023). Alongside her own work Hannah is working on several seperate collaborative projects with wonderful artists; Rachael Clerke and Linzy Na Nakorn, Ania Varez, Kamina Walton and Garden Folk.
Hannah has an MA in Performance Research from the University of Bristol 2010/11, and a BA in Theatre with Visual Practices from Dartington College of Arts, First Class, 2006 – 2009. Hannah recently received a Devloping Your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England, in which she undertook courses and mentoring to develop in dance, writing and audio.
Some highlights: Hannah’s first work for theatre ‘Echo Beach’ toured nationally and internationally to New Zealand, Australia and Spain. Hannah’s second performance piece ‘With Force and Noise’ was featured within Exeunt Magazines most memorable theatre of 2017, and selected as part of In Between Time’s 2017 New Blood Live Artists programme. ‘Draw to Look’ was commissioned by the Royal West of England Art Academy, and she was accepted on to the Artist Home Swap residency programme to participate in a 6 week residency in Taiwan. Hannah published PIT MURK with the Conway and Young Small Press.
Companies, festivals, venues and organisations that have supported or presented Hannah’s work: Fevered Sleep, Quarantine, Wainsgate Dances, Square Chapel Arts Centre, Gateshead International Festival of Theatre, Mayfest, Profound Sound at Folkestone Quarterhouse, Quarter Block Party Cork, Royal West of England Academy of Art, Cove Park, In Between Time, Buzzcut Glasgow, Beaford Arts, Bristol Old Vic, Shoreditch Town Hall, Camden Peoples Theatre, The Place, Battersea Arts Centre, Flare Festival Manchester, ACT festival Bilboa, Tauranga Arts Festival New Zealand, Footscray community centre Melbourne, Tapei Contemporary Arts Centre Taiwan, Bristol Biennial, Interval Bristol, Situations, Blind Ditch, Theatre Bristol, Lattitude Festival. Funded by Arts Council England, MGC Futures, The Culture Capital Exchange. Commissions from Situations, Royal West of England Arts Academy, Theatre Bristol and Blind Ditch. ‘Anger’ shortlisted for the Sheffiled International Artist Book Prize.
Hannah also works in Artist Support, and has previously worked in performance programming, producing, project managing, stage management and used to co-manage and co-curate The Parlour Showroooms (gallery and performance venue).
Hannah is a member of the Bristol based artist collective Interval.
Images (and photographer): With Force and Noise (Sean Clark), Pit Murk launch at Spike Island (Ruby Turner), Balancing Acts (Amelia Read), In the City Series at The Parlour Showrooms, Echo Beach (Paul Samuel White), The Only Way To Conquer The Horizon (Katy Cassels)Draw to Look (Paul Samuel White).