Bound by Breath: Liam Woodvine's New Duet

From Barbados to London, contemporary dancer and choreographer Liam Woodvine is developing a distinctive choreographic voice rooted in curiosity, connection and a willingness to take creative risks. Ahead of Ballet Nights 012, we caught up with Liam to talk about his new work BREATH, the collaborators and experiences shaping his practice, and his hopes for the future.

Born and raised in Barbados, Liam first discovered dance at the school founded by his mother before continuing his training at Toronto Metropolitan University in Canada. Since graduating in 2022, he has established an international freelance career, performing across the Caribbean, Canada and Europe. His work has taken him to productions and festivals including BRÜCKEREI in Switzerland, Fall for Dance North in Toronto, Jamaica Dance Umbrella and Ballet Nights in the UK and abroad.

On 28 September 2026, Liam returns to the Ballet Nights stage at Cadogan Hall, this time as both choreographer and dancer, performing his new work BREATH alongside Taylor Hughes.

BREATH is a duet that explores human connection, conflict and the fragility of interdependence. Set within a post-war environment, Liam and Taylor are connected by a tube linking their gas masks. The masks become both a giver of life and a chain that binds the dancers together, dictating and restricting their movements.

At the heart of the work is a conflict between two opposing desires. One character longs for escape and revelation, even at the risk of death, while the other clings to safety and the familiarity of the known.

For Liam, surrealism provided an important source of inspiration. He is fascinated by its ability to balance absurdity with reality and, in doing so, create powerful emotional responses. With BREATH, he wanted to find that same balance physically, exploring humanity's relationship with one another on what he describes as “a marble planet with finite resources.”

The work is accompanied by an excerpt from Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3, Op. 36: II. Lento e Largo – Tranquillissimo. The haunting music carries an added historical weight, with Górecki taking the lyrics from an inscription carved by a prisoner on the wall of a Nazi Gestapo prison cell.

The development of BREATH was supported by the Abderrahim Crickmay Charitable Settlement, funding which Liam describes as giving the work some much-needed “breathing” room.

The opportunity came about during a rehearsal when Liam mentioned to Ballet Nights Artistic Director Jamiel Devernay-Laurence that he was planning to apply for the grant. Jamiel's response was simple: “Let’s do it together.” Ballet Nights producer Olivia Godwin and assistant producer Kira Dillon subsequently supported Liam throughout the application process and helped bring BREATH to the stage.

For Liam, the funding made a significant difference. It allowed additional rehearsal time to explore the work in greater depth, supported the development of costume designer Asli Özuak’s striking constructions, and, importantly, meant that everyone involved could be paid for their work. As a freelance artist, Liam knows how easily creative ideas can become constrained by financial realities. Having the resources to give BREATH the time and attention it needed allowed the work to grow beyond what might otherwise have been possible.

His relationship with Ballet Nights goes back much further than this production. In fact, Liam jokingly describes himself as something of a Ballet Nights “mascot”. From the early days when Ballet Nights was staged at Lanterns Studio Theatre in east London, he has taken on front-of-house, back-of-house and onstage roles. That history has made Ballet Nights an important part of Liam’s artistic journey. His relationship with Jamiel extends beyond the production itself, with Jamiel continuing to be a present and guiding voice in his career. For Liam, Ballet Nights has offered far more than a platform for his choreography. Through the organisation, he has developed skills that have helped him become a more rounded artist, experienced different repertoires and performance venues, and shared the stage and studio with some of the dancers who inspire him most.

His first meeting with Jamiel came just weeks after moving to London, when Liam took one of his ballet classes at Lanterns. He remembers Jamiel’s “effervescent energy” and his ability to offer frank observations about a dancer’s work while demonstrating in his famously squeaky sneakers, cracking jokes and weaving in niche pop-culture references. The connection became even stronger when they discovered that they had both been taught dance by their mothers. Liam first met Taylor Hughes at the audition for BREATH, where he was immediately struck by the speed with which she absorbed his movement vocabulary and by the effortless articulation in her dancing.

Their first week of rehearsals presented a rather unusual challenge: getting to know one another while simultaneously becoming physically entangled in a 15-foot hose attached to their faces.

Fortunately, both dancers share a willingness to take risks and a laid-back approach, allowing them to quickly develop the trust and connection that BREATH demands. Liam’s creative development has also taken him far beyond the UK. Most recently, he spent time working in Sydney, Australia, through a Turing Scheme Placement supported by the London-based organisation Creative Rework. The scheme provides financial support for professionals to undertake international work placements and skills-development opportunities.

A long-time admirer of Sydney Dance Company, Liam took a chance and contacted the company directly, expecting his email might simply disappear into the bottom of someone's inbox. Instead, he received an invitation from ensemble director Richard Cilli, and just a month later found himself in Sydney learning repertoire from Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela and choreographer Fran Diaz.

The experience proved transformative. Rehearsing alongside the company gave Liam new perspectives and tools that he has brought back into both his physical and choreographic practices, adding another layer of depth to his work. He describes it as a privilege to experience the inner workings of such a talented and humble group of artists.

Looking ahead, Liam is already thinking about how he can continue to expand his choreographic practice. His immediate plans include developing a new work for a larger group of dancers, with ambitions to present it at festivals such as Resolution and Choreography Hannover.

Ultimately, his goal is simple: to keep creating opportunities to bring his “wacky ideas into the physical realm” and share them with audiences both in the UK and back home in Barbados. For now, the next chapter of that journey arrives at Ballet Nights 012, where BREATH will bring together Liam’s fascination with surrealism, his instinct for physical storytelling and his belief in the power and vulnerability of human connection.

See Liam Woodvine and Taylor Hughes perform BREATH at Ballet Nights 012, Cadogan Hall, on 28 September 2026.

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