Esme Rocha-Benjamin

With a background in professional dance and somatic/therapeutic practices, Esme has a curious and holistic approach to the body and movement. Esme began her training at Dixon Woods School of Dance, she then went on to train professionally at London Studio Centre, and later completed a MA in Dance & Somatic Wellbeing: Connections to the Living Body. For the past decade Esme has performed and taught all over the world, working in a variety of companies, including Headliners Theatre Company, Origin (previously known as Retina), Uchenna Dance and Movement Angol where she is currently an associate artist.

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During more recent years, Esme began to develop her own practice, heavily influenced by the work of her Mentor Francis Angol, (Director of Movement Angol). Esme has an innovative approach to creation, drawing on Somatic Practice and mixing creative disciplines such as movement, sound, art and writing in order to explore the unconscious stories of the body. She is particularly interested in aspects around the marginalised and privileged body, which led her to co-found beCOmotion, a movement community focusing on representation, inclusion and accessibility.

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Esme's practice is centred around the question of how we live awake inside a body? Exploring ways of creating a more intimate relationship with our body through sensory awareness and integration, empowering our own bodily knowledge and aliveness of a body in movement.