Kate Flatt: Current Biography April 2011

Trained at the Royal Ballet School, she began her career as assistant choreographer to Leonide Massine and then undertook further study at the London School of Contemporary Dance with Nina Fonaroff. She also attended the first International Summer School for Composers and Choreographers under the direction of Glen Tetley. She has worked as an independent choreographer in a range of contemporary dance companies, educational contexts and as part of the 1980’s New Dance scene. Her career currently spans a wide field, nationally and internationally, and includes ballet and contemporary dance works, film, opera and musicals.
Kate was awarded a Rayne Fellowship in 2007; she is also a Churchill Fellow and a recipient of an RSA travel bursary to study traditional dances in Russia, Eastern Europe and Greece.

Notable productions include the creation of the original musical staging for the RSC’s Les Miserables (1985) now at the Queens Theatre and worldwide, and the choreography for Turandot (1984), frequently revived at the Royal Opera and abroad. More recent work includes Dr Faustus with David Lan at the Young Vic, Three Sisters and Dream Play with Katie Mitchell at the National Theatre and Fiddler on the Roof at Sheffield Crucible and the Savoy Theatre. Her work on feature films includes choreography for Chaplin, Restoration, and The Avengers.

Opera work includes dance choreography, staging and chorus movement. Notable collaborations have been with Phyllida Lloyd on Peter Grimes (2006) - winner of South Bank Award - for Opera North, Gloriana (Emmy award winning film now on DVD 2006), The Carmelites (1999), and the staging of the Verdi’s Requiem (2000) and Carmen (2007) for English National Opera. She created the dances and chorus staging for Betrothal In a Monastery at Glyndebourne in 2006 and in Valencia January 2008. Works for the Royal Opera include William Tell, Viaggio a Rheims, Aida (also on DVD) and Turandot, which was revived most recently for Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center in May 2009.

Recent dance theatre choreography includes Soul Play (2008) a work for an actor and a dancer exploring the theme of suicide and the concept of soul in contemporary culture. The Dancing Room (1995), which explored the rituals of life in a contemporary setting and shown as a full-length dance theatre work made for BBC2 with Sally Jacobs, directed by Simon Broughton. In 2009, Kate collaborated with Brazilian master percussionist Adriano Adewale on the development of his solo music performance Sound Journey, for UK tour and the Edinburgh Festival.

Theatre work includes initial research on The Waves with Katie Mitchell on her NESTA fellowship. Work at National Theatre includes Pains of Youth (2009, Dream Play (2005), Power and Three Sisters (2003), Albert Speer (2000), Ends of the Earth (1996); ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (1999) Dr. Faustus (2002) The Skin of Our Teeth (2004) with David Lan and also Skellig (2004) at the Young Vic; Hamlet (2004) at the Old Vic with Trevor Nunn. She collaborated on the acclaimed recent revival of Fiddler on the Roof (2006) at Sheffield Crucible, and at the Savoy Theatre, London. Recent work includes Kreutzer Sonata (2010) at the Gate Theatre directed by Natalie Abrahami.

In South Korea, Kate has formed an association with the unique STT theatre company based in Miryang. With director Yun-taek Lee, she created dances for Hamlet, seen in Romania in May 2010 and a Carnival sequence for Merchant of Venice, which opened in December 2009 at the Myeondong Theater, Seoul. In July 2010 she led a creative workshop on a new production of Figaro’s Wedding with the music theatre sector of STT.

Spring 2010 saw a revival Soul Play, which was seen at Watford Palace Theatre, Colchester Mercury, at the Place in London, and at the Miryang Festival, South Korea; Soul Play and Beyond, an outreach project with hospices accompanied the performances, funded by the Rayne Foundation. In autumn 2010, Kate directed a new music theatre work called Songs from a Hotel Bedroom with music by Kurt Weill. Co-produced by SEGUE, Watford Palace Theatre, Ipswich New Wolsey and co-commissioned by the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House.

Teaching and Master classes
Kate currently teaches choreography at the Royal Ballet Upper School where she also taught 1975-81 at the invitation of Dame Ninette de Valois. She also teaches movement work for singers at the RCM and gives master classes at Central School of Speech and Drama on the MA Movement Studies.
She acts as a mentor to emerging choreographers and has led a number of intensive professional development training projects called The Doorway Project, which focus on collaboration between choreographers and directors.
In April 2009 she led eXchanges, an intensive collaborative workshop to enable young contemporary choreographers to engage with traditional English dance. In August 2009, she gave Master classes in choreography at the Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul and taught workshops on the dances of Shakespeare’s time for the Street Theatre Troupe in Miryang, South Korea. Kate taught MA Choreography at Middlesex University from 1997-2007.
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