ABOUT
AllouAqui Dance Theatre is a UK based independent company that creates bold and exciting work that often transcends the boundaries between dance, theatre and performance art. Blending movement, sound, visual and theatrical elements, their work plays with the narrative and the abstract, bringing to life characters that go on unexpected journeys while shifting between real and surreal worlds. Never missing a chance to unleash humour and position its characters in tragicomic situations, AllouAqui’s work aims at entertaining audiences whilst also inviting them to challenge their current realities.
AllouAqui has created and produced multiple works, experimenting with staged performances, site specific projects and screendance. Most recently their work has been staged at The Riverside Studios (UK), The Place (UK), and the Cineteatro Antonio Lamoso (PT). Over the past ten years, they have collaborated with various artists, schools, and organisations and engaged with different communities across the UK and Europe. Some examples are Bath Spa University (Dance and Theatre department), Bath Youth Dance Company, Bristol University (Theatre department), YAMA Dance, The Playing Fields/Laban Conservatory, Balleteatro and more. AllouAqui constantly works towards engaging people who enjoy dance and theatre, as well as performing artists of all levels and experiences with their practice and creative making processes. Their aim is to create spaces for different kinds of participants to access and explore new ways of engaging their physicality & theatricality, new methods of creating performance work and new approaches to creative collaboration.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR | CHOREOGRAPHER
DELICIA SEFIHA
Delicia is a UK based dance artist working within a range of different areas, including performance, choreography and education. She holds bachelors degree in combined creative arts (Dance & Literature) and a research masters in Choreography & Performance. She is currently working as a freelance dance artist & dance educator, a lecturer in performing arts and the artistic co-director of AllouAqui Dance Theatre.
Her choreographic practice dives into our humaness and our fantasy worlds to playfully interweave them, creating stories and characters that reveal aspects of the realities they exist in while also attempting to shift them. Often in a mix of movement, imagery, text and sound her work takes various shapes and forms, from dance theatre performances to improvised participatory projects.
Her ongoing creative research is exploring movement as an inter space, a meeting place, a link between dance and theatre, ideas and practices, realities and fantasies, texts and bodies, the individual and the collective!
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR | CHOREOGRAPHER
XAVIER DE SANTOS
Xavier De Santos is a freelance movement practitioner based in the South West of England, working across movement, choreography, and education. Within Xavi's interdisciplinary creative practice, he creates for and with dancers, actors, and other creatives, blurring disciplinary boundaries while focusing on the theatricalisation of the moving body.
Xavi's professional training began at Balleteatro in his hometown of Porto, Portugal, where he studied physical theatre, before moving to the UK to complete a BA in Contemporary Dance at Bath Spa University. More recently, Xavi completed a research Master’s in Performance Practice at Middlesex University, London. This marked the beginning of his practice as research journey, with a particular focus on choreographic and devising strategies.
Over the past decade, alongside facilitating at Bath Spa University as an associate lecturer on the Dance and Acting degree, and leading dance classes within dance schools and community groups across Bath and Bristol, Xavi has also been creating and performing with Dust Ensemble, as well as with AllouAqui Dance Theatre, the company he co-founded.
ASSOCIATE ARTIST | PRODUCTION MANAGER
SAMUEL DE LA TORRE
Sam is a Creative Producer working at Bath Spa University and independently with a range of companies and artists to bring ambitious artistic visions to stages and other performing spaces.
A core member of AllouAqui Dance Theatre since its beginnings, Sam has played a pivotal role as Assistant Director, supporting productions including Final Test and Milan’s Game.
With a background in acting, theatre-making, and producing, Sam is passionate about developing and nurturing emerging creative projects that challenge conventions and captivate audiences. His previous work includes touring nationally with Plymouth’s Barbican Theatre, as well as reaching international audiences with AllouAqui Dance Theatre and theatre company Dust Ensemble.