KOKONA | ALLOUAQUI
DEVELOPMENT PAGE
ABOUT THE COMPANY
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 various communities as well as professional artists 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 across various 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
Xavi De Santos is a Bath-based freelance performance practitioner and facilitator. Over the last decade, alongside devising and performing with Dust Ensemble, Yama Dance Company, and for the company he co-founded, AllouAqui Dance Theatre, he has been working with community groups across the Southwest.
Xavi creates work for and with dancers, actors and multidisciplinary artists, often blurring the lines between these disciplines. His interdisciplinary practice has a strong focus on the theatrical potential of the moving body, a creative approach he has been developing since his training began in his hometown of Porto, Portugal. Since then, Xavi has also trained at Bath Spa University, and most recently, completed a Master’s in Performance Practice at Middlesex University, London, with a particular research focus on composition strategies.
This year, Xavi was shortlisted and a proud finalist at the Bath Creative Awards 2026 for the categories of ‘Inspirational Person’ and ‘Creativity for Good’ with his recently founded Creative Playgrounds in Bath and Trowbridge, as part of Xavi’s ongoing commitment to making creativity accessible and strengthening the artistic community.
ASSOCIATE ARTIST | PRODUCTION MANAGER
SAMUEL DE LA TORRE
Sam is a Creative Producer working with a range of institutions, 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.
Welcome to our show development page!
SO FAR...
We have developed our second full length show as a company, KOKONA and performed it at Cineteatro Antonio Lamoso (PT) and Riverside Studios (UK). After testing it in these two venues we have further developed our piece artistically, with the support of dance dramaturg Xenia Aidonopoulou, who helped us review the overall journey of this work, reflect on audience feedback, refine the narrative structure of the piece and identify opportunities to further strengthen the work.
NOW...
We are now looking at developing the production elements of the work, growing our audience engagement and preparing KOKONA for future touring.
Production Development & Audience Engagement
Set & Lighting Design
We want to collaborate with lighting designer, Josh Nicholl, and set design specialist, Abby Clarke, to further develop the visual world of the piece. Together, we'll refine the set and lighting design to create the characters' world, offer a more immersive and atmospheric experience for our audience, highlight the piece's themes and increase the project's production value to meet audience expectations. Dramaturg, Xenia Aidonopoulou will also review the changes & updates brought to the work by these new designs.
Marketing
In this development phase we want to work with marketing specialist, Julia White, to expand our audience reach, strengthen our online presence, develop strategies for retaining and growing audiences & participant, and increase overall audience engagement with our company
Production Consultancy/Mentoring
The Middle Floor/Callum Holt will offer his expertise to support us in engaging programmers & venue managers with our work, oversee activity during our dedicated outreach days, and support us in gathering and interpreting audience data. He will also facilitate a QnA after the KOKONA performance at Bath Spa University Theatre. During this phase and with the support of TMF we aim at engaging in conversations with at least 5 programmers/venues and securing 2 venues for future touring.
Audience Engagement
This development phase will help us work towards building long-term audience relationships. We're aiming at gathering audience details, creating an email list & engaging audiences in the company's online platforms. We're hoping that approx. 65% of audience members and/or workshop participants will opt in receiving future communications from our company and follow us on at least one online platform.
The workshop models we're developing, which will be tested both before and after performances will help us understand how audiences engage with our work through different activities and what percentage of our audience members chose to participate in company workshops and vice versa.
This phase will also allow us to strengthen community partnerships.
We're aiming at maintaining active relationships with LGBTQIA+ and community organisations throughout and beyond the project period. Currently Queer Bath, Queer Bristol, Emerge, Trowbridge Old Town Hall and Chisenhale Dance Space have confirmed their involvement in this KOKONA phase.
Finally, we aim at developing strategies to sustain digital engagement in order to maintain audience interest in our company and its work and develop repeat attendance.
Our collaborators...
Callum Holt | Production Consultant
Callum is an artist development & producing specialist who specialises in supporting artists delivering community-focused projects.
Josh Nicholl | Lighting Designer
Lighting designer, Josh Nicholl, has extensive experience in designing for dance. His expertise would help us further develop the visual world of the piece, enhancing the audience's experience.
Abby Clarke | Set Designer
Abby Clarke is a set designer with experience in designing for both dance and theatre. Abby's design will help us develop and refine the world of KOKONA. Her design will be suitable for touring small/mid-scale theatres across the UK & internationally.
Xenia Aidonopoulou | Dance Dramaturg
Xenia is a dance artist & dramaturg offering dramaturgical support to choreographers and multidisciplinary artists since 2006. Her dramaturgical practice is based on dialogue, exchange and creative collaboration.
Julia White | Marketing Specialist
Julia White is a freelance marketer with experience in leading on marketing campaigns for dance and theatre. Julia will help us expand our audience reach, strengthen our online presence, increase audience engagement and develop strategies to retain and grow audiences in the future.
Jordan Dilger | Photographer & Videographer
Jordan Dilger is a freelance photographer, videographer and media specialist, as well as a lecturer in media studies. The past three years he has produced content for dance artists in London and the South West and has filmed various full-length dance shows.
Lisette Barlow | Theatre Technician
LB is a freelance theatre technician that has worked with various venues & companies across the UK.
Our Partners...
Queer Bristol & Queer Bath
We will work with Queer Bath to connect with local LGBTQ+ communities across the South West.
The Old Town Hall, Trowbridge
We will partner with The Old Town Hall to engage local audiences and strengthen our presence within the Trowbridge community.
Bath's Creative Playground
Through this community creative hub, we will build relationships with participants interested in movement, performance, and creative practice.
The Middle Floor, Leeds
We will collaborate with The Middle Floor and Callum Holt to reach interdisciplinary artists and creative audiences.
Bath Spa University
We will engage students, staff, and alumni through our ongoing relationship with Bath Spa University.
Chisenhale Dance Space, London
We will connect with dance professionals and audiences through our relationship with Chisenhale Dance Space.
Emerge, Bath
We will work with Emerge to engage emerging artists and audiences interested in new performance work and workshops.
ABOUT KOKONA
As if detached from the rest of the world, KOK and KONA are on a journey of exploring their own and each other's bodies; which, peculiarly, feel different and alike at the same time. With only a few clues from what outer society inscribes on bodies like theirs, they set out to understand who and how they should be. Driven by their curiosity and their desire to become one, they dive into playful experimentations about the feminine and masculine, and create space for transformations.
KOKONA is a dance theatre duet experimenting with ideas around body, identity and self-expression. It constructs a world, in which bodies are detached from their materiality, to playfully explore how we would experience different norms and constraints if we hadn’t yet embodied them.
