Artistic Director

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Thomas Small

(he/him)

Thomas graduated from London Contemporary Dance School with a BA (Hons) degree.  He has won many awards and commissions for his work including the prestigious Bonnie Bird New Choreography Award and the Robin Howard Foundation Commission. 

In 2015, he was appointed as the first ever BBC Radio 2 Artist in Residence in association with The Space. He has also been short-listed for the Peter Darrell award in 2003 and The Place Prize in both 2006 & 2008.   Thomas was Choreographer in Residence at The Space, Dundee throughout 2008 and Artist in Residence at The Byre Theatre, St Andrews.  In 2013, he was awarded the Creative Scotland fellowship on the Clore Leadership Programme.  During his fellowship, he undertook a secondment at The Roundhouse, London, and V&A Dundee and was mentored by Farooq Chaudhry, Producer at Akram Khan Company and English National Ballet.  In 2017, Thomas was mentored by Kerry Nicholls and Christopher Hampson where he worked with Scottish Ballet dancers as part of Scottish Ballet Creates.  

He took part in the Royal Opera House’s DanceLines 2009 project where he was mentored by The Royal Ballet’s Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor and he presented the work he created during DanceLines at The Royal Opera House FIRSTS Programme in November 2010.  He was invited to present his work ‘Falling Man’ at the Cunningham Studios in New York City in 2011 and Berlin in 2012. His work received five-star reviews at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and was featured on the BBC Culture Show. He was a Creative Partner with National Theatre of Scotland for their 2012 Exchange Festival. His work, ‘Within This Dust’ was selected for the 2012 Made In Scotland Showcase and went on to enjoy a sell-out run at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.  The work toured to New York City and Brazil in 2013.  In 2014, he was commissioned to choreograph La Banda’s Struileag: Children of the Smoke for Festival 2014, directed by Dan Ayling and featuring music by Artistic Director, Jim Sutherland. 

He was commissioned by V&A Dundee to choreograph as part of the opening of the museum featuring 500 young people; Cumbernauld Theatre to create Paper Moon in 2018; by Dance Base in 2020 to create The End?; by Starcatchers in 2021 to create Teeny Weeny, and by Aberdeen Performing Arts to create Right Up Your Street in 2022.

Thomas is a Trustee and Co-Chair at The Barn (Woodend Arts Limited) in Banchory and is Chair of Dundee Pride. He was formerly Chair of the Advisory Board for Performing Arts at Scottish School of Contemporary Dance at Dundee & Angus College, and a Trustee of the Federation of Scottish Theatre (FST) from 2013 to 2016. He was the founder and Artistic Director of the acclaimed Smallpetitklein from 2000 to 2015.  He established and Chairs the first Scottish chapter of the What Next? movement in Dundee.  He has also Chaired the Dance Forum for Federation of Scottish Theatre. Thomas is a trained mentor on FST's Step Up programme. 

He is a faculty member at Scottish School of Contemporary Dance and previously at the Urdang Academy, London.  Thomas has also taught extensively for Royal Academy of Dance, Scottish Ballet, The Place, and Greenwich Dance Agency. 

To follow Tommy's work as Artist in Residence at BBC Radio 2, check out the BBC website here.  

As part of his residency, Tommy created Lost But Found, inspired by stories he heard on Radio 2 about Children in Need.  To watch the film click here. 

Follow Tommy's adventures with Shaper/Caper on Facebook here. 

#IWannaDanceWithSomebody

Who would Thomas like to dance with?

Madonna of course!!