World ballet day
Happy World Ballet Day 2025!
This year’s theme, “Access Becomes Art,” shines a spotlight on accessibility in dance.
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We’re excited to share an exclusive feature with Mark Smith - Choreographer, ISTD Patron, and Founder of Deaf Men Dancing and DMD+.
We sat down with Mark to explore his groundbreaking work that continues to break boundaries and open doors for D/deaf and disabled artists in dance.
"Working" A Musical
Guildford School Of Acting
20 November-22 November
Choreographer
Guildford School of Acting
* Freelance
Nov 2025 - Present • 1 mo
London • On-site
I am currently choreographing a musical called Working.
Director: Julian Woolford.
Book by Studs Terkel
Adapted by Stephen Schwartz & Nina Faso.
Songs by Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mary Rodgers & Susan Birkenhad, Stephen Schwartz and James Taylor
Snow White Pantomime at Kings Theatre Portsmouth:
Portsmouth Theatres are proud to unveil a world-class creative team for their 2025 pantomime season at Theatre Royal and The Kings Theatre, with the announcement of two exciting additions: multi-award-winning director Michael Strassen and Olivier-nominated choreographer Mark Smith.
These two major talents join an already established and highly skilled creative team, making an exceptional lineup even more powerful.
Portsmouth’s festive productions are set to be among the strongest and most artistically ambitious in the UK this Christmas.
Olivier Awards 2024I was honoured to be a nominee for the Olivier Awards 2024 as Best Theatre Choreographer for my choreography in The Little Big Things, an award-winning West End musical. After all my years in the theatre industry, at this moment in my life, I feel accepted and embraced by the industry and that all my hard work and dedication is being recognised. I had a fantastic evening and a wonderful experience at the event. Being nominated was a highlight in my career and an unforgettable moment.
Antony & Cleopatra Cultural Enterprise Awards
Congratulations to Antony & Cleopatra at The Shakespeares Globe for winning Best Event at the Cultural Enterprise Awards.
The Globes bilingual production is spoken in English and British Sign Language and became the first Deaf-Inclusive production of its scale on a major UK stage. Creative captioning enhanced the experience for all audiences and the shows bilingual framework creatively heightened the textual themes of communication.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
I am excited to announce I will be choreographing the musical adaptation of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
For the first time in the UK the story of Love, Friendship and Redemption will be at The Prince Edward Theatre this Summer.
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Produced by Jack Maple the show features music from the 1996 animated film by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz.
Director Jonathan O, Doyle and Musical Direction by award winner Alan Williams will bring the story of Victor Hugo's tale to life with a full orchestra and choir.
I am honored to be working on this beautiful production and excited for the show to premiere on the 17th August. Due to the popularity an extra date has been added on 24th August.
Our House
I Directed and choreographed my favourite band
Madness’ musical called Our House at the Sherman Theatre Cardiff .
This will be my second time working with
the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama having choreographed
Sweet Charity last year. Our house was based at Camden in London in the 80s
it took me back to my happy childhood memories when i grew up listening
to the explosion of music like Ska, Reggae, Two Tone, Skinhead, Punk, Mods.
The show was a great success and it was a joy working with the students who brought my vision to life on stage
Cre8 2024 - Bird College
I was happily invited back by Bird College for the fifth time, to choreograph a piece for the third year students. We created a piece called Wave after Wave with the music from Kate Bush's classic album Hounds of Love, inspired by Alfred Tennyson's poem The Coming of Arthur and Ivan Aivazovsky's painting The Ninth Wave. Please find images of Wave After Wave on Fiona Whyte’s website: https://www.fionawhytephotography.co.uk/For-Sale/Bird-College/Cr8-14-November-24/n-Q63cSB/2
The piece was set to an original musical score by composer Alex Beetschen.The dancers and I had the pleasure of teaching a workshop and presented a sharing of the work that we developed to Funky Teens (a local based charity group serving the needs of families affected by deafness or hearing impairments and provide social and recreational activities for Deaf and Hard of Hearing teenagers). I’m pleased to say that they really enjoyed the workshop and we received positive feedback about the ​​​​​​​​​​performance.
D-Clusivity
Artistic Director
Deaf Men Dancing • Freelance
Aug 2010 - Present • 15 yrs
4 mos
Greater London, EnglandAs the Founder & Artistic Director of Deaf Men Dancing, I've had the pleasure to collaborate with Black Country Dance Hub for the project D-Clusivity. Phase 1 of the project was funded by Arts Council England and gave us the opportunity to undertake R&D for a new dance piece, which explores the story of a young deaf dancer navigating life in the UK.
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The project aimed to create a compelling performance, focused on the experiences of D/deaf and Hard of Hearing people in theatre and dance. It also aimed to challenge perceptions and increase visibility for D/deaf or Hard of Hearing dancers in the performing arts, and inspire young people who are D/deaf or Hard of Hearing, their friends and family.
During the audition stages and the R&D, I worked with the dancers to explore the creation of movement for the first part of a new professional piece of work with four Deaf/Hard of Hearing Dancers.
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Synergy is a new dance project exploring the impact of climate change on Deaf and disabled individuals. My inspiration for Synergy was astrology, the big bang, how the planet is in danger and the climate crisis. Musa Motha plays an astrologer sending a message to the future after a time capsule is discovered, warning us to renew the energy of our life, health and well-being. With Deaf and Disabled dancers creating this educational and inspirational piece, each character plays a different planet (Mars, Jupiter etc.) telling a different story through personal experiences and struggles during the pandemic, such as communication breakdown, mental health and access support. On your own, it can be very isolating and your energy can become low. So when they all come together as a community, the energy builds around them forming a Synergy. When they join through the spirit to discover a new planet it symbolises hope for a better future.
We had the pleasure of performing Synergy at Birmingham Hippodrome’s Birmingham Weekender, GDIF’s Dancing City & David Attenborough Arts Centre. We then collaborated with Arts Center South Africa Sibikwa to create Synergy 2.0. I flew with someof the cast to South Africa to work with a new team of Disabled South African dancers.
Taking the original storyline and creating a different version, the dancers made their own interpretation of Synergy with their own stories, including looking at the impact of “Load Shedding” in South Africa. It was so interesting to discover the power cuts they had to face for 10 years. We took these events and made a creative response to it in the choreography.
Synergy 2.0 was performed in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Synergy has some amazing partnerships with Without Walls, Black Country Dance Hub, Arts Council, Birmingham Hippodrome, Attenborough Arts Centre, Bird College, Sibikwa Arts Centre and Greenwich + Dockland International Festival.
MGC's Futures Bursary
I was delighted to receive an award be to a recipient for MGC's Futures Bursary. The bursary assisted me to take a new direction as a Theatre Director.
I undertook research and development where i observed Director's whilst working in rehearsal and gaining their experience and advice I also developed a R&D workshop which had a small invited audience.
Michael Grandage kindly agreed to mentor me for this project and during this experience i gained a lot of knowledge and steer in the right direction. I am very thankful to MGC'S Futures for this opportunity and helping me towards a new carer in the future.
Antony & Cleopatra
I had an exciting opportunity to choreograph Antony & Cleopatra at the famous Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London with Director, Blanche McIntyre. Creating a diverse production, Deaf & Hearing actors were cast in the play and the cast were split into two groups, the Romans and the Egyptians. BSL was incorporated into the play. The show received amazing reviews, calling it a “groundbreaking bilingual production.” I am delighted to share the news that Antony & Cleopatra is the winner of the UK Theatre Award for Excellence in Inclusivity. It was a pleasure to work at The Globe Theatre and an amazing experience. I am so thrilled Antony & Cleopatra received this well-deserved award.