Edge Hill University

Department Member, Performing Arts

Senior Lecturer in Performance. Learning & Teaching Fellow (2008-2010), Fellow HEA.

Thesis Title: The Temporality of the Performing Body: Tears, Fears and Ageing Queers.

About

Mark Edward is a performer, dance maker, inter-disciplinary arts practitioner, writer, moving interventionist and hijacker of public arenas. He is the artistic director of Mark Edward & Company. 

His interests (besides shopping) focus on gender, socio-political self in performance, performing identities, dance and the ageing body, ageing queers and geritol frolics, flesh as the site for representation/presentation and the aesthetics of no ordinary bodies.

He has worked for and collaborated with a range of companies and artists including:
Rambert Dance Company
Senza-Tempo Dance Theatre Company Barcelona
Penny Arcade (USA)
Julie Tolentino (USA)
Paul Johnson (Chief Exec of Dance Ireland)
Katherine Dowsen
Gorgeous & Co
MTV (Lucid)
Mista DJ MK
Ezimotion (Dublin)
Whitworth Art Gallery
Okeanos
Hilton & Co Engineers
The Lowry (Incubatory Artist)
Dance Resource Limited (DARE)
Mambo and Dylon Clothing
Matthew Hawkins
Johnson Edu (National Theatre of Ghana)
Susan Pui San Lok (on her DIY Ballroom)
Olivia du Monceau de Bergendal
Stuart Rayner
Rosa Fong
Dr Mark Fremaux
Dr Fiona Bannon
Dr Helen Newall

In 2003 and 2004 Mark was invited to work alongside the renowned American performance artist and queer, poltical and  cultural icon Penny Arcade (former Andy Warhol film 'star') in her seminal work 'Bad Reputation'.

Mark has given a range of public interviews including the BBC and featured on the front cover of the National Campaign for the Arts (NCA) winter 2007/08 issue 79, Live Art Magazine and featured in GT Magazine August 2001.

He has written articles for:
Dancing in the UK Magazine, Autumn Edition 2010 on choreophobia in boys dance culture.
Dancing in the UK Spring Edition 2011 on the French new dance wave: 'Tecktonik'.
Dance Review Magazine, Autumn 2010 on issues surrounding dance and freelance practice.
Dance Review Magazine May issue on body fascism in dance and addressing danceorexia.
Animated Dance Journal on the ageing body and dance.

Mark has featured in Paul Johnson's book 'Fine Lines on Shifting Ground' and quoted in Sue Tilley's book Leigh Bowery: the life and times of an icon.

He was recently invited to speak at the global conference Making Sense of Pain in Warsaw with his latest research paper 'Temporality of the Dancing Body: Tears, Fears and Ageing Dears'. The paper highlights the current climate of dance age discrimination (especially in Ballet) and is co authored by Dr Helen Newall. The paper is published in eBook form by Inter-Disciplinary Publishers. Title Pain: Management, Expression, Interpretation
Edited by: Andrzej Dańczak and Nicola Lazenby. ISBN: 978-1-84888-080-1

Mark is also engaged in research, with Dr Fiona Bannon, on the issues surrounding boys engagement in dance, choreophobia and post modern masculinities.

In 2012 Mark will be delivering his research paper on boys and dance at the International Fields of Vision Conference, UK.


Boys Article: http://dancingintheuk.digitaleditions.co.uk/sept2010/?jtp=6

Tecttonik Article:
http://dancingintheuk.digitaleditions.co.uk/issue45/?jtp=38

Mark is nationally renowned for creating work that dodges catagorisation yet has a very distinct personal and choreographic signature. His dance theatre work has a specific quirky language that combines dark humour, irony and parody. His choreographic ‘style’ fuses a range of art forms together in order to allow for a varied performance aesthetic. Mark is known for his hilarious ‘playfulness’ and his wicked sense of humour which transfers into his choreography. This has ranged from 7ft rabbits invading the performance space, handbags falling from ‘grace', huge trampolines, dancing nuns, drag artists as 1950’s usherettes, electronic scooters en mass, fire works, bingo callers, original 90 year old Music Hall veterans, 2ft stiletto heal shoes, grand pianos with their own ‘personality’ and a dance language that reaps a fresh insight. He has created a series of works for a broad base of dance companies; community groups; showcase arenas and commissioned educational environments as ‘artist in residence’. Each choreographic work Mark creates his visually rich and defies a specific ‘category’. 

He has been called an 'outrage' by Danny La Rue, a 'star' by Tanya Byron, 'Hilter of Modern Dance' by Filip Van Hufel, refreshingly irreverent by Professor Christy Adair a 'no hoper' by his old school teachers and 'perfect' by his mother.

In 2008 Mark was nominated for the National Teaching Fellow award and has also been awarded Learning & Teaching Fellow title by Edge Hill University in recognition of his innovative approaches to teaching and learning. He currently sits on the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT)  board in association with the Primary Care Trust. He is the Chair of the Performing Arts Scholarship Committee at EHU.

He was the former Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Dance programme at Edge Hill University from 2005 to 2010.

Mark holds an MA in Dance Studies, a B.A (Hons) in Contemporary Arts, a PG-Cert in Teaching & Learning, a Diploma in Performing Arts and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

He is currently registered for a PhD through Practice as Research focusing on self, auto-ethnography, memory, phenomenology, ageing queers and guerilla drag queen interventions. He has recently been awarded research funding (REF) to explore further his interrogation and interests into ageing drag queens by the way of 3D film and installation art. This highly charged work 'Council House Movie Star' will be touring throughout 2013.
Councul House Movie Star Pop Matters Review: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/blogs/media-center/section/performing-arts/

For years he has tried to escape a barking family either psychologically (through low budget NHS therapists) or a geographical sphere. Half his ancestors were convicts shipped off to Australia and the other half that resisted the boat (unfortunately for him) are societal not rights.

He is off beat, quirky, acidic and emotionally intelligent. He knows what he wants but does not always go about getting it the right way. He is the vulnerable sensitive guy in the studio who often appears to be the Fanny Craddock of dance in a lengthy emotional search for his long lost companion; Jonnie yet in the next breath ranting and shouting at all in ear shot of him. He was last heard cursing down the corridor, “why can’t Martha Graham just F*** off ‘n’ Die?!”

Mark has been described as "Hitler of Modern Dance" by Filip Van Huffel, “a star” by Tanya Byron and an “outrage” by Danny La Rue.

He is a defender of the wronged and most of all a person who has integrity, fortitude and a compassion for all those who are on the margins of society who seek a better place of belonging.


Finally, Mark loves shopping and joooshing about town with his closest outrageous companions Miss Gale Force, Chris D' Bray, three designer dogs (Yulu, Hulot and Mylo). Mark is also known as a profile whore and an ebay and Creme De La Mer addict. Mark also prefers to work out in a local cake shop and Library than a gym!

Contact Information