MOVEMENT & STORY
Helen engages the body as an instrument of detail, creating viscerally alive, story-driven work.
Her practice is defined by rigorous physicality, a distinctive visual sensibility and close attention to human behaviour and exchange.
She is Artistic Director of dance-theatre company, Beyond Words, and creator of Hypha, a pioneering, gesture-based language for text embodiment.
MOVEMENT DIRECTION & FILM
Helen brings a choreographer’s eye to screen.
She is particularly interested in the patterns of movement in which we find ourselves; what they reveal, resist, or make possible.
For theatre, she reveals a production’s distinctive physical language, creating an unflinching sense of presence that draws audiences into the moment.
ROPE / Experimental short, by Paul Stringer
A short film exploring themes of suicide, by Paul Stringer. Poem & reading, Helen Calcutt / Movement direction, Helen Calcutt. Directed by Paul Stringer. Choreography & dancer, Nathan Lafayette.
RE-WIRE / Birmingham Opera Company
The production brings together six world premieres of newly commissioned works, made with and about the people of Birmingham. Jonny Danciger serves as Creative Director on the project, with Harry Lai as Project Music Director, Mariana Rosas as Chorus Director, and Helen Calcutt as Movement Director.
NO PHOTOS / Ryan Sinclair
No Photos is a spoken word show that explores social anxiety, self-image, and visibility through the lens of a man who never wants to be in the picture. Currently touring the U.K. Directed by Desree. Movement Direction by Helen Calcutt.
CHOREOGRAPHY
Helen creates dance where the body and human experience find powerful physical expression.
Her work draws on the full breadth of the body, combining technical rigour with an unguarded rawness, moving between large-scale commissions, vocational dance creation and intimate, site-responsive encounters.
GRIEF IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS / BEYOND WORDS
“An extraordinary work of art — a world-class piece of contemporary dance.” Max Porter
Grief Is the Thing with Feathers is a ground-breaking dance adaptation of Max Porter’s award-winning novel, directed and choreographed by Helen Calcutt.
Through an evocative interplay of words and bodies, and through the company’s unique gestural system ‘Hypha‘, the work renders a story of grief and love as fully kinetic and alive.
Following a successful pilot run across 2026 , the production will embark on a wider international tour from Spring 2027 supported by Arts Council England, One Dance UK, University Centre Leeds, and the Good Grief Festival, produced by the Middle Floor.
DESCENT / MIDLANDS ACTOS THEATRE
“The searing choreography by Helen Calcutt…is incredibly emotional and perfectly synchronised to convey the unspoken elements that surge inside each character.’
A site-specific exploration of war, grief and trauma, directed by David Allen.
WHEN I WAS 10 / TOTAL INSIGHT THEATRE
Directed by Kieran Vyas 2025 & 2026 (UK TOUR)
The creation of bespoke gestural choreographic language to translate the emotional and narrative content of Total Insight Theatre’s powerful new verbatim theatre work ‘When I was 10’, directed by Kieran Vyas and produced by Total Insight.
FOUNTAIN OF LIGHT / MIDLANDS ACTORS THEATRE
Directed by David Allen
The research and development of a new site-specific work by Midlands Actors Theatre, directed by David Allen. Performed at FABRIC studios and Huntington Hall.
CREATIVE APPROACH
Helen encourages embodied authorship and freedom to claim personal expression through movement, creating dance that insists upon resilience, connection and life.
She is dedicated to integrating research-led wellbeing into her touring, learning, and rehearsal structures, championing dancer’s rights to feel safe and valued in all making and working environments.
She was nominated for a Women in Dance Award with AWA Dance (Advancing Women’s Aspirations with Dance) in March 2021, and has been supported in her dance making by Arts Council England, the Limoges Trust, and the Society of Authors.
COMMISSIONS / CREDITS
‘When I Was 10’, a commission for Total Insight Theatre (2025 &2026), ‘RE-WIRE’ Movement Direction, Birmingham Opera Company (2026). ‘No Photos” Ryan Sinclair (2026) ‘Fountain of Light’ site-specific R&D (2025, 2026), Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, final year piece (2024), ‘Three Poems,’ joint commission by Hounslow Acton for Youth & Apple T.V. (2023) ‘Descent’, for Midlands Actors Theatre (site-specific production, 2022 &23), Curated by Carlos, Birmingham Royal Ballet (2021), I’d Do It All Again’, Midlands Actors Theatre, care home community touring (2019), ‘The Darlaston Dog Fight’ with Regional Voice (2017) ‘STAY’, commissioned for the Birmingham Weekender Festival (sign-language / gesture integration, 2017. ‘Marina’, solo performance as part of Poetry International Festival (2016).
TEACHING & LEADERSHIP (READ MORE)
HOW THE BODY SPEAKS 