CHOREOGRAPHIC CREATIONS

Helen’s choreographic practice engages the body as an instrument of detail, creating viscerally alive, story-driven dance.

Driven by a central interest in the physical power of text, her work invites audiences to witness the primordial grit and vulnerability of the human condition, embodied through tender, emotionally driven performance. Recognised for her ability to direct atmosphere at scale, her practice centres ensemble intention, musicality, and fluid interplay, building compelling narrative worlds that hold both enormity and intimacy in the space.

She is Artistic Director of dance-theatre company, Beyond Words, and creator of Hypha, a pioneering, gesture-based methodology for text embodiment.

MOVEMENT DIRECTION / COMMISSIONS

Helen has created new work in theatres, warehouses, outdoors stages, large-scale live productions, care homes, and as part of vocational choreographic study.

Working across community and professional contexts, she integrates research-led wellbeing into her touring, learning, and rehearsal structures, encouraging embodied authorship and freedom to claim personal expression through movement, creating dance that insists upon resilience, connection and life.

She was nominated for a Women in Dance Award with AWA Dance (Advancing Women’s Aspirations with Dance) in March 2021.

‘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).

CURRENT PROJECTS

NO PHOTOS (TOURING 2026) 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.
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“An extraordinary work of art — a world-class piece of contemporary dance.” — Max Porter

BEYOND WORDS

GRIEF IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS

BEYOND WORDS (VISIT SITE)

Grief Is the Thing with Feathers is a ground-breaking dance adaptation of Max Porter’s award-winning novella, 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 grief as fully kinetic and alive.

Following a successful pilot tour across 2026–2027, the production will perform internationally from Feb 2028, supported by Arts Council England, One Dance UK, University Centre Leeds, and the Good Grief Festival, produced by the Middle Floor.

RE-WIRE BIRMINGHAM OPERA COMPANY 2026

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.

WHEN I WAS 10, TOTAL INSIGHT THEATRE

Directed by Kieran Vyas 2025 & 2026 (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.