Suzie

EARLY LIFE

Suzie Davies is a choreographer, award winning dancer, and teacher, from Leeds in the UK. She started her career dancing in the Monty Python film ‘The Meaning of Life’ in 1983. She has lived and worked in Scandinavia since 1992, and is based in Norway where she has lived since 1995. 

Suzie was born in Portsmouth on the south coast of England, but her family moved to Leeds when she was two years old. At an early age she developed an interest in gymnastics but her passion for dance was triggered after working as a dancer in the Monty Python film The Meaning of Life at the age of eleven. After training with Gill Caplan and Dorothy Stevens she received a scholarship to complete her education in contemporary dance and choreography at The London Contemporary Dance School, and graduated in 1992.

FIRST STEPS IN SCANDINAVIA

As a student at LCDS Suzie was lucky enough to work with the choreographer and director Janet Smith. Janet had been commissioned to choreograph for Uppercut Danseteater in Copenhagen, Denmark, and invited Suzie to be a part of the production. Suzie then moved to Copenhagen and joined Uppercut where, under the direction of Cher Geurtze and Sheila de Val, she worked with many international choreographers including Gill Clarke and Doug Varone. Despite falling in love with Copenhagen, and enjoying the challenges and opportunities that Uppercut had offered her, Suzie had her sights set on working with a larger company and in 1995 joined Carte Blanche, The Norwegian National Company of Contemporary Dance.

THE CARTE BLANCHE YEARS 1995-2004

Suzie moved to Bergen, on the west coast of Norway, and became an established member of the company. She enjoyed the variety a repertory company could offer and benefited from the challenge of adapting to the artistic profiles of three different directors. Over nine years Suzie was fortunate enough to work with many great artists and choreographers such as Jo Strømgren, Ina Christel Johannessen, Jens Østberg, Ingun Bjørnsgaard, Örjan Andersson, Cristina Caprioli, Amanda Miller, and Tony Rizzi, to name a few. She also worked with Ingun Bjørnsgaard Prosjekt in Oslo and JazzXchange in London.

YET ANOTHER COUNTRY IN SCANDINAVIA

In 2004 Suzie moved to Stockholm in Sweden. She needed to reassess her motivations for life as a dancer and make some serious choices about the future. This was a difficult period full of uncertainty and doubt. It was during this time that Suzie began working with Mattias on small-scale projects and installations. She also formed a working relationship with one of her previous directors from Carte Blanche Karen Foss, with whom she began researching the use of text in performance. In 2007 Suzie decided to return to Norway to continue working as a freelance dancer and to concentrate on her own work.

REVIVAL IN OSLO

Feeling revitalized and with a sense of purpose Suzie moved to Oslo to make her base as a freelance artist. She was granted a three-year work scholarship, which gave her the opportunity to start developing her own ideas while continuing to create work and perform with other groups and choreographers. Suzie also began working as an actor with Alan Lucien Øyen and his company Winter Guests. She discovered she had a passion for performing text and relished the challenges Winter Guests presented her with. In 2010 Suzie received the Rolf Gammleng prize for her work as a dancer and for the versatility she had shown as a performer. Since 2012 Suzie has also been employed by SKUDA, The Actors and Dancers Alliance in Norway.

DAVIES/EKHOLM

Suzie and Mattias had worked together in Carte Blanche for many years before finally falling in love. Having worked alongside each other as dancers they were not aware that they complimented each other as creators. Slowly they began trying out different choreographic ideas, in public spaces, at a wedding or two, or out in the nature. They were testing each other out as well as experimenting with their own creativity. Over time they realised that they were capable of balancing their private lives with their work lives and in 2014 decided to establish DEED together.