Our History

The early years

During our 35 year history, we have collaborated with an impressive roster of world-renowned choreographers including Emilyn Claid, Siobhan Davies, Javier de Frutos, Fin Walker, Arlene Phillips, Yasmeen Godder and leading disabled choreographers Marc Brew, Claire Cunningham and Dan Daw. Our ground-breaking approach to inclusive teaching laid the foundations for programmes such as the Candoco Foundation Course in Dance for Disabled Students (2004–7) and a pioneering two-week residential Training Intensive for young disabled and non-disabled dancers.

2007: A new chapter

In 2007, former Artistic Co-Directors Stine Nilsen and Pedro Machado were appointed as Celeste’s successors. Having danced with the company for seven and nine years respectively, they brought a natural understanding of Candoco’s ethos to the role and continued to push the boundaries of dance with bold, diverse commissions. They took the company from the Bird’s Nest in Beijing to the Olympic Stadium in London, performing at the handover ceremonies in 2008 and returning, alongside Coldplay, at the Paralympic Closing Ceremony in 2012.

During this period, Candoco presented landmark productions including Set and Reset/Reset – a restaging of Trisha Brown‘s seminal Set and Reset with its first cast of disabled and non-disabled dancers, created with Trisha Brown Dance Company in 2011 and 2016, and Jérôme Bel’s award-winning The Show Must Go On in 2015 and 2017.

2018: Reaching new audiences

Ben Wright and founding member Charlotte Darbyshire joined as Artistic Co-Directors in 2018. Under their directorship, Candoco made history as the first contemporary dance company to appear on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, performing to more than 10 million viewers.

The company also expanded its digital work during this period, creating Cuckoo, Feeling Thing and Unspoken Spoken – bringing Candoco’s distinctive artistry to new audiences around the world.

Learning and global reach

Our learning programme has always been central to who we are. Supported by ASOS, our international Training Intensives have brought disabled and non-disabled dancers together from Hong Kong to Norway. Through the British Council-funded 3 x 3 project (2022–23), we collaborated with Arada in Turkey and Unbeaten Path in Ukraine and saw 20 artists from three countries navigate extraordinary circumstances to create and share new work together.

From Armenia to Jakarta, Taiwan to Rwanda, Candoco has visited more than sixty countries, expanding perceptions of what dance can be.

2024: Disabled leadership at the fore

In January 2024, Raquel Meseguer Zafe and Dominic Mitchell joined as Co-Artistic Directors – both disabled artists in their own right. Their vision centred disabled leadership, intersectionality and the lived experience of disabled people in the making of new work. Their first commission invited former Candoco performer Dan Daw to create Over and Over (and over again), a joyful, beat-driven work that premiered in 2025.

Looking ahead

As we move into our next chapter, Candoco is building a new model to better support disabled artists to grow, creating more opportunities for more people, and continuing to place disabled lives and perspectives at the heart of everything we make.