About

Harnisch-Lacey Dance creates uniquely-crafted performances and participation projects driven by movement and physical expression, while integrating and combining cross-genre dance, music, theatre, and film. Our approach to performance making embraces emotions and ambiguity, allowing the audience to embark on their own journey of discovery. Each of our projects uses movement, music, and visual languages as a catalyst to stimulate meaning, learning, and communicating.

We offer a wide-reaching programme of education and participation projects in schools, higher education institutions, and community centres. These different areas of our work overlap, creating fertile ground for dialogue, debate, and collaboration.

The company is led by our artistic director, Sandra Harnisch-Lacey, a German-born choreographer, dance artist, and educator, living and working in the UK. Sandra was the recipient of the Sylvia Bodmer Award at Trinity Laban, Conservatoire for Dance in 1997 and was also nominated for the Ffresh Award in 2004. She received The Creative Wales Award from The Arts Council of Wales in 2012. Sandra has been artistic director for the dance programme at The Gate Arts Centre in Cardiff, as well as a visiting lecturer on the dance degree courses at both Cardiff Metropolitan University and at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Her work has toured extensively across Wales, England, Germany, France, Austria, Slovenia, and Luxembourg. More recently she was commissioned to direct and choreograph the stage version of the popular Channel 5 children’s animation Igam Ogam and was an Associate Artist of Coreo Cymru. Her dance dome short film The Sublime also won an Award for Innovation at an International US film festival.

Since 2016 she has been a Creative Agent on the Lead Creative School Scheme, creating bespoke creative learning projects in schools (commissioned by Arts Council of Wales in partnership with Welsh Government).

Sandra is also qualified Pilates instructor and has been teaching mat classes and private sessions for over 10 years. She is currently undertaking an MA in Arts, Health and Wellbeing to inform and develop her work in Dance and Health.