Ellen Crofton is an experimental multidisciplinary artist and dance choreographer. Ellen works with practice-based and experiential research methodologies and integrates alternative processes into her choreography: interactive or experimental sound (such as contact mics), experimental film techniques (abstracting digital film or using alternative processes with 8mm film), and performed or written text.
Through experimenting with performance throughout the MLitt Fine Art Practice course at The Glasgow School of Art (2022-2023) and through the study of English Literature at undergraduate level (with a focus on Renaissance Theatre), writing plays, and working with a theatre company, Ellen’s practice relies on various mediums and their intersections. Prevalent in all her work is a keen interest in the transitional state of performance, audiences, and the stage, as well as liminal, radical or collective spaces.
ellen.crofton@outlook.com
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i t e r a t i o n s is Ellen’s most current project and developing dance performance, in which she choreographs a state of repetition, tension, and unfolding; seeking iterations and rhythms in chaos.
With echoes of line dance, renaissance dance, and everyday gestures, Ellen moves between precision and disorder. What happens when we seek continuum and patterns in chaotic states within our bodies, our systems, or our communities? Perhaps the rhythms we find allow us to remain rooted in shapelessness.
i t e r a t i o n s is an offering or invitation – how can we collectively feel rooted when we dance in the chaos? And how can we use this as power against harmful systems or as a tool for protest?
This project was developed during the ATLAS program as part of ImPuls Tanz international dance festival 2025, with the help of mentor and choreographer Christopher Matthews.
“I was transported to another world. The rhythms really evolved and the use of breath made me really experience them physically” - Emma Harrison
‘Sounds of Shadow’ was a collaborative performance piece by Ellen and sound artist Max Bowen, performed as part of Traumburg Festival 2023, Germany.
If we unearth the spaces behind brown noise, between movement, motion, or the gaps underneath textures, we might be able to find a place of continuum; a space with no binaries. Perhaps it is the membranes within and around us that allow for these spaces: the queering of real and imaginary realms. Through a latex installation, choreography, and interactive sound, the performance piece ‘Sounds of Shadow’ sought to capture the liminal spaces behind, between, and within membranous states.
CV
Glasgow School of Art, MLitt Fine Art Practice (Distinction),2022 –2023
Art workshop lead and dance assistant, Indepen-dance, Glasgow, July 2025 - current
Creative Assistant, Impact Arts, Glasgow, Feb 2024 – May 2024
Creative Assistant, Raucous Theatre Company, Bristol, July-August 2021
i t e r a t i o n s, trio unison choreographed work-in-progress piece, Dance Base, Edinburgh, October 2025
i t e r a t i o n s, solo choreographed work-in-progress performance, French Street, Glasgow, August 2025
i t e r a t i o n s, choreographed and performed work as part of the studio sharing for the ATLAS Programme, ImPulsTanz, August 2025
Paraphrase, directed, choreographed, and performed as part of a group dance film project, Glasgow, April–December 2025
Continuous Shoreline, co-curated and participated in group exhibition and dance film, Hunter Saville Gallery, Millport, Cumbrae, May 2025
Flotsam, co-curated and participated in group exhibition, The House, Glasgow, October 2024
Exit Moving Image and Film Screening, group screening, Exit, Glasgow, March 2024
In Shadow She Falls, GSA Postgraduate Degree Show, solo performance and exhibition, Glasgow, August 2023
Weaving Bodies, group exhibition, The Hidden Gardens, Glasgow, July 2023
Sound of Shadow, choreographed and performed installation-based performance with sound artist Max Bowens, Traumburg Festival, Germany, July 2023
Salamanders, group exhibition, Salt Space, Glasgow, July 2023
Creative Reaction’s Showcase Project, group exhibition, The Alchemy Experiment, Glasgow, May 2023
Queer as Muck, group art show, ECA Fire Station, Edinburgh, March 2023
Title… Pending, choreographed performance with Felicity White and collaboration with sound artist Max Bowens, French Street, Glasgow, March 2023
Screw It, group exhibition, GSA, Glasgow, January 2023
Early Days Exhibition, group exhibition, GSA, Glasgow, December 2022
Uncomfortable Encounters, group exhibition, GSA, Glasgow, December 2022
Wrote short play Wait as part of BFI Film Academy Screenwriters Group, acted by Bristol School of Acting students, Watershed, Bristol, 2022
Umbra, performance and group exhibition, DareShack, Bristol, March 2021
I, Feminine, solo art show, PRSC, Bristol, January 2021
Sonder Spoken Word Nights, poetry performance, Bristol, 2021
Something Old, Something New, wrote and co-directed a short play, Bristol, 2019
May I Be Many, dance performance as part of Chhaya Youth Collective, U.Dance Southwest Region, 2018
Centre for Advanced Training Satellite Scheme, dance performance, The Place, London, 2017
Professional Contemporary Classes with Aya Kobayashi, weekly classes, Govanhill Queens Park Church, Glasgow, 2022–current
Workshop with Goddess Divine, The Work Room Studio, Glasgow, UK, November 2024
P.A.R.T.S Summer School, week-long intensive with Diane Madden and Rakesh Sukesh, P.A.R.T.S Studios, Brussels, Belgium, August 2024
Workshop with Nancy Jacinto, A Space for All Our Tomorrows, The Work Room Studio, Glasgow, UK, May 2024
Movement, Improvisation, and Exchange with Shotput, workshop, The Work Room Studio, Glasgow, UK, February 2023
Martha Graham Technique Class with Herbert DesLauriers, weekly classes, The Island Dance Space, Bristol, UK, 2022
Improvisation Session with Russell Maliphant, Excelsior Studios, London, UK, November 2021
Hofesh Schechter Autumn Professional Intensive, Siobhan Davies Studio, London, UK, November 2021
Russell Maliphant Company Online Classes, 2020–2021
Hofesh Schechter Online Classes, 2020
Chhaya Youth Collective, regular classes, Exeter Phoenix, Devon, UK, 2015–2018
Stop Gap Workshop, Pavilion Dance South West, Devon, UK, 2015
CAT Satellite Scheme, weekly intensives, The Point, Eastleigh, UK, 2014–2015
Bridport Youth Dance, weekly classes, Bridport Arts Centre, Devon, UK, 2010–2016
Ballet Grades 2–8, weekly classes, Lyme Regis, UK, 2010–2018
Review of 50 Cities 50 Traces @ The Vestibules, for Epigram, Bristol 2020
"Do we really feel like the end is coming?" - an interview with Rhum and Clay’s co-artistic director Julian Spooner, for Ed Fringe Review, 2019
Thunderstruck (by David Colvin) Review for Ed Fringe Review, August 2019
Children of the Quorn™ (Durham Revue) review for Ed Fringe Review, August 2019
The Comedy of Operas (Opera Doll Productions)review for Ed Fringe Review, August 2019
Drunk Lion (Chris Davis) review for Ed Fringe Review, August 2019
My Mother's Shoes (Karola Gajda) review for Ed Fringe Review, August 2019
Everything I See I Swallow (Shasha and Taylor Productions) review for Ed Fringe Review, Augst 2019
Eventide (The Mermaids Performing Arts Fund of University of St Andrews) review for Ed Fringe Review, August 2019
Herstory (Polly Clamorous) review for Ed Fringe Review, August 2019
Art and poetry submission, Helicon Magazine, ICON, Issue no.6 (July 2019)
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