MEET THIS YEAR'S DEBUT CHOREOGRAPHERS - Northern School of Contemporary Dance Northern School of Contemporary Dance

Antonio Bukhar Ssebuuma

Antonio is an award-winning performer, choreographer, and teacher from Uganda. His movement blends Hip-hop, breaking, afro-fusion, and indigenous Ugandan dances.

He primarily learned dance through peer-to-peer, informal dance communities in Uganda. His career took off after winning the first national dance championship in Uganda. He has since laid the foundation for several arts initiatives, including Breakdance Project Uganda, Tabu Flo Dance Company, and has served as co-artistic Director of Kuenda Production since 2014, a Germany–Uganda–Zimbabwe initiative.

Antonio was awarded the Pina Bausch Fellowship in 2017 as a visiting dance scholar at the University of Auckland and the Caroline Plummer Community Dance Fellowship at the University of Otago in 2019. These experiences bridged his street-based community arts practice with academia.

With over 15 years of experience, Antonio has worked across diverse cultural, artistic, and social contexts, including disadvantaged communities in orphanages and refugee centres. He has performed in renowned theatres such as Sadler’s Wells in London and worked with other academic institutions, including Makerere University, Codarts Dance Centre, Pacifika Institute of Performing Arts, and the Norwegian College of Dance, sharing his work across four continents.

Hannah Bateman

Hannah was born in Surrey and started dancing at her local dance school when she was 3. She trained at Central School of Ballet and received her first professional contract at 19, working for The Israel Ballet, dancing in works by Cranko, Balanchine, Krzysztof Pastor, and as a member of the Corps de Ballet in Sleeping Beauty and Coppelia.

In 2002, she joined Northern Ballet under the directorship of David Nixon and the training of Yoko Ichino and worked her way up the ranks to Principal Soloist. Whilst at Northern Ballet, she danced in all current repertoire including creating roles such as Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby, Jane in the Southbank SkyArts Award-nominated ballet Jane Eyre by Cathy Marston, and roles in multi-award wining works by Kenneth Tindall including Henriette in Casanova and Geisha Mother in Geisha.

Hannah toured across the world with Northern Ballet, performing in the opening night at the Beijing Opera House (National Centre for the Performing Arts) as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, she performed in the Kenneth McMillian celebrations at the Royal Opera House in Gloria and performed soloist and principal roles in works by Nixon, Marston, Morricome, Tindall, Watkins and Hampson. She received much critical acclaim throughout her career, notably for her performance as Ondine in Ondine, and as the Lead couple in Hans Van Manen’s Concertante. She performed in the Production Prize-winning Project 1 at the International Choreographic Competition in Hanover, and has performed at MOMO Paris, Tate St Ives and Frieze Art Fair in work collaborated and curated by Linder Sterling, Kenneth Tindall, Pam Hogg, Christopher Shannon and Richard Nicol.

Hannah retired from the stage in 2021 and joined the teaching team at NSCD soon after.

Bruce Wong

Bruce Wong is a Hong Kong–born dance artist, choreographer and educator, currently a Lecturer at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance (UK). He holds a BFA from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and an MFA from Hollins University, supported by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund.

Wong worked with City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC) for over two decades as a dancer, choreographer and rehearsal director, performing internationally across Asia, Europe and North America. His choreographic works include Re/dis-connect (2013), How to become… (2015), Why Not Kill Us All… (2017), Stay/Away (2020, co-created with Frankie Ho), and Listen Carefully (2021). Why Not Kill Us All… received the Outstanding Medium Venue Production award at the Hong Kong Dance Awards, and Stay/Away received the Outstanding Small Venue Production award.

Alongside his company work, he has collaborated across music, theatre and opera as a performer, choreographer and movement coach. He is also an award-winning practitioner of traditional Chinese martial arts.