I make dance and theatre works for live performance and film. I create pieces that connect emotionally with their audience, offering moments of beauty, joy, acceptance, and connection. I often work with real-world themes, stories, and history, using dance to express sub-text and unspoken emotions.
I advocate for wellbeing and equity in the dance industry. I believe dance artists deserve health, happiness, financial security and comfort. (Image credit: Imran Uppal)
Press
“Lott creates a real tour-de-force. The dancers appear to float and hover weightlessly… a striking and well-matched couple who pull this off with much panache.”
DAVID BELLAN, YORK PRESS
“a great sense of direction and clarity to the piece with moments of perfect balance – an absorbing performance with some real innovation of choreography.”
JESS RYAN-PHILLIPS, OXFORD DANCE WRITERS
Commissions and Festivals
UNFURL
A gallery of dance film portraits without a choreographer.
Three dancers from around the globe filmed themselves improvising on themes of connection, joy and kindness. Joe Lott edited their improvisations to create a portrait of each dancer. Moments of movement are playfully layered, interwoven and dissolved.
Improvisation and filming by Tingting Yang, Bonnie Simons, and Karni Ishai
Direction and editing by Joe Lott
Commissoned by Offbeat Festival Online, supported by Old Fire Station, Playhouse Oxford, Burton Taylor Studio, Oxford Dance Forum
EXTRA-VEHICULAR ACTIVITY
A dance theatre show about the NASA moon missions of the 1960s, following two astronauts in their flight preparations. Our narrator reflects on this historic event, frontiers, presidential pressure, the colonial mind-set, and the indigenous American experience. An uplifting, emotive show with a plot twist.
Directed by Joe Lott
Choreographed by Joe Lott and the performers; Helen Wadge, Nad’a Saadoonova, and Isaura Barbe-Brown
Written and performed by Isaura Barbe-Brown
Commissioned by Pegasus Theatre and Dancin’ Oxford Festival, with additional funding from Arts Council England, SouthEast Dance, Wayne Macgregor Studios, Basement Theatre Brighton, and Kickstarter supporters
ALPHA
A dance theatre show that compassionately shines a light on the nuances, pressures, fears and desires of modern masculinity.
Incorporating verbatim interviews alongside text and themes from the original Robocop movie, Alpha is surprising, touching, and subtly bold.
Directed by Joe Lott
Dramaturgy: Thomas JM Wilson
Choreography by Joe Lott and the Dancers
Dancers: Oscar Lake Thomas, Rachel Gildea, Thomas JM Wilson, Helen Wadge
Commissioned by Pegasus Theatre, Oxford