Davies, Siobhan Susan (1950- )

English choreographer and dancer. She was a founding member of the London Contemporary Dance Theatre (LCDT) in 1967 and became its resident choreographer 1983-87, continuing as associate choreographer 1988-93. She is the founder and director of Siobhan Davies and Dancers (1981), and her Siobhan Davies Dance Company was launched at the 1998 Dance Umbrella festival. Her style is modernist or postmodern, sometimes cool and intense as in Bridge the Distance (1985), sometimes fleet and rhythmic, exploring relationships in space and dynamics.

Other noteworthy pieces include Celebration (1978), Something to Tell (1980), Embarque (1988 for the Rambert Dance Company, revived in 1997-98), Different Trains (1990), Wanting to Tell Stories (1993), Bank (1997), Eighty Eight (1998), and Plants and Ghosts (2002).

After early works that used little costume or set, her works for the Siobhan Davies Dance Company have increasingly exploited strong production values, collaborating with designers, composers, and musicians.

From 1981 Davies moved out into the independent dance world, establishing Siobhan Davies and Dancers and co-founding Second Stride with Ian Spink (leaving him to be the sole director in 1987). She stopped dancing in 1983, and in 1987 undertook the first Fulbright Fellowship in Choreography to make a study trip to America. She is the recipient of several awards, including Olivier Awards in 1993 (for Winnsboro' Cotton Mills for the Rambert Dance Company) and 1996 (for The Art of Touch for her own company). She was awarded an MBE in 1995.