Assault Events Team

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Artistic Director (dance)

Sandie Fisher co founded Assault Events in 1996 with Sophy Smith through a mutual interest in the creative possibilities of collaborative arts work. In her role as co - Artistic Director of the company Sandie has choreographed and directed all of the company's work, as well as performing in several of the pieces. Sandie together with Sophy drives the artistic vision of the company and spends much of her time creating and developing performance projects and ensuring that Assault has strong partnerships as well as a solid collaborative team of artists specialising in different art forms.

Sandie has held several Artist in Residence posts in Higher Education institutions; Leeds University College Bretton Hall, De Montfort University, Leicester and most recently at University of Ulster, Londonderry, Northern Ireland, where she assisted in the development of a new dance degree programme and is currently developing dance performance and outreach projects across Northern Ireland.

During the early days of the company Sandie gained valuable experience in managing, supporting and delivering dance and performance projects whilst working for The National Dance Agency Dance 4, and Dance Agency Cornwall. She completed her MA in Contemporary Performing Arts at Leeds University College, Bretton Hall in 1997. Sandie has held several Artist in Residence posts in Higher Education institutions; Leeds University College Bretton Hall, De Montfort University, Leicester and University of Ulster, Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Sandie is currently dance lecturer at University of Ulster and coordinates the outreach programme, 'Satellite'. Sandie's research at the University of Ulster focuses on professional collaborative arts practice.

Artistic Director (music)

Sophy Smith, together with Sandie Fisher, founded Assault Events in 1996. As Co-director of Assault she has, in collaboration with Sandie and the company created, each of the Company's touring productions.

Sophy's artistic work has an inter-disciplinary focus and as an international composer and performer of electronic music, she writes extensively for dance and theatre performances. These have ranged from soundtracks for full length touring shows to music-theatre premieres for The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. As well as composition for dance theatre, commissions have also included work on advertisements, TV documentaries, short films, live music performances and commercially released albums.

Sophy is also dedicated to the development of creative learning practices and the development of a more creative curriculum and, on behalf of the company, has completed a number of education-based research consultancies. Sophy completed her MA in Contemporary Performing Arts at Leeds University College Bretton Hall in 1997, and was awarded a PhD in hip-hop from De Montfort University, Leicester in 2006.

Sophy is also researcher at the Institute of Creative Technologies (IOCT) at De Montfort University, Leicester where her current research focuses on inter/multi/transdisciplinary collaboration, primarily, but not restricted to professional arts practice as well as the creative uses of social media. Sophy is Programme Leader for the IOCT’s innovative transdisciplinary Masters in Creative Technologies (MA/MSc), working with students at the convergence of the e-sciences and digital arts and humanities.

Collaborators

Assault Events are specialists in collaborative work, each project is a product of innovative collaboration between artists from a range of disciplines. Our core collaborators bring their expertise and vision to each Assault project to help invent and produce exciting and engaging work.

Some of Our Collaborators