HANDLE [me] WITH CARE

Noémie Soula - Direction & Research

Noémie Soula is an emerging French artist and creative practitioner. She is currently appointed as a design research assistant at Lab4Living, Sheffield Hallam, University, UK. Her research interests sit at the crossroad between art and health, notably looking at what defines us as humans. Her practice-based research explores the tacit relationships and interactions between humans by employing artistic methods such as photography, sculpture, and performance.

Handle [Me] With Care project is part of the research focus on the 100 years-life and the Future Home at Lab4Living funded by Research England.

Lucy Haighton - Choreography & Research

Lucy Haighton is an independent dance artist, choreographer, performer, movement director, and community dance practitioner based in Sheffield, UK.

Her artistic practice is interdisciplinary, spanning live performance, film, and site-specific. She devises work collaboratively working in dance and theatre, sound and material design, visual art, and film. Never a ‘lecture in disguise’, her work is consistently charming and playful, and challenges audiences by gently posing questions through storytelling.

Lucy is the Artistic Director of Third Bite Dance, an over 50’s contemporary dance company in Sheffield making work that defies expectations of the ageing body. This company was developed from 50+ Contemporary Dance Sheffield which Lucy founded in 2019.

Sarah Hobson - Dancer

Sarah 'SHE' Hobson is a professional dancer, choreographer, and tutor. Originating as a Hip Hop artist, Sarah has spent a great deal of time honing her craft training in styles such as contemporary, jazz, commercial, and African. She holds a BA (Hons) degree in dance and still regularly trains to stay knowledgeable within her field.

Working as a freelance artist Sarah spends a great deal of her time choreographing for different companies and events across the UK, as well as performing regularly within the theatre and commercial industry. She has created award-winning choreography and has worked with many people in the industry. Her credits include Jonzi D, Boy Blue Ents, DecaDance, Rationale Productions, Balbir Singh Dance, MTV, Corinne Bailey Rae, and Hype Dance.

Chris Brayford - Dancer

Chris Brayford is a movement artist, choreographer, and performer from Sheffield UK. His performance career began in Breakdance, where he performed and competed in various events such as 'Dope and Mean', 'Break Mission', 'Phat Beats' and 'Uni Champs'. This gave him gateways into other performance jobs such as 'Sheffield Chinese Lion Dance' and various music videos, whilst also performing at 'Alton Towers' as part of Scare Fest.

Whilst studying for his degree, Brayford developed a love for choreography and started creating work that would later be performed in a public setting. In 2016 Brayford founded 'Jago Movement' a dance theatre company based in Sheffield, UK fusing his generalist approach towards movement and art. He later went on to create his debut piece 'Cruel Creatures' in 2017 and later 'Copper: The Age of Loneliness' in 2018.

Matteo Bandi - Music & Sound Design

Matteo Bandi is an emerging Italian multi-disciplinary designer based in the UK. His curiosity pushes him to explore and define the emotional experiences of objects, technologies, and sounds around us. He is currently working as a designer at Special Projects, an award-winning product design and innovation studio based in London. While collaborating on both speculative and commercial innovation projects with clients such as Google AI, Sonos, Fitbit, the Royal College of Art, and More, Matteo runs his practice with a focus on music production and sound design for films, installations, and other creative projects.