Phil Sanger
Collaborator
Phil Sanger is a doctoral student at Guildford School of Acting, part of Surrey University, researching autobiographical dance performance and using life coaching as a creative medium. He is also a self-producing artist, performer, choreographer, teacher, and life coach.
He trained in Yorkshire (Barnsley College: Electric Theatre and The Northern School of Contemporary Dance), where he worked with choreographers such as Fin Walker, Hofesh Schector, Kim Brandstrup and Janet Smith. He went on to perform with Slanjayvah Danza and Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company before joining Phoenix Dance Theatre in 2009 where he performed over 20 works by choreographers such as Ivgi & Greben, Isira Makuloluwe, Philip Taylor, Charlotte Vincent, Richard Alston, Aletta Collins, Darshan Singh Bhuller, and Douglas Thorpe. Whilst with Phoenix he appeared in and provided choreographic assistance to BBC Threeʼs ‘Frankensteins Weddingʼ, and appeared in the BBC mini-series ‘Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrellʼ.
Returning to the freelance world in 2014 he collaborated and performed with Rui Horta, Vincent Dance Theatre, Yorke Dance Project, Ms Madelin Shann, Green Screen Productions and Denada Dance Theatre. During this time he was awarded a Dancers Career Development Retraining Grant allowing him to become a certified life coach. Then, between 2016 and 2023, he was a faculty member at NSCD where he developed and lead a wide range of modules, choreographed many works for assessment and public performance, and worked on several student recruitment campaigns in Asia, America and Europe.
Throughout this time, and with regular support from Arts Council England, Phil has continued to enjoy producing and leading multiple independent projects, touring productions and artist development programmes which have addressed social themes and advocated for better representation in the sector. In 2021 he became the Arts Council Englandʼs Transform Clore Fellow for inclusion in leadership and in 2022 he set up Ramped, an inclusive performance company dedicated to creating and protecting employment opportunities for underrepresented groups.
Phil has a long-standing relationship with VDT and is excited to be collaborating again on this archive project which also supports his own research.