1998 – Yorke Dance Project founded

Since its inception in 1998 by Yolande Yorke-Edgell, Yorke Dance Project has had a transatlantic flavour. Yorke-Edgell first worked professionally with Extemporary Dance Theatre, a venture established in 1976 by students of London Contemporary Dance School, directed by Geoff Powell and subsequently Emilyn Claid. Yorke-Edgell then joined Rambert Dance Company under the direction of Richard Alston and Christopher Bruce before moving to Los Angeles in 1994 to dance with the Lewitzky Dance Company. She opened Yorke Dance Project there in 1998, presenting her own choreographic work alongside those from other Los Angeles and Britain.

The choreographer later returned to Britain and danced in Adam Cooper’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses before subsequently touring with Richard Alston Dance Company in 2006. In 2009, Edgell relaunched Yorke Dance Project in the UK, striving to reflect her career straddling both sides of the Atlantic by creating and presenting work in both the UK and United States of America whilst supporting and nurturing young artists. Yorke Dance Project reconstructed Kenneth MacMillan’s Sea of Troubles as part of the 2017 celebrations of the choreographer’s work. The company also featured Macmillan’s Playground in the 20th anniversary tour program in 2019 alongside works by Robert Cohan and Sophia Stoller, and in 2024 revived a version of MacMillan’s Isadora, as well as choreography by Martha Graham and Bella Lewitzky.