1991 – Candoco Dance Company

Celeste Dandeker-Arnold was a dancer with London Contemporary Dance Theatre who became a quadriplegic following an accident on stage that broke her neck. She subsequently studied costume design at Croydon College of Art. In 1991, she co-founded Candoco Dance Company with Adam Benjamin as the result of productive workshops in association with London’s Aspire Centre for Spinal Injury. Benjamin studied dance and Fine Art at Middlesex Polytechnic before meeting Dandeker-Arnold. The company was the first professional company for disabled and non-disabled dancers in Britain, working with the ethos that artists with different perspectives and experiences only enrich dance. The choice to commission works by international choreographers such as Javier de Frutos, Doug Elkins, Siobhan Davies, Darshan Singh Bhuller, and Stephen Petronio reflects Dandeker-Arnold’s intention that Candoco Dance Company should be judged as a dance company and not as a therapeutic project. Ben Wright and founding company member Charlotte Darbyshire became artistic co-directors in 2018, followed by Dominic Mitchell and Raquel Meseguer Zafe.