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Anoikis is a contemporary dance company dedicated to choreographic and electroacoustic research.  We are committed to performing radical new works that seek to explore the sense of rhizomatic shadow-space that exists between the accepted boundaries (cultural, social, political, economical, historical and psychological) of traditional artistic practice and consumption.  The company has presented work internationally since 2002 and is currently based in North Wales, UK. 

Melissa Pasut - Co-Artistic Director/Choreographer

Melissa is a contemporary dancer born in the United States where she began her dance training at age seven.  She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Dance Performance from the University of South Florida in Tampa, USA.  She has recently completed her Masters of Research in Choreography and Performance from Roehampton University in London.  She is beginning her PhD at Coventry University in 2023. 

 

She is dedicated to choreographic research and performing new works that constantly seek to confuse the traditional boundaries that exist between dance and other art practices. Towards this objective, she has collaborated with many visual artists, musicians and performers including: Aleksander Gabrys, Andrew Leslie Hooker, Toshimaru Nakamura, Stefano Pilia, John Duncan, Rachel Sweeney, Guillermo Luis Horta Betancourt, Joan Laage, and Sayoko Onishi and has performed new pieces throughout Europe and America.

She founded Anoikis in 2002 in Tampa, Florida and relocated in 2005 to Italy.  Alongside her inspirational husband and artistic partner Andrew Leslie Hooker, they have reshaped the objective and direction of the company, and since 2015 have been based in North Wales, UK.

 

In addition, she has held international workshops with both professional and non-professional dancers concerning contact improvisation and somatic practices.  She currently lectures in the dance program at Liverpool Hope University.

 

She has been funded by the Arts Council of Wales on a projects concerning butoh, contemporary dance and electroacoustic composition. 

Photo by Peter Griffiths 2016

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He is a filmmaker, photographer and composer/improvisor of no-input electroacoustic music currently living and working in North Wales. 

 

He has previously worked with photography and graphic-design in collaboration with various art, music and film publications, record labels and international dance and theatre companies.  He has exhibited his paintings, photographic works and experimental films in galleries throughout Europe and the United States and was included (as filmmaker) in the 49th Venice Biennale, contemporary music festival.

 

At the present time, he is studying for a PhD in composition at the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts - Leiden University in the Hague under Richard Barrett as well as working on several film, dance and composition projects.

Recent and current collaborators include: Gavin Bryars, Manuel Zurria/Alter Ego, Philip Jeck, John Duncan (All Questions), Valerio Tricoli (Pan), Jon Wozencroft (Touch), Cosey Fanni Tutti, Stefano Pilia, Fabio Carboni/Bruno Stucchi (Die Schachtel), Luciano Maggiore, Nico Vascellaris/Carlos Casas (Von Archives), Aleksander Gabrys, Seijiro Murayama, Melissa Pasut/Anoikis, 3/4HadBeenEliminated, Allon Kaye (Entr'acte) Giuseppe Ielasi, Penny Rimbaud, Eve Libertine, Anton Lukoszevieze, Phil Hargreaves, Edward Lucie-Smith, Achille Bonito Oliva, Rhodri Davies, Toshimaru Nakamura, Silvia Hinz, Richard Barrett and Graham Dunning.

His film works and compositions are published by Entr'acte, Dinzu Artefacts, The Silent Howl, Korobushka Records and others. 

Venues/art spaces that collaborate with Anoikis

Capel y Graig

The Gwenfrewi Project

Past Collaborators

Toshimaru Nakamura

Emmanuel Fleitz

Rachel Sweeney 

Sayoko Onishi

Eden Augustine Hooker

Chiara Gamberini

John Duncan

Aleksander Gabrys

Pasquale Massero

Stefano Pilia

Leah Marke

Alex Pasut

Rick Olsen

Amy Tattersall

Elsa Valbuena

Jon Briggs

Monica Pasut

Leah Ratliff-Pinder

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