Talking Moves Series 1 Episode 2: The Summer of the Zoom Class

Maria da Luz Ghoumrassi

Dancer, choreographer, educator and movement director

Maria da Luz Ghoumrassi works through multidisciplinary arts to develop intercultural performance and has extensive experience working with a diversity of groups ranging from early years to older dancers, including performers and people with disabilities.

She was in the original cast of The Lion King and has performed with various companies including TV work. She has recently performed for Tate Modern and The London College of Fashion.

She has worked for Greenwich Dance for over 10 years as artistic director of  our Performance Company for Adults, Lead artists for our Dance for Wellbeing programme,  Maria also delivers professional and community classes.

Wendy Steatham

Wendy is a professional dance artist and educator whose career has included roles as a performer, mass movement choreographer, movement and rehearsal director, teacher, lecturer, and company manager. Currently working primarily in education, she specialises in developing and supporting the delivery of the primary curriculum through dance and the performing arts. She works on the education teams of Trinity Laban and DanceEast and is a long-standing Mentor Leader and specialist with Artis Foundation. As a freelance education consultant her work regularly takes her to South Korea, where she trains teachers from across the country to enhance and develop their creative teaching skills.

Wendy’s roles as a dancer and choreographer have included work in film and theatre as well as in art galleries and stadiums. A highlight of her career was working as part of the Mass Movement team for the London Olympic and Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies in 2011 and 2012, a role which included co-leading the audition and rehearsal process and directing large-scale cast rehearsals.

Wendy was introduced to Lindy Hop back in 2002, while working at Greenwich Dance and observing the rehearsals of Temujin Gill and Sunanda Biswas. She went on to learn the technique and appreciate the rich history of this vibrant jazz dance through working alongside Temujin and Sunanda and their company Grounded Movement, which produces work inspired by African derived, social and street dance culture. She has been teaching Lindy Hop for the last decade and is passionate about sharing the history as well as skills of the dance form.