My Story

My journey into the Arts began when I obtained my BA (Hons) at Central St. Martins, followed by an Arts Council Bursary to design at West Yorkshire Playhouse.  1978-80 I was Resident Designer at the Leicester Haymarket Theatre, followed by Bristol Old Vic from 1980-82 and from there until 1987 Head of Design at Derby Playhouse.  I designed 54 shows in these four venues including twelve premiers of new writing- ‘Love Bites’ by the late Antony Mingella as well as numerous classics like ‘The Country Wife’ and ‘Julius Caesar.

As a freelancer from 1987 I designed many plays and musicals for a variety of theatres including; West Yorkshire Playhouse, Plymouth Theatre Royal, Greenwich Theatre, Liverpool Playhouse, Leicester Haymarket, Manchester Library, Nuffield Theatre Southampton, Rada, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Arts Education to name but a few! I also taught at Central St. Martins, Camberwell School of Art, Richmond Adult Education College, RADA, Guildhall, Arts Ed and Goldsmith University.

Dance and aerial credits include many shows at Saddlers Wells, The Purcel Rooms, Queen Elizabeth Hall, also for companies as diverse as RJC, Kokuma, Shobana Jeyasingh, Richard Alston Dance Co, London Contemporary Dance, Yolande Snaith Dance, Imlata, Janet Smith and Dancers, Jazz Exchange, rap artist Jonzi D, Kwaesi Johnson, Bharata Natya dancer Nina Rajarani, Hip Hop Collective, Lindy Hopper Tenujin Gill (co-choreographer for the olympic opening ceremony), Circus Space, Candoco, Scarabeus as well as Cirque Bijou.

Theatre

“a midsummer night’s dream” for derby playhouse “hijra” for west yorkshire playhouse “the resistible rise of arturo ui” for derby playhouse “aeroplane man” for jonzi d at the festival hall and tour “love bites” by anthony minghella for derby playhouse

Dance

“rumours visions” for richard alston dance company at aldeburgh festival “beneath the skin” by jonathan lunn for london contemporary dance “romance with footnotes” for shobana jeyasingh “the event” at three mills island for circus space “crazy spirit” for phoenix dance/rjc dance peacock theatre and tour

Events

“wimbledon winners dinner” intercontinental hotel, hyde park “zurich incentive conference” mauritius “more” philips 4 day team-building event, shanghai “ford mondeo” launch, paris motor show “shift-circus” nissan, highclere castle

Design and creative direction for over 150 corporate events, for clients which included Toyota, Renault, Opel, Ford, Nissan, Whirlpool, EMI, Halifax, Standard Life, Zuric, Sunlife, Motorola, Vodafone, Orange, BT, NTL, JMC, B&Q, Xerox, Masterfoods, Evans, Mckinsey, Dorothy Perkins & Burton Group, EON, and Rightmove.

Teaching Contracts included, corporate team building workshops with: EON, Rightmove and Central St.Martins. Also spending four years as a tutor on a theatre design degree course, and six years as foundation course leader at RADA, Guildhall, Goldsmith and Trent University.

© 2023 Belinda Ackermann