Scottish Dance Theatre is a British contemporary dance

Contemporary dance

Contemporary dance is a genre of concert dance that employs compositional philosophy, rather than choreography, to guide unchoreographed movement...

 company based at Dundee Repertory Theatre

Dundee Repertory Theatre

Dundee Repertory Theatre or Dundee Rep is a theatre and arts company in the city of Dundee, Scotland. It operates as both a producing house - staging at least six of its own productions each year, and a receiving house - hosting work from visiting companies throughout Scotland and the United...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

The company

Scottish Dance Theatre is led by Artistic Director Janet Smith, who is a vital contributor to its choreographic repertoire. The company also performs work by a diverse range of internationally recognised and emerging choreographers and regularly tours throughout the UK and internationally. In 2003 SDT won the prestigious Critics' Circle National Dance Award

Critics' Circle National Dance Awards

The National Dance Awards are presented annually in the United Kingdom by The Critics' Circle, and are awarded to recognise excellence in professional dance...

 for Outstanding Company Repertoire (Modern) and also won a Herald Angel Award for its performance of Liv Lorent's Luxuria at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Scottish Dance Theatre performed in Cyprus and Athens during the summer of 2008, before returning to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August. In November 2009 the company toured to Dubai and China before continuing its UK Autumn tour. In 2010 the company has performed again at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has toured across Holland and to Milan.

Scottish Dance Theatre was founded by Royston Maldoom in 1986 as the Dundee Rep Dance Company.

Scottish Dance Theatre is a part of RepNet, a network which currently brings together 5 repertoire/commissioning dance companies of similar size and circumstance from five North European countries to mutually support, strengthen and enhance their work through the exchange of experience, sharing and learning. The member companies are Skanes Dansteater (Sweden), Carte Blanche (Norway), Iceland Dance Company, nordwest/Tanzcompagnie Oldenburg & Tanztheater Bremen (Germany) and Scottish Dance Theatre.

Artistic director

Janet Smith has been Artistic Director of Scottish Dance Theatre since 1997 and has created 5 works for the company — Playfall (1998), Song of Songs (1999), Still (1999), Highland (2001) and Forty Minutes (2004). In Spring 2006, she co-directed MONKEY, a hugely successful first collaboration between Dundee Rep Ensemble and SDT. She has also restaged Chiaroscuro and Touching Zulu for the company and more recently co-directed NQR (Not Quite Right) (2010) with Caroline Bowditch and Marc Brew. Smith began her dance and drama training at Dartington College of Arts and continued dance studies in the US where she created and toured 2 solo programmes before forming Janet Smith and Dancers. The company toured nationally and internationally for over 12 years, visiting Europe, the Middle and Far East. She has worked as a freelance performer with London Contemporary Dance Theatre and Rosemary Butcher (amongst others) and has worked internationally choreographing for companies including The Playhouse Company (South Africa), Batsheva Dance Company

Batsheva Dance Company

The Batsheva Dance Company is an internationally acclaimed dance company based in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was founded by Martha Graham and Baroness Batsheva De Rothschild in 1964....

 (Israel), Cisne Negra (Brazil) and Dance Theatre of Freiburg (Germany). She created children's works for English National Ballet and Janet Smith and Dancers and also worked in opera and theatre including the Royal Shakespeare Company

Royal Shakespeare Company

The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...

. Her work concerns people, culture, community and identity. She works collaboratively, drawing inspiration from individual dancers as well as the world around her.

In January 2009 Smith was awarded the Jane Attenborough Dance UK Dance Industry Award for her lifelong contribution to the art form.