Following the sold out première performance at the Royal Ballet and Opera, Fallen Angels Dance Theatre brings its powerful new production Holding Light to Storyhouse and Liverpool Everyman Theatre. 

At the heart of Fallen Angels is a powerful mission, creating extraordinary dance theatre performed by artists with lived experience of addiction and mental health recovery. Their work brings a rawness and authenticity to the stage, breaking down stigma and celebrating personal resilience through powerful physical storytelling.   

Crafted over six months of collaboration between the dancers and creative team, Holding Light explores light as both a partner on stage and a metaphor for recovery and hope. The evening weaves together three distinct creative perspectives.  

Created by an award-winning company in collaboration with internationally celebrated choreographer Russell Maliphant, International dance artist Alice Godfrey, our own Artistic Director Paul Bayes Kitcher, and sound composer Feri Gyemant, this immersive production blends powerful movement, evocative soundscapes, and compelling physical storytelling.   

Authentic, moving, and uplifting, Holding Light invites audiences to witness stories that are often unseen, offering a deeply memorable evening of dance, hope and healing. 

Welcome to Holding Light, a one-of-a-kind performance that offers an unforgettable journey of healing and hope. Fallen Angels returns to the Royal Opera House before touring to Storyhouse and Liverpool Everyman in autumn this year. 

Holding Light is a moving and visually striking evening of dance that shines a light on narratives of addiction, recovery, resilience and hope. Created in collaboration with internationally celebrated choreographer Russell Maliphant, international dance artist Alice Godfrey and sound composer Feri Gyemant, this immersive production blends powerful movement, evocative soundscapes and compelling physical storytelling. 

Holding Light is dedicated to our dear friend and patron Robert Fox, whose kindness and unwavering support remain at the heart of Fallen Angels Dance Theatre. 

On behalf of everyone at Fallen Angels Dance Theatre, we thank him for his friendship, his belief in our mission and the light he brought to our community. 

Robert Fox will always remain in the heart of Fallen Angels. 

Become evolved through improvisation, creative exploration and collaborative dialogue with the dancers. Guided by Alice Godfrey’s ongoing interest in movement, the mystical and the spiritual connections that unite us as humans, the creative process centred on reconnecting with authentic ways of being through the body. Through collective investigation, dancers explored repetition, rhythm, shared intention and the relationship between individual and group experience. Drawing on imagery, physical tasks and intuitive response, movement material emerged organically, shaping a playful and otherworldly landscape. 

Choreographer: Alice Godfrey  

Dancers:    

Jo Freeman, Arianna Sansone, Gus Sullivan, Tom Denbigh, Hayden Etienne, Chellie Hughes, Aleksei Ryaguzov, Joshua Thompson, Debbie Whipp, Nicola Williams. 

Duration: 15 minutes 

Guidance: NA 

Beside, evolved through physical investigation, deep listening, curiosity, and dialogue. Guided by Russell Maliphant’s distinctive approach to the body using experiential anatomy and embodied movement, dancers explored relationships between parts of their body, listening with awareness to themselves and others, in movement and through space. During this process, a structure for performance emerged organically, allowing individual expression and collective connection to coexist. Lighting is an important collaborator in Russell’s process for this piece he collaborated with KJ Lighting Design. 

Duration: 13 minutes 

Guidance: NA 

Choreographer: Russell Maliphant  

Dancers:    

Jo Freeman, Arianna Sansone, Gus Sullivan, Tom Denbigh, Hayden Etienne, Chellie Hughes, Aleksei Ryaguzov, Joshua Thompson, Debbie Whipp, Nicola Williams,    

Belong, emerges from Artistic Director Paul Bayes Kitcher’s lived experience that addiction begins in the silent spaces where love and connection are absent, and survival becomes the  

body’s first choreography.  

Belong follows a journey from fragmentation to integration, revealing that healing is not found by escaping the darkness, but by turning towards it with awareness and compassion. This is an invitation to witness the possibility that even our deepest wounds can become a source of strength, and through connection, we can breathe, begin again, discover our true nature and the wholeness that has always been waiting within us.  

Duration: 11 minutes 

Guidance: This work contains references to addiction, mental health challenges, emotional distress, and periods of personal hardship, alongside themes of hope and recovery. 

Choreographer: Paul Bayes Kitcher and Dancers   

Dancers:    

Jo Freeman, Arianna Sansone, Gus Sullivan, Hayden Etienne, Joshua Thompson, Aleksei Ryaguzov, Chellie Hughes, Debbie Whipp, Nicola Williams.

Lighting Design: KJ Lighting Design  

Sound composition: Feri Gyemant  

Costume design and make: Alena Kudera  

Audio Description: Dann Parr  

Audience Access Assets: Emily O’Shea collaboration with RBO audiences’ team  

Producer: Claire Morris  

Marketing: Caitlin Madeley  

PR: Sara Tieger  

Stage Manager: Georgia Leech  

FADT Company administration support: Jennifer Kelley and Marie Gibbons  

Engagement Support: Laura Mutch, Jude Miller  

Film documentary: Canteen Create  

Photography Credits: Point of View Photography  

Artistic credit: “Here I Rise Poem” Written by Victoria Carroll  

Paul trained at Royal Ballet School White Lodge, Central School of Ballet and Rambert School. His first professional experience was with Scottish Ballet and then Birmingham Royal Ballet where he became a soloist & had the privilege of working with world-renowned choreographers such as Michael Corder, David Bintley, Sir Peter Wright and Sir Kenneth Macmillan who created roles for him.   

In 2009 Paul began teaching within addiction recovery rehabilitation settings alongside developing his artistic practice, which led to him to co-founding Fallen Angels Dance Theatre in 2011. Today he creates professional work alongside delivering participatory projects within criminal justice, recovery rehabilitation and community settings, and is an inspirational public speaker 

Arianna Sansone is an Italian dance artist, performer and movement facilitator based in Liverpool. She holds an MA in Theatre and Dance Research from Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna and an MA in Dance Practices from Liverpool John Moores University. During her time in Bologna, she also worked with choreographer Virgilio Sieni. Since 2020, Arianna has developed and presented digital and live performances across the Northwest of England and Italy. She is an active member of Liverpool’s dance community, teaching at 24 Hope Street Collective and collaborating with local artists, including Noel Jones and Rowena Gander. Arianna joined Fallen Angels Dance Theatre in 2022 and has since worked across the company’s creative projects and several pieces as a performer and workshop leader, drawn to the company’s approach to dance as a space for self-expression and exploring lived experiences. 

Joanna Freeman is a Contemporary Dance Artist, Choreographer and Teacher who trained at Rambert School of Contemporary Dance. She has worked with some of the most renowned UK choreographers such as Kenrick H20 Sandy, Kevin Edward Turner, Becky Namguads and many more. Since graduating from her Master’s in professional performance and Practices at Salford University, she explored Dance as a form of therapy for Mental Health. This led her to Fallen Angels Dance Theatre where she could not only help those in recovery but express a more authentic side in embracing her own recovery journey from addiction 

Chellie Hughes first encountered Fallen Angels as an NHS worker, where she encouraged local people on their recovery journey to engage in the community activity at Storyhouse. She has a genetic disorder which has led to severe sight loss, through her medical retirement, she lost her confidence and reached out to FADT to attend the local community group. Chellie explains that for her in the studio with the dancer is the only time in the week she feels “normal” instead of her disability. This is the first time Chellie is a recovery artist with Fallen Angels Dance Theatre. 

Nicola Williams was born in and now lives in the Wirral. She has always enjoyed dance and moving to music as it helps her to regulate her emotions and provides a point of escapism throughout her life. Nicola has bi-polar disorder and has been creatively recovering from some severe episodes for the past few years. She met Fallen Angels Dance Theatre in Liverpool through her involvement in drama with Collective Encounters – Theatre for Social Change. Speaking to audiences that have been moved following dance performances she has been part of highlighting the importance of recovery-based performances and have made her feel she has contributed to something worthwhile. Nicola has been a recovery artist for FADT since 2023 Traces through Time. 

Joshua Thompson, began his journey with Fallen Angels in 2023, where he was supported to attend FADT originally by a friend already attending the Chester group activity, he was very quiet, timid, and experiencing challenges with mental health, he is autistic, and has fibromyalgia. He became a Fallen Angels recovery artist during the Royal Ballet & New Note Orchestra Creative Exchange collaboration, has been a featured recovery artist with Samadhi digital production and Chains of Connectivity last year. Holding Light is the first opportunity for Josh to realise a solo role. 

Gus Sullivan has danced from a young age, he has trained through the Lowry CAT: Centre for Advanced training, then went onto Liverpool community college and Rambert School. He joined Fallen Angels initially in 2017 and performed at Blackpool UK Recovery Walk “Hell Can Wait”, then rejoined the company in 2021, since then he has become a volunteer workshop assistant, and a recovery artist performing in “Inertia” through the Royal Ballet Creative Exchange with New Note Orchestra, and solo roles in “Chains of Connectivity” and now Holding Light. He has is working towards becoming an independent dance artist, with mentoring support from FADT alongside this he is performing for Cheshire Dance and independently working on a L4 qualification with the Foundation for Community Dance. 

Hayden Ettiene discovered dance at 25, beginning with evening classes before training at Laban, London Studio Centre, and the Rambert School. He later travelled to Cuba to study with the Cuban National Ballet and Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, but was forced to return to England during political tensions in the early 1990s. The experience led him to step away from dance, and by 1996 he had left the profession behind. After years spent raising a family and working as a support worker, Hayden faced challenges with his mental health and was encouraged to reconnect with community groups. Finding Fallen Angels Dance Theatre reignited his passion for movement and creativity. Today, he credits Fallen Angels with helping him rediscover his love of dance and embrace a new appreciation for both contemporary dance and ballet. 

Tom Denbigh is an army veteran, a husband, dad and grandad, he brings a wealth of “recovery” life experience and wisdom to the Holding Light team. He met FADT at Tate Liverpool in 2018 and is a member or the Fallen Angels Liverpool hub. He has been a Recovery artist since 2021 featuring in the Transfiguration films, Traces through Time, Samadhi & Chains of Connectivity. He has a keen interest in embodied movement and has adopted practices into his morning routine inspired by the development training including international choreographer Russell Maliphant. 

Debbie Whipp joined Fallen Angels Liverpool Hub in March 2023, through an outreach opportunity at Spider Project in Birkenhead, this sparked her interest, having a passion for performing arts and drama, Debbie has been a Fallen Angels Recovery Artist through Royal Ballets’ Creative Exchange which led to being a featured dancer in Samadhi, & Chains of Connectivity. Debbie is developing a career in arts administration, she has professional experience in administration and is currently the secretary of addiction recovery arts magazine “Performing Recovery”, through this project she continues to be mentored by FADT. Debbie is also a member of the Artist in Recovery Steering group at Liverpool Everyman Theatre.  

Aleksei Ryaguzov joined the Fallen Angels Liverpool hub in 2025. His journey with movement began 5–6 years ago, during the pandemic, when he discovered the 5Rhythms practice. Before then, he felt unable to dance at all: feeling stiff, shy, self-conscious, and stuck in overthinking. 

Over time, movement transformed him from feeling like a “wooden statue” to being able to move freely. Rediscovering movement has been a liberation of mind, body, soul, and the living spirit within, helping him navigate difficult chapters of life. 

Dance has become both therapy and expression. Joining Fallen Angels has expanded his creativity, Holding light is his 2nd production as a recovery artist.  

Content guidance: Holding Light has been created to advance the movement practices of artists in recovery. Belong includes references to overcoming addiction and mental health challenges. 

Arts Council England, Ernest Hecht Charitable Trust, The Linbury Trust and The Big Give Art for Impact Fund and Campaign supporters 

www.fallenangelsdt.org