Hayley J S Matthews Biography
Hayley J S Matthews is a multidisciplinaire; a contemporary dancer, Rolfer, flutist, vocalist, teacher, speaker and feminist re-wilder.
She makes territories of dance, moving image and ambient metal music as Murmura, with husband Al H M Simmons. She creates and dances solos, ensembles and movements as Ensemble Dans-Tank. And works as freelance dancer and collaborator.
Hayley moves and makes in a world that is nameless, a world you might find inhabited by the woman behind ‘witch’, by weaver, mystic, fugitive, body worker, keening woman, sensate, protester, feminist, by ‘dancer’.
The foundation of Hayley’s current dance work is a practice she has developed called ‘Sanctuary on the Fault Line’, in which she conceives, makes and shares dance outside of systemic normalities, deeply connected to the land she is from and the people and creatures who dwell here with her. She does this to experiment with sustaining the voice of womanhood and dance in her time. To re-awaken dance and womanhood’s immense potential to sustain social and environmental health, change and to act as a poetic politic. Underpinning her practice is Hayley’s meditation practice, Rolfing practice and a deep exploration of Isadora Duncan’s work.
Hayley shares this practice with public regularly in the ancient wilds of North London, when invited elsewhere and with other pro women dancers around the world .
Hayley was born and bred in London, born under the bells of South Ealing and growing up in the dodgy end of Hanwell, connected by deep and wide Irish, Iceni and French-Canadian roots.
Her parents would tell you she first started dancing at 1 years old, as she climbed and tumbled while her identical twin sister read books. Or perhaps even that she became a dancer at birth, as she met a moment of adversity and had to be creative about her choice to live. And it was was longer ago than that, when she became dancer.
After her very early studies in acrobatics on the sofa Hayley studied karate as a child then modern and contemporary dance, as well as fine art, history and biology, among a family of singers and makers. Later she took a diploma in Fine Art at London Guildhall. A 1st class degree in Material Culture, Architecture and Curatorship at Leeds University, with an award winning essay on the erotic context of the Venus of Urbino and a dissertation on Monsters. From 2006 she embarked on a rich, independent scholarship in dance. Following her nose she took herself to Accra, Ghana to study with Noyam African Contemporay Dance Institute under the wing of the late Prof Francis Nii Yartey. And to the side of choreographer and improviser Adam Benjamin. Diving in the craft of choreography and improvisation and developing a long standing relationship with Ghana and the dancers there. She then wove her way, under her own volition, through workshops and classes in London, Germany, Croatia, Ireland, Brussels, Canada, France and across the UK, as she followed the deer paths of ‘dancer’. Before beginning to make her own work and teach and dance with others.
Hayley continues developing as a dancer, often seeking the wisdom and eldership of Barbara Kane, 4th generation Duncan dancer, John Stirk, yoga teacher and the global faculty of Rolfing elders.
Hayley has danced, choreographed and taught with and for CoDa Dance (UK), Elizabeth Schwartz Isadora Duncan Repetoire Company (Paris), Cando2, Sadlers Wells, East London Dance, Out There Festival (UK), Tanzfabrik (Germany), English National Ballet, London Meditateo Centre, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Dance Umbrella (UK) P.A.L/Stressfree (UK/France), Norwich Arts Centre (UK), National Theatre Ghana (Accra), The Cockpit, Brighton Fringe Festival, The People’s Forest – Waltham Forest Borough of Culture, The House of St Barnabas, ActOne, Norwich Puppet Theatre (UK) Bayo Akomolafe’s ‘We Will Dance with Mountains’. And over and over with the wilds.
In 2020 Hayley was awarded the Thea Barnes Legacy Award, an award of female leadership in dance across the UK and US. And in 2021 was nominated for ‘Women in Dance Awards, UK.
Hayley is a qualified as a Rolfer with the British Association of Rolfing and Structural Integration, where training is accredited by the European Rolfing Association, Munich and the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration, Boulder, Colorado. She runs Rolfing clinics in London, Norwich and Bellac, France.
For more on Hayley’s Rolfing work and appointments visit www.rolfingwithhayley.org