The Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (EAMT) is honoured to welcome internationally acclaimed choreographer and director Lloyd Newson OBE for a one-week residency with students of the Contemporary Physical Performance Making (CPPM) master’s programme. The residency, taking place from 19 to 24 May 2025, will focus on blending movement, spoken word, and real-life testimony to create politically and socially engaged performances.

Newson, born in 1957 in Albury, New South Wales, is best known as the founder and artistic director of DV8 Physical Theatre, a company he established in 1986. A graduate in psychology and social work from the University of Melbourne, Newson discovered his passion for dance during his studies and went on to train with Margaret Lasica’s Modern Dance Ensemble. His early professional years included work with dance companies in Australia and New Zealand before relocating to London in 1980 to study at the London Contemporary Dance School. He later danced with Extemporary Dance Theatre but grew disillusioned with the lack of substantive content in contemporary dance.

In response, Newson founded DV8 Physical Theatre, pioneering a new form of performance that fused dance, theatre, film, and socio-political themes. His early works such as My Sex, Our Dance (1986) and Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men (1988) set the tone for a body of work committed to exploring complex social issues. Dead Dreams was also the first DV8 production adapted for film in 1990.

DV8 continued to garner critical acclaim with productions including Strange Fish (1992), Enter Achilles (1995), and The Cost of Living (2003), the latter of which was staged site-specifically at Tate Modern, London. In 2007, Newson began incorporating verbatim theatre into his work, using interview transcripts to shape narratives around issues such as homophobia (To Be Straight With You), freedom of speech (Can We Talk About This?), and redemption (JOHN).

Throughout his career, Newson has received over 55 national and international awards, including an OBE in 2013 for services to contemporary dance. He is widely regarded as one of the 100 most influential figures in the arts in the last century, as recognised by the UK Critics’ Circle. In 2016, marking DV8’s 30th anniversary, Newson paused the creation of new work to reflect on the company’s future.

DV8 Physical Theatre, under Newson’s leadership, produced eighteen acclaimed stage works and four award-winning films. DV8 Films Ltd., founded in 1991, produced film versions of Strange Fish, Enter Achilles, and The Cost of Living. The company’s legacy includes national and international tours and boundary-pushing explorations of physical, political, and psychological themes.

EAMT is proud to host this extraordinary artist and visionary whose work has deeply influenced the landscape of contemporary physical theatre worldwide.

Public events

Friday, 23 May at 19:00 – Open Lecture: Lloyd Newson (Free Entry)
In this public lecture, Newson reflects on four decades of creating theatre that responds to contemporary social and political challenges.

Saturday, 24 May at 19:00 – CPPM Open Class with Lloyd Newson
This final session offers the public a chance to observe the outcomes of the weeklong workshop and gain insight into Newson’s collaborative process.