Each year we invite established professionals, subject experts, artists and creatives from across the UK to form part of the independent Jury that will select this year’s Shortlisted Artists and Fellow.
We are thrilled to share that the Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2025 for Dance Jury Members are:
Holly Blakey
Holly Blakey is a Choreographer / Director whose work straddles the worlds of live performance and film. Interweaving live and commercial contexts, much of her practice often plays on the relationship between these distinct but not wholly separable worlds. Blakey’s work as a Director and Choreographer has featured collaborations with music artists and fashion houses such as Burberry, Dior, Gucci, Rosalia, Harry Styles and Florence and the Machine.
Blakey presented ‘Cowpuncher My Ass’ (2020), a sequel to the previous world premiere (2018), costumed by Vivienne Westwood and scored by Mica Levi. The show and its sequels ran for five years, closing to a sold out Royal Festival Hall with accompaniment from a twenty piece string orchestra from London Contemporary Orchestra. Holly is currently developing a new live work, A Wound With Teeth to be premiered in 2026.
Sir Wayne McGregor CBE
Sir Wayne McGregor CBE is a British choreographer and director. He is Artistic Director of Studio Wayne McGregor, a creative nexus that pushes the frontiers of physical intelligence through dance, design and technology. Wayne’s work is rooted in dance, yet encompasses a variety of genres including technology, visual art, film, opera and education, as well as Company Wayne McGregor, his own touring company of dancers. Wayne is Resident Choreographer at The Royal Ballet, the first and only choreographer from a contemporary dance background to be invited into the role, as well as Professor of Choreography at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. McGregor’s work has earned him a multitude of awards including two Time Out Awards, two Olivier Awards, a Prix Benois de la Danse and two Golden Mask awards.
Wayne is also an Ambassador of the Arts Foundation and a past Fellow in Choreography, 1994.
Freddie Opoku-Addaie
Freddie Opoku-Addaie is an International award-winning Dance Artist/Curator/Lecturer. Freddie was Guest Programmer for Dance Umbrella during a three-year initiative from 2016-2019. His Out Of The System programme presented exhilarating work by dance practitioners from the UK and abroad. Freddie is founder, director and CEO of ‘SystemsLAB’ (2016), a platform that offers slack-time for multi-faceted, mid-career artists, invaluable in raising important questions about contemporary dance within and beyond the western cannon, its framing and voices within the industry. Freddie Opoku-Addaie is Artistic Director and co-CEO at Dance Umbrella – London’s International annual dance Festival.
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The Arts Foundation Futures Awards support the UK’s most promising artists and creatives at a pivotal moment in their careers with £20,000 unconditional Fellowships.
The Dance Award Shortlist will be revealed in January 2025, and the recipient of the £20,000 Fellowship will be announced at a live Award Ceremony in February 2025, with all Shortlisted Artists awarded £1,000.
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