Mark Bruce
Mark Bruce is a multidisciplinary artist. He is a choreographer, director, composer and musician, filmmaker, editor, writer and photographer. He has choreographed, directed and danced internationally for over 35 years, working with Rosas, Bern Ballet, Ballet Black, Introdans, Gibson/Martelli, Probe, and DJazzex among others.
He formed the Mark Bruce Company in 1991. Productions include Moonlight Drive (1991), Lovesick (1995), Helen, Angel (1996), the celebrated collaboration with Polly Jean Harvey and John Parish titled Dance Hall At Louse Point (1997), Horse, Dive (1999), Sea of Bones (2006) Love and War (2010), Made in Heaven (2012) and Dracula (2013) which won the Sky Arts South Bank award for Dance, the National Dance Award for Best Male Dancer for Jonathan Goddard as Dracula, and the award for Best Independent Company. Bruce's production of The Odyssey toured in 2016 and his Macbeth in 2018, both received National Dance Awards nominations for their dancers. He created Return to Heaven in 2020 and his triple bill Phantoms in 2022 when the company was also nominated for Best Mid-Scale Company at the National Dance Awards. His latest production, Frankenstein toured in 2024.
In 2005 Bruce created Fever for Probe, Green Apples for the Royal Opera House’s Clore Studio Summer Collection and in 2006 Bad History for The Place Prize. In 2008 he created The Sky or a Bird for Probe and Stars for Dance South West. Bruce’s first commission by Bern Ballet, Crimes of Passion, premiered in January 2010 and his second, Medea, premiered in February 2011. He created Second Coming for Ballet Black in 2015.
Bruce’s theatre work includes the Royal Exchange Theatre’s productions of Peer Gynt, The Bacchae, Antigone, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Antony & Cleopatra, The Glass Menagerie, As You Like It, Fast Food, Still Time and The Way of the World. He co-devised Skellig, an opera based on the book by David Almond, for the Sage Gateshead in 2008. He directed Rick Bland’s award winning Thick which toured the UK, US and Canada. He worked with Singapore Repertory Theatre on their 2015 production of The Tempest.
Mark Bruce has also worked in a variety of new media, screen and interactive stage productions with Ruth Gibson & Bruno Martelli.
He has written music for his own work and also for art installations and is published by Mute Song. Albums include Girl in a Graveyard (2019) and World of Love and Wonders (2022).
His book of short stories, Blackout Zones was released in May 2010 and his book On Choreography and Making Dance Theatre was published by Oberon in 2018.
