Artistic Director
Kinny Gardner B.E.M., B.C.A.a., D.Arts (hon).
Kinny studied Classical Ballet graduating R.A.D. Advanced in 1976. Further training in mime and dance with Annie Stainer, Lindsay Kemp and at the Martha Graham School in New York, with Martha Graham, Pearl Laing and Helen McGeeghie. Voice teachers include Michael Aspinall, Elisabeth Brice, Arthur Oldham and Dr. Werner Hecht of the Berliner Ensemble. He has studied Kabuki with Gojo Masanosuke, Butoh with Katsu Ohno, and Commedia dell’ Arte with Carlo Mazzone Clementi.
He has featured in Godspell, The Rocky Horror Show and The Mousetrap in London’s West End, and in rep. and tours of The Pirates of Penzance, Chicago, Marat/Sade, Adrian Mole, The Threepenny Opera, Assassins, Café Debris and Cabaret.
Kinny was for many years a featured principal guest artist with The Lindsay Kemp Company, with whom he toured the world’s greatest opera houses, appearing in all Lindsay Kemps greatest works.
Kinny’s directing and creating work includes over 42 productions for Krazy Kat, including workshops, and now features integrated sign-language as a matter of course.
Extensively using puppets, figures, dolls and objects, Kinny has directed and choreographed work for ‘Lo Scarlo’ Italy, ‘Kinderteater Basta’ Holland, ‘Bridges Dance’ England, ‘The Scottish Mime Theatre’, ‘Khoros Dance Theatre’, ‘Dancescapers’ ‘Theatre Workshop Edinburgh’, and ‘Guizer Theatre Company’, all in Scotland, and for ‘The Paradise Club’ Zenith T.V. He created the Spider Shadow Ballet for Lindsay Kemp’s ‘Cinderella’, and choreographed T.S. Eliot’s ‘Sweeny Agonistes’ at the Traverse, Edinburgh.
Kinny is a charismatic and engaging teacher, with a lightness of touch and a vibrant sense of humour that allows for the release of ‘Emotion in Motion’.
He is currently a Development Adviser to BBC Cbeebies, working on new mainstream Sign Language television projects for children. In 2014 he was awarded the BBC Community Hero Award and in July of 2015 he received the prestigious British Citizens Award for services to the Arts. More recently, Kinny was included in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2016 and was awarded The British Empire Medal for services to the Arts and Disability. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary degree from The University of Wolverhampton, giving him the title ‘Doctor of Arts’.
For more information visit www.kinnygardner.com
