Senior management team biographies
Ann Sholem
Artistic Director
Ann Sholem, Artistic Director
Ann leads National Dance Company Wales and is passionate about creating dance programmes of exceptional quality and vision. In 1983, Ann founded Diversions with her partner Roy Campbell-Moore dancing in and choreographing many of the Company's early works. In 1990 she stopped performing and became the Rehearsal Director, then Associate Director in 1998. In 2007 Ann was promoted to Artistic Director and won Welsh Woman of the Year (Arts and Media) award in 2008. Prior to moving to Wales, Ann performed as a soloist with Northern Ballet and from 1975 danced with Scottish Ballet. Ann trained at the Rambert School of Ballet where she met Roy in 1973.
David Wright
Deputy Director
David Wright, Deputy Director
Born in Neath, South Wales David moved to Australia as a child. He studied Drama, Film and English Literature at Macquarie University, and Arts Management at University of Technology, Sydney. Over the last 20 years he has worked predominantly in General/Financial Management with Toe Truck Theatre and Australian Theatre for Young People (both in Sydney), and London’s Bush Theatre. Most recently he was Executive Director of Greenwich & Lewisham Young People’s Theatre in London, Executive Manager of Sydney Theatre, and General Manager of Citymoves Dance Agency in Aberdeen, Scotland. David joined National Dance Company Wales in September 2011.
Kathleen Rylands
Rehearsal Director
Kathleen Rylands, Rehearsal Director
Kathleen grew up in Bristol and started dancing at the age of three and a half. After school she chose dance over mathematics and trained at the Royal Ballet Upper School, and Central School of Ballet in London and then became a soloist with Tanz Forum Köln in Germany. Kathleen has danced, taught and been Rehearsal Director in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland, for companies including Theatre Basel, Theatre Bern, Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck, Landestheater Linz, Ballet Chemnitz and Staatstheater Darmstadt. She joined NDCWales in August 2012 and is excited about passing on her experiences to NDCWales dancers.
Joe Fletcher
Technical Director
Joe Fletcher, Technical Director
Joe, from Tregaron, began his career at Aberystwyth Arts Centre where he designed lighting for theatre, dance & events. Freelance, he has worked with Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, Sherman Cymru, Arad Goch, Hay Literature and Arts and more, before joining National Dance Company Wales in 2006. He has production managed 11 new works and designed for Roy Campbell-Moore, Andonis Foniadakis, Gustavo Ramírez Sansano & Eleesha Drennan. Joe is a guest tutor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.