socially engaged artist + dancer | performance designer | workshop facilitator
Interdisciplinary creative, based in Kent and London working across participatory art, performance, Happenings and installation. My playful, experimental practice is like a giant collage, combining different mediums together in site-specific settings: sculpture, found objects, collage, drawing, printmaking, photography, video, poetry, spoken word, improvisation, dance, meditation, sound and scents.
Inspired by mindful curiosity in the everyday, my artworks respond and transform spaces with embodied experiences and quirky, tactile creations to alter perceptions and benefit well-being. Exploring our connection with touch and the natural world, the importance of play for all, the psychology of making and performance in the everyday. Often my work is spontaneous and comes from observation with a slow looking approach. With experience of dancing in many styles (Contemporary, Lyrical, Swing, Latin, Ballet, Tap, Modern Jazz & hula hooping) I fuse these together with performance techniques (improvisation, non-matrixed) to create a unique movement language…enter Kate Bush the Organised Dancer.
Experienced in delivering workshops around sensory play, art making, mindfulness, improvisation and performance for all ages and abilities. Recent examples include, adults experiencing social isolation, adults living with dementia, adults with learning disabilities and older adults, children with SEN/D, early years and young families and intergenerational groups. I believe everyone has a unique sense of creativity; I like to just help to plant the seed.
I’ve made work for community, outdoor, domestic, gallery and online spaces across Kent, London and Europe. Recent highlights include Sonic Plants Sonic People at Kollectiv, Folkestone ( 2025), Gypskazz Cabaret at the The Ballroom Canterbury (2025), Radical Gifting with People United (2024), Beyond Text: Innovative Poetry Festival (2023), Last Fridays at Creative Folkestone (2021), Folkestone Fringe: Sub Plot (2021) and Domestic by Word of Warning (2020). I have an MA in Performance Design & Practice from University of the Arts London: Central Saint Martins, a BA in Fine Art from Kingston School of Art and Grades 5-6 in Ballet, Tap, Lyrical & Modern Jazz.

news + press
Radical Gifting with People United (May- July 2024)
“I’m not an early bird, or a night owl, I’m a permanently exhausted pigeon” performance for Last Fridays Folkestone (November 2021)
Sensory Sloshing: The Plot Thickens workshop for Folkestone Fringe (October 2021)
Graduating in a pandemic: Class of 2020 by UAL Post-Grad Community (July 2020)
Refugee Crisis and Energy of Music Icon Kate Bush Among Inspiration for Exhibits Being Unveiled (May 2018)
“Onward and Upward Mobile-ity with the Arts— or the projection of Elly plus the rebirth of Kate Bush as Staircase Stars. Including marmalading, hula hooping, Funny Facing and cardboard interfacing. Curiously!”
Scott Ewing (2020)

© Elly Rutherford 2025
