Elizabeth Ranken is a British choreographer, performer, director, movement director and artist. She is an Associate Artist of the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...

(RSC) and was a lead performer with DV8 Physical Theatre. Her work encompasses opera, theatre,

physical theatre Physical theatre is a genre of theatrical performance that encompasses storytelling primarily through physical movement. Although several performance theatre disciplines are often described as "physical theatre", the genre's characteristic aspe ...

, dance, television, film and art.

Early years

Ranken initially read biology and holds a BSc from

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

. She later qualified as a speech therapist from

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...

before moving to

Laban Dance Centre Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music, dance, and musical theatre conservatoire based in South East London. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. Trini ...

to train in choreography and performance.

Career

On leaving

, Ranken was invited by Jacob Marley to set up Company of Cracks, which was a cross over between dance and performance art. In the early '80s, Ranken met Angus Farquhar and became a member of the industrial music group

Test Dept Test Dept, sometimes credited as Test Department is a British industrial music group from London, England, that was one of the most important and influential early industrial music acts. Their approach was marked by the use of "found" materia ...

. In 1986, Ranken was invited by

Lloyd Newson Lloyd Newson (born 1957) is a director, dancer and choreographer. He formed DV8 Physical Theatre and has led the company since its inception in 1986. He studied psychology and social work at Melbourne University and after graduating began his da ...

to join DV8 Physical Theatre as a deviser and performer. She became an Artist in Residence at the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA, Glasgow) creating her own work. In 1992 Ranken began a collaboration with

Shared Experience Shared Experience is a British theatre company.
Its current joint

< ...

, working with

Helen Edmundson Helen Edmundson (born 1964) is a British playwright, screenwriter and producer. She has won awards and critical acclaim both for her original writing and for her adaptations of various literary classics for the stage and screen. Early life Edmu ...

and becoming an Associate Artist for the company. In 1993 Ranken won the Edinburgh Evening News Capital Award for directing, devising and performing 'Funk Off Green' at the

Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

. Ranken was invited by

Michael Attenborough Michael John Attenborough (born 13 February 1950) is an English theatre director. Background Attenborough was born on 13 February 1950 in London, the only son of actress Sheila Sim and actor-director Richard Attenborough. He is the nephew of ...

to work as Movement Director at the

RSC RSC may refer to: Arts * Royal Shakespeare Company, a British theatre company * Reduced Shakespeare Company, a touring American acting troupe * Richmondshire Subscription Concerts, a music society in Richmond, North Yorkshire, England * Rock Ste ...

, ultimately becoming an Associate Artist with the company. She has an ongoing association with Michael Boyd, who later became Artistic Director at the

. Ranken began painting in 2011 with a painting of Michael Boyd, which is currently in the collection at the RSC. In 2015, she made her debut as a choreographer in opera with ''

L'Orfeo ''L'Orfeo'' (Stattkus-Verzeichnis, SV 318) (), or ''La favola d'Orfeo'' , is a late Renaissance music, Renaissance/early Baroque music, Baroque ''favola in musica'', or List of operas by Claudio Monteverdi, opera, by Claudio Monteverdi, with a li ...

'' for the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

Theatre

Credits as Movement Director:

Physical Theatre and Dance

Credits:

Opera

Credits as Choreographer and Movement Director:

Film work

Ranken has appeared in the following films: *1990 ''Silences'' *1991 ''Caught Looking'' directed by Constantine Giannaris *1991 ''

Edward II Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also known as Edward of Caernarfon or Caernarvon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir to the throne follo ...

'' directed by

Derek Jarman Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, poet, gardener, and gay rights activist. Biography Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing ...

*1993 ''Three Steps to Heaven'' directed by Constantine Giannaris' *1994 ''Touched'' directed by Wendy Houstoun Ranken was the choreographer for: *1997 The film '' Alive and Kicking'' directed by

Nancy Meckler Nancy Meckler is an American-born director, known for her approach to theatre, specifically her work in the United Kingdom with Shared Experience, where she was a joint artistic director alongside Polly Teale. Educated in the US and England,Cr ...

. This film is also known as ''Indian Summer'' *2000 ''3 Steps to Heaven'', directed by Constantine Giannaris

Awards

*1988 Ranken won

The Place The Place may refer to: * The Place (London) The Place is a dance and performance centre in Duke's Road near Euston in the London Borough of Camden. It is the home of London Contemporary Dance School and the Robin Howard Dance Theatre, and forme ...

portfolio choreographic award with composer John Eacott. This was for artists to watch out for and invest in.

Matthew Bourne Sir Matthew Christopher Bourne (born 13 January 1960) is a British choreographer. His productions contain many classic cinema and popular culture references and draw thematic inspiration from musicals, film noir and popular culture. Popular ...

also won this award in the same year. *1992 She won The Time Out Award for choreographing Anna Karenina for Shared Experience theatre company. *1993 Ranken won the Edinburgh Evening News Capital Award for directing, devising and performing 'Funk Off Green' at the

Paintings

2011: Ranken's portrait of Michael Boyd was taken into the Royal Shakespeare Company Portrait collection. 2013: Ranken's painting, entitled Held in Infinity, was taken into the Heinz Archive and Library at The National Portrait Gallery.

Other

*1986: Ranken began performing with the band

Test Department Test Dept, sometimes credited as Test Department is a British industrial music group from London, England, that was one of the most important and influential early industrial music acts. Their approach was marked by the use of "found" materia ...

. At this time, she had started to collaborate with Test Department's percussionist Angus Farquhar while she was at the Laban. He was at Goldsmiths studying drama and they shared the same campus. In 1998 Ranken collaborated with Angus Farquhar and his new company NVA performing at the National Day for Britain at the World EXPO in Lisbon. They created a pagan fire festival with musicians and dancers from Scotland and Portugal, burning 15-meter high straw figures (gigantones) in front of a live audience of 10,000. *1992: She was performer/choreographer for ''The Big Tease'' working with strippers for the Edinburgh Fringe festival. Ranken performed alongside the strippers whose autobiographies were the basis of the show. *1995: She was the performer/devisor of ''Doing Bird'' directed by Irvine Allan for Glasgow Mayfest, then touring prisons in Scotland including

Barlinnie Prison HM Prison Barlinnie is the largest prison in Scotland. It is operated by the Scottish Prison Service and is located in the residential suburb of Riddrie, in the northeast of Glasgow, Scotland. It is informally known locally as The Big Hoose ...

. The piece then was performed at the

West Yorkshire Playhouse Leeds Playhouse is a theatre in the city centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1990 in the Quarry Hill area of the city as the West Yorkshire Playhouse, successor to the original Leeds Playhouse, and was rebranded in June 2018 ...

, and toured prisons in Leeds including Armley Jail.

References

External links

* *Interview with Liz Ranken:
Elizabeth Ranken
at Saatchi Art * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ranken, Liz British painters 21st-century British women painters Living people Contemporary dance choreographers British portrait painters English choreographers British women choreographers Year of birth missing (living people)