Dr Yael Flexer
Reader in Dance and Artistic Director of mapdance
About
As co-artistic director of Flexer & Sandiland, Yael has created 15 full-length productions for the company, touring the UK and internationally.
Flexer & Sandiland have been commissioned to create live and/or interactive works for, among others: Brighton Festival and Digital Festival, South East Dance, Sadler’s Wells and Barbican Centre, London, Hull Dance, Dance East, and Swindon Dance.
Current touring projects include the installations An Elevated Platform (Brighton Festival 2023) and An Obscure Camera (Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, InSpace Gallery, Edinburgh, Creative Crawley 2024-2025) and the live internationally touring dance works Imagining Otherwise (2022-2024) and Acting Our Age (2023).
Past productions include: the family work Curiouser (2018-2020, the site-based app The Hum (2017-2019), and the live works Disappearing Acts (2015-2016), Weightless (2013-2014), and The Living Room (2009-2012).
Commissions as an independent artist include works for London Contemporary Dance School, Three Score Dance, Encore East, National Youth Dance Company and YDance, Scotland, Trinity-Laban, Motus, Maslool, RAS & Stavanger University, Norway and numerous works for youth and C.A.T. programmes.
Yael’s research focuses on digital dance, inter-generational, and over-60s dance practice.
She regularly leads workshops, conferences and talks alongside ongoing intergenerational classes online and at South East Dance, where Flexer & Sandiland are a partner company.
Yael was appointed Reader in Dance at the University of Chichester in 2021 and has been artistic director of mapdance, the University’s touring postgraduate company, since 2006. She recently wrote a chapter for Routledge: Contemporary Choreography, which is due for publication in 2025.
Key Publications
Further publications available on request
F&S refer to works by Flexer & Sandiland Dance & Digital Works
2021-2024- Imagining Otherwise- F&S, Internationally touring dance & digital performance work, funded and supported by Arts Council England, University of Stavanger and University of Chichester Research Funds, South East Dance, Dance East and Motus Festival.
2023- Acting Our Age- F&S, Internationally touring intergenerational dance work created in collaboration with Galit Liss, funded and supported by Arts Council England, University of Chichester, South East Dance, Hull Dance, Kelim Choreographic Centre & Tzahala Community Centre.
2018-19 Curiouser, F&S– Internationally touring dance & digital performance work, co-production with Dybwik Dans Norway, Commissioned by Swindon Dance & RAS, Norway
2018 Vortex– Maslool, Tel-Aviv, Israel performance commission, performed Bat-Sheva Varda Studios and touring performances, Israel
2017 Imagining Otherwise– Trinity-Laban performance commission
2017 The Hum, F&S – Brighton Festival Commission, Nationally touring smartphone app presented at outdoor Festivals across the UK, including the Without Walls Network
2017- Digital Traces, F&S– Interactive digital & live improvisation performance, Fabrica Gallery, Brighton, part of Draw to Perform Symposium
2016/17 Re|placed– National Youth Dance Scotland performance commission
2016 Act Two– University of Stavanger, Norway performance commission
2016 Act One– Motus Festival, Milton Keynes, outdoor performance commission
2016 Disappearing Acts, F&S – Internationally touring dance & digital performance work
2015-ongoing Weighting, F&S – Brighton Digital Festival, South East Dance Commission, Nationally touring digital work
2014 Apre Moi – 3score Dance Company, Brighton, performance commission
2014 Undoing Undone– Mapdance, University of Chichester
2014Â Gravity Shift, F&S-Â Nationally touring interactive digital work
2013-ongoing Trip Hazard, F&S– Nationally touring interactive digital work
2013/14 Weightless, F&S– Internationally touring dance & digital performance work
2013 Shrink’d (2005), F&S– Cando2 Dance Company, re-staging & adaptation of repertoire performance commission
2010/12 The Living Room, F&S – Woking Dance Festival commission, Internationally touring dance performance work
2011 Points Of View, F&S– The Barbican, London commission, interactive digital installation
2010 The Living Room Outside, F&S– West Sussex County Council site-specific performance commission
2010 What If– Ludus Dance Company commission, Nationally touring performance work
2010 Not About Love– Lila Dance Company performance commission, Nationally touring performance work
2010 Another Way of Remembering– Bath Spa University, site-specific performance commission
2010Â Flying Solo, Cat Casbon, South Hill Park, performance commission
2010 Doing, Done & Undone, F&S– Internationally touring dance performance work
Published articles, papers and TV programmes
2018 Disappearing Acts, Liminalities, online journal
2012Â Re-visiting A Dance History: Traces of the 1960s in current contemporary dance, Dance Today 2012, Israel, editor Ruth Eshel
2006 Shrink’d, Animated Autumn 2006, editor Ken Bartlett
2003 Creative Question & Answer, Animated, Autumn 2003, Editor Donald Hutera
2002 A Certain Flexibility, interview with Donald Hutera, Animated Autumn 2002
Oct 2003 Shrink’d, BBC/BLAST, BBC Learning Zone
Research
Yael’s research and practice centres on generating a sense of intimacy in live performance and digital installation in a way that acknowledges the physicality and presence of the viewer.
The work has a subtlety that is apparent in the movement choices, wry humour and informal on-stage dialogue between performers and the audience. Works play with the space between formal and informal presentation, reflecting on the overlapping between performance and the everyday.
Research Output
Articles
Flexer, Y. and Sandiland, N. (2020) Disappearing Acts. Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, 16 (2). pp. 1-12. ISSN 1557-2935
Book Sections
Flexer, Y. and Liss, G. (2025) Maybe You Could Close Your Eyes While I Dance: ‘Age’, ‘Ageing’ and ‘In/visibility’ as choreographic drivers in Yael Flexer & Galit Liss’s Acting Our Age. In: Contemporary Choreography: A Critical Reader: 3rd Edition. Contemporary Choreography: A Critical Reader, 3 (3). Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, pp. 1-13. (In Press)
Theses
Flexer, Y. (2013) In-Between dancing and the everyday: A Choreographic Investigation. Doctoral theses, University of Chichester.
Shows/Exhibitions
Flexer, Y. and Liss, G. (2023) Acting our age. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Flexer, Y. (2018) Vortex- Maslool, Israel. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Flexer, Y. and Sandiland, N. (2017) Digital Traces. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Flexer, Y. (2016) Disappearing Acts. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Flexer, Y. (2015) Awakening. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Flexer, Y. (2015) Vortex - Project Y 2015. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Flexer, Y., Wright, B. and Charmock, N. (2011) Consequences. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Flexer, Y. (2011) Not About Love. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Flexer, Y. (2010) The Living Room. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Flexer, Y. and Sandiland, N. (2010) Orbital. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Flexer, Y. (2010) What If. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Flexer, Y. and Sandiland, N. (2007) Doing, Done & Undone. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Flexer, Y. (2007) Shrink'd. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Flexer, Y. (2003) Flexible Shorts. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Flexer, Y. (2003) Exit Plan. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Performances
Flexer, Y. and Sandiland, N. (2023) Imagining otherwise. [Performances]
Flexer, Y., Sandiland, N., Dybwik, S. and Fossdal, N. (2019) Curiouser. [Performances]
Flexer, Y. (2017) Imagining Otherwise (or The Rucksack Club). [Performances]
Flexer, Y. (2017) Re|Place (or the thing I miss most). [Performances]
Videos
Flexer, Y. (2013) Weightless. [Videos]
Flexer, Y. (2010) The Living Room. [Videos]
Flexer, Y. and Sandiland, N. (2007) Doing, Done & Undone. [Videos]
Flexer, Y. (2007) Shrink'd. [Videos]
Flexer, Y. (2003) Flexible Shorts. [Videos]
Flexer, Y. (2003) Exit Plan. [Videos]
Other department members
