Robert Hylton | Choreographer and Movement Director

Work:

Choreographer, Writer and Researcher (PhD)

My approach to choreography and movement direction explores dance as a continually evolving creative process in which to develop thought-provoking and intelligent work that challenges the audience’s experience of movement-based storytelling. Captured through multiple dance forms such as hip hop, creative movement, abstract dance, and UK Jazzdance to ballet, contemporary dance, and drama in cross-genre formats such as film, theatre, TV and adverts for big brands... By taking on commercially driven projects alongside more experimental forms of expression, to explore the creative possibilities or reality of human experience.

I started dancing from a very young age, then, from the first wave of hip hop in the early eighties, I got hooked on dance. In turn, I later got into UK Jazzdance and house, where I became immersed in the club scene and first started performing with Bamboozle, based in Newcastle. From there, I went on to train at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. As a first-generation UK hip hop theatre practitioner, my own company's work as a soloist and company repertory has toured nationally and internationally with performance, education and film work, driven through an academic curiosity to explore movement as a creative, politically and socially engaged, visual experience. I am a published writer and gained my PhD at C-DaRE, Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University, in autumn 2025. Alongside my dance work, as a break from the weighty academic stuff, I make music under the name THL.

Supported by, commissioned and worked with:

Netflix, Channel 4, Los Unidades - Chris Martin & Pharrell Williams, Louis Vuitton @ Selfridges, IKEA, Nescafe, Florette, Footlocker, McDonald’s, All-Bran, LVQR, Tetley Tea, Ricore, Ella Henderson, British Airways, ABC Australia Council for the Arts, British Library, Trevor Sorbie, Lazaride’s Gallery, Blinkink, Outsider, White Lodge, Nexus, ACNE, EXCUSE MY FRENCH, British Council, The National Gallery, The Royal Opera House, Arts Council England, Jack Petchey Foundation, Southbank Centre, Laban, The Place, Robin Howard Foundation, Middlesex University, Ballet Black, East London Dance, deciBel, The Mission, Greenwich Dance, Danceworks, Ludus, Dance4, Swindon Dance, MDI, Northern Arts, HIPP - Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance Festival, Surrey Arts, Richmond Dance, Your Next Move, Woking Dance, and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)..

International work:

Australia, New Zealand, Bangkok, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Taiwan, Belgium, Copenhagen, Cyprus, Netherlands, Italy, Mozambique, South Africa, Lithuania, Prague, Spain, Croatia, Cuba, Uzbekistan, Libya, Algeria, Slovenia, Nazareth, Morocco, Romania, Lebanon.

Mission:

Robert Hylton promotes dance as an enriching and vital human experience, encouraging diversity and cultural experience for all, through creative excellence, intellectual growth, entertainment and educational opportunity.