Sharon Watson
Choreographer
Sharon Watson is the seventh Artistic Director of Phoenix Dance Theatre. Having trained at the London School of Contemporary Dance, she was one of the first female Principal Dancers invited to join the all-male award-winning Phoenix Dance Company. She toured with the company from 1989 to 1997 and choreographed Never Still and Shaded Limits.
Sharon left Phoenix to pursue a number of other ventures, including setting up her own company ABCD and lecturing at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance for six years. She returned in 2009 as the new Artistic Director and since then has choreographed Fast Lane, Melt, Never 2 Still, Repetition of Change, TearFall and Wind rush: Movement of the People.
Sharon was Yorkshire Woman of the Year in 2017, and received the first English Women’s Award for Arts and Culture in 2018. She is in the Top 50 Power List of the Northern Power Women Awards and previous Chair of Leeds 2023. Sharon is committed to improving diversity within the arts by supporting the creative voices of women and BAME artists.
