Language Competition

Chris Evans began his career with the HofeshShechter Company, performing as one of its original members, and touring worldwide. During this time he also collaborated with Jonathan Lunn to devise Reading Rooms, a dance/text interplay working with Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson, and Miranda Richardson.

He later joined Lost Dog Theatre Company, co-devising It Needs Horses which toured internationally and won the Bloomburg Place Prize Award for dance. Chris has now been a member of Gecko since 2011 and has worked on the creation of both Missing and Institute as well as touring both productions.

Chris still continues a creative relationship with HofeshShechter, joining him as Assistant Choreographer for The Metropolitan Opera’s new creation Two Boys which premiered in New York.

Chris continues an interest in film, having done numerous projects in motion capture and dance film and has worked with Eddie Izzard as a movement coach for a feature film.

Amit is the Artistic Director of Gecko and has created 6 critically-acclaimed shows; Taylor’s Dummies, The Race, The Arab and The Jew, The Overcoat, Missing, and Institute. All of the shows have toured nationally and internationally and Amit has performed in all 6 productions. In addition, Amit also created and performed in The Time of Your Life which was broadcast live on BBC4 in 2015 as part of the BBC’s On Stage Season.

Amit was born in Israel and trained as a physical theatre performer before working with several dance, visual and physical theatre pioneers, including Lindsay Kemp in his touring productions of Variété and Elizabeth, Steven Berkoff, Ken Campbell and David Glass in Unheimlich Spine, Off The Wall and Blue Remembered Hills and was a key member of Glass’s Lost Child Project working to create shows with disenfranchised children in Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Italy, Laos, Thailand, England and Vietnam.

Over the years Amit has worked as a director, facilitator, writer and choreographer for numerous companies throughout the world. In recent years, Amit has mentored young artists and companies as they search for theatrical language.

Ryen Perkins-Gangnes has been working with Gecko since January 2012 helping to devise both Missing and Institute and touring both productions. He also appeared in The Time of Your Life live on BBC4 in November 2015.

He was a cast member in Paramount’s 2013 film World War Z, and worked closely with Oscar award winner Andy Jones and choreographer Alex Reynolds to create the movement language for the zombies in the film as movement specialist.

He worked with the Cholmondeleys and the Featherstonehaughs from 2003, and spent 2 years as Lea Anderson’s assistant. He has performed with numerous other companies and choreographers over the years, such as Gary Clarke, FraukeRequardt, and Fabulous Beast. He studied theatre at UC Davis, California and received 5 years compilation martial arts training under the tutelage of Grandmaster Suk Ku Kim.

Born in the south of France, François Testory started his career as a dancer training at Mudra the Maurice Béjart School of Performing Arts. There he studied ballet with AzaryPlitsesky (brother of Maya Plissetskaia, Bolchoi) and Jose Pares of Ballet de Cuba, Graham Technique with Flora Cushman, and acting with AlfonsGoris and John and Joseph Blatchley.

He then joined the legendary Lindsay Kemp Company and soon became one of its principal members, and remains one of his collaborators to this day.

Now a freelance performer residing in London, he has appeared and collaborated in the creation of a diverse array of shows. He also performs in his own Cabaret show Empire, a song and dance consideration directed by Simon Vincezi, and is a member of the early music ensemble Grain de la Voix. He has released a CD, Sarrazine, with his French Electro accomplices.

He has choreographed Lindsay Kemp productions of Façade, Tales of Hoffman, Tour De Force Company’s Le Petit Prince, Dirty Stop Out’s Cabaret evenings and his own pieces: Spectre, Veiled and Of the Blood River.