Paul Harris (choreographer)
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Paul Harris is an English choreographer, dance teacher and movement director in film, television and theatre. His notable works include the famous laser scenes for Catherine Zeta-Jones in the movie Entrapment, the BAFTA Award-winning Bleak House and the wand fight sequences in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In the theatre, he choreographed the 50th-anniversary production of John Osborne's The Entertainer at London's Old Vic. He is also a successful author of dance books, having written Salsa and Merengue - The Essential Step by Step Guide and several dance syllabi. Harris is an acknowledged authority and leading choreographer in historical dance, period dance, tango, salsa, swing dance, ballroom dancing, latin american dancing, theatre dance and movement direction. He is the winner of the 2008 Carl Alan Award for choreography.
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[edit] Early career
Born in St Helens, Harris began dancing at the age of eight and as a dancer, was one of the most successful Juvenile and Junior competitors ever in ballroom dancing. He won the British Open Championships at the Blackpool Dance Festival in both ballroom and Latin American dancing - as well becoming United Kingdom, international and West European champion.
On turning professional, he studied jazz dance, tap dancing, historical dance and classical ballet and won the British Exhibition (Theatre Arts) title. He retired from competitive dancing to study acting at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in London and on graduating, he played leading roles in British television and theatre, including major national tours of three West End productions. His roles during this period included A-Rab in West Side Story, Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird, Edmund in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, William H. Bonney in Billy The Kid, Scranton Slim in Guys and Dolls and Catsmeat in Snow White with the late Marti Caine.
In the 1990s, he played a role as a Latin American dance champion on the BBC television drama Casualty, for which he choreographed the dance sequences himself. This was spotted by a leading UK dance agent and led to his career in choreography.
[edit] As a choreographer
In 1997, Harris was asked to look at a script for a British movie with a view to choreographing the dance sequences. Following a single conversation with the director, he realised that combining his two backgrounds of dancing and acting was the direction in which he should take his career. Since then, Paul Harris has become the one of the UK's most prolific choreographers in film and television. He has been responsible for the choreography on several big budget movies, including Entrapment, Inkheart, The Other Boleyn Girl and in 2006, Harris devised the physical language and created the choreography, for the wand-to-wand combat sequences in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.[1]
Harris has also choreographed many of British television's most highly acclaimed, award-winning dramas of the last decade including Bleak House, The Way We Live Now, To the Ends of the Earth, Jane Eyre, The Sins, Poirot, A Touch of Frost, William and Mary and the hit UK comedy My Family with the English star Robert Lindsay. This led to Harris being the choreographer of the 2007 critically acclaimed revival of John Osborne's The Entertainer at the Old Vic theatre, with Lindsay as Archie Rice. Other notable credits in theatre include being the Movement Coach on the 2007 production of Gaslight, also at the Old Vic, a guest dance tutor for the Royal Shakespeare Company on Two Gentlemen of Verona and choreographing productions such as A Family Affair, The Rivals, As You Like It and David Copperfield.
Harris co-choreographed Disney's The Cheetah Girls 2 with its director Kenny Ortega, having been brought in at Ortega's request, specifically to choreograph the tango sequence which was shot in Barcelona. The tango Harris choreographed, was described by Ortega in a Dcom Extra interview, as "the most exciting and demanding dance sequence he had ever shot".
Among the notable actors Harris has created choreography for are Catherine Zeta-Jones, Scarlett Johansson, Gary Oldman, Sam Neill, Natalie Portman, Helena Bonham-Carter and Ralph Fiennes. The directors he has most often worked with are David Yates and Dowie Humphreys; he has worked with both directors four times.
[edit] Teaching
As a dance teacher, Harris has devised the dance module of the BA (Hons) Acting at four London drama schools. He is a dance tutor at The Actors Center in London and teaches dance at the Central School of Speech and Drama, the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts and the Italia Conti Academy. He was the main dance coach in the "Kick boxer to Dancer" episode of the BAFTA-award-winning Faking It and he has coached and choreographed for world champions in showdance, salsa, ballroom dancing and Argentine tango including several of the professional dance teachers from British television's Strictly Come Dancing and Strictly Dance Fever. He also teaches internationally, particularly in South East Asia, where he has helped to develop dance in the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. Harris has appeared as a guest dance expert on television in England and in Asia, to discuss choreography and dance styles as diverse as salsa, Argentine tango, Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing, 19th century dance, historical dance and dancesport.
Harris is a Fellow and Examiner of the United Kingdom Alliance of Professional Teachers of Dancing, as well as an Honorary member of the British Association of Teachers of Dancing, and an Honorary Lifetime member of the Philippine Professional Dance Teachers Association. He has adjudicated at many international dance championships, including the prestigious Blackpool Dance Festival and he is a licensed adjudicator with both the World Dance Council and the International DanceSport Federation.
Salsa and Merengue - The Essential Step by Step Guide was written by Paul Harris and published in 1998. It is considered a definitive work of its kind in the dance industry and is the basis of the syllabi Harris has written in merengue, salsa and mambo, for the International Dance Teachers Association (IDTA), the British Association of Teachers of Dancing (BATD), the National Association of Teachers of Dancing (NATD) and the United Kingdom Alliance of Professional Teachers of Dancing (UKA). The book played a pivotal role in the history of salsa in the UK, particularly in the formation of the (then) new Club Dance Division of the UKA. This development, for the first time, enabled teachers of salsa in Britain, to gain a recognised professional teaching qualification. In addition to this, Harris wrote the UKA's course guide for drama schools in 19th & 20th century social dance and co-founded their Historical Dance Faculty.
In 1996, Harris founded London Theatre of Ballroom, who are dedicated to preserving and progressing ballroom dancing as performing art. They enjoyed a critically acclaimed six month run at London's Cafe de Paris are still Britain's only Ballroom based theatre company. Their repertoire, choreographed entirely by Paul Harris, consists of shows based on swing, tango, Latin dancing, vintage dance and American smooth (Hollywood style partner dancing). Famously, Dr. Heather Clark, who later saved a man's life by opening his heart on the floor of a pub, was a founder member of London Theatre of Ballroom.[2] She continued to dance with the company until 2001.[3]ĘρΣΌΎς
[edit] Works
[edit] Television dramas and films
| Year | Type | Title | Production |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Film | Inkheart | New Line Cinema |
| 2007 | Film | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | Warner Bros |
| The Other Boleyn Girl | Columbia Pictures | ||
| Mister Lonely | O' Salvation Films | ||
| Love & Other Disasters | Skyline | ||
| Television drama | Sense and Sensibility | BBC | |
| 2006 | Television movie | The Cheetah Girls 2 | Disney |
| Television drama | Jane Eyre | BBC | |
| 2005 | Television drama | Bleak House | BBC |
| To the Ends of the Earth | BBC | ||
| According to Bex | BBC | ||
| Agatha Christie's Poirot - "The Mystery of the Blue Train" | Granada | ||
| 2004 | Television drama | The Second Quest | YTV |
| 2003 | Television drama | A Touch of Frost - "Another Life" | YTV |
| William and Mary | Granada | ||
| 2002 | Short film | Dream Thief | Salad Films |
| 2001 | Television drama | The Way We Live Now | BBC |
| I Was a Rat | BBC | ||
| 2000 | Short film | Trick of the Light | Zephyr Films |
| Television drama | The Sins | BBC | |
| My Family | BBC | ||
| 1999 | Film | Entrapment | 20th Century Fox |
| 1998 | Film | The Tichborne Claimant | The Bigger Picture Co. |
[edit] Reality TV shows
| Title | TV Network | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Faking It | Channel 4 | Mentor/Dance teacher |
| 11th Hour | BBC | Personal appearance in tango and swing features |
| Open House | Channel 5 | Personal appearance in salsa feature |
| GMTV | LWT | Personal appearance in salsa feature |
[edit] Theatre
| Title | Theatre | Director | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gaslight | Old Vic | Peter Gill | Movement coach |
| The Entertainer | Old Vic | Sean Holmes | |
| Two Gentlemen of Verona | Royal Shakespeare Company | Fiona Buffini | Dance coach |
| Flight of the Swan | Royal Opera House (Linbury) | Rob Swain | |
| A Family Affair | Royal Bath Tour | Andy De La Tour | |
| Wallflowering | National Tour | Jennie Darnell | |
| As You Like It | Embassy Theatre (Central) | Martin Wylde | |
| Dancing at Lughnasa | Mountview Theatre | Andrew Jarvis | |
| The Rivals | Mountview Theatre | Glen Walford | |
| The American Clock | Mountview Theatre | Natalie Wilson | |
| David Copperfield | ALRA Theatre | Stuart Wood | |
| The Mill on the Floss | ALRA Theatre | Janette Smith | |
| The Erpingham Camp | ALRA Theatre | Finetime Fontayne | |
| Cuban Suite | Kyushu Ballet Festival | Paul Harris |
[edit] Commercials
| Name | Production | Director |
|---|---|---|
| Grease is the Word | ITV | Simon Mitchell |
| British Tourist Authority | Pink Productions | Michael Geigan |
[edit] Stage and trade shows
| Year | Title | Production | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Fox Promotional Screen Test at Cannes Film Festival | 20th Century Fox and Stella Artois | Geraldine Maloney |
| 2002 | London Boat Show | Sealine | Paul Harris |
| 1999 | London Boat Show | Sealine | Paul Harris |
| 1998-2006 | Miss Philippine | Alfanti Productions | Paul Harris |
| 1997 | Miss China | CNE | Peter Chen |
| The Delfont Awards | Grosvenor Productions | Alex Clayton | |
| The Half Monty | Inch High Productions | Paul Harris and Warwick Davis |
[edit] References
- ^ About Paul Harris
- ^ Gledhill, Ruth. (May 8, 1999) The Times "Being a fast mover matters; Interview; Heather Clark". Section: Features; Page 2.
- ^ Groskop, Viv. (May 6, 2001) Daily Express "People think I'm a heroine doctor but I still cry when I see Animal Hospital. Dr Heather Clark saved a man's life by operating on him in a pub but this livewire medic, skilled dancer, TV pundit and extreme sports fanatic says she's just ordinary."
