Sheron Wray comes to Jazz Alive in the midst of a career in the Arts that has spanned 20 years, centred in dance, she is an award winning choreographer and has danced with the UK’s leading Contemporary Dance Company’s Rambert and London Contemporary Dance Theatre. In tandem she began choreographing her own work, in 1992 JazzXchange Music and Dance Company was formed to which she is founding Artistic director. Creating works with musicians including Wynton Marsalis, Byron Wallen and Julian Joseph. She also appeared as a guest with Bobby McFerrin. Within Jazz music she was invited to present a paper at the Leeds College of Music for their International Jazz education conference on dance and music improvisation, this forms the basis of the Kaleidoscope Approach her improvisation methodology.

Working as a freelance artist she has produced and directed much of her work and thus has a long history of collaborating and managing project and thus brings this experience to Jazz Alive. Some of the artists she was first introduced to on the UK Jazz scene are amongst the Jazz Alive team of Artists and special guests. The development of the Jazz Alive programme is a collaborative process and her skills in team building and development of ideas is essential. Since 2005 she has been running a mentoring forum to assist dancers as various stages of the careers supporting applications and providing support where needed. Sheron has taught and choreographed for a number of British institutions including, London Contemporary Dance School, WAC Performing Arts and Media College, Middlesex University, London Studio Centre, Union Dance, New Adventures, Rambert Dance Company, Royal Ballet School, Dance Arts International and English National Ballet.

In the USA her most recent commission was with New York University’s Experimental Theatre Wing, creating Texterritory: An American Classic; a multi media theatre production, based on a Mark Twain novel. Other US interdisciplinary projects include NY’s contemporary music group TONK, teaching for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, NY’s Movement Research, guest artist residencies with Carnegie Mellon University, Stephens College, Missouri and University of California, Irvine. She is an associate visiting choreographer for Danza Libre in Cuba.