Arielle Smith Jones

Arielle Smith Jones


I am Cuban and lived in Cuba until I was 9 years old. Social dance is part of my country's culture, so I enjoyed dancing when I was younger, but I wasn't introduced to classical dance until I came to England.

I saw Giselle at the Royal Opera House at the age of 11 and was inspired to start ballet dancing. I obtained a scholarship at The Hammond School (Chester) in the 7th year; I was very raw, they accepted me for potential rather than technique. I was there until the age of 16 when I was offered a place at Rambert School.

Arielle began her training at Hammond School in Chester and then went on to train at Rambert School. From an early age, Arielle has had a passion for choreography, and it was at the National Youth Ballet founded by Jill Tookey that Arielle truly discovered choreography.

I got injured and had to take some time off. Working on projects like Design for Dance in my second year was when I realized I have something I can give.

In her final year as a dancer in the company, she was the first to receive the Nijinski cup to pursue advanced studies as a choreographer. She then went on to choreograph several works for the company, Inversion, Athena, Suitesong, and T-Symmetry.

Since graduating, Arielle has performed with Rambert Dance Company and has gone on to choreograph professionally. Her work Cradle premiered at the Barbican last year as part of a collaborative project between Rambert and London Schools Symphony Orchestra.

She works closely with Rambert and Legat schools as a choreographer and teacher, and also continues to work for the National Youth Ballet now under the artistic direction of Mikah Smillie.

As an independent choreographer, Arielle has produced two works The Things We've Done and Lots of Varied Expectations (which was presented at the Resolution festival at The Place in 2018).

Arielle is passionate about drawing attention to talent among young artists and feels so excited and privileged to join the New Adventures team on this project that celebrates youth. Arielle became a trustee of New Adventures in September 2018.

Seeing dancers on stage performing her choreography gives her great satisfaction. When she started, she was younger and it feels like she was asking people as a favor to be in your piece, but now people want to do it. Making people enjoy the work and get something out of it is what I really love.

I like discovering how each dancer moves, taking risks with people, I try to cast people who aren't such an obvious choice and see their journey. I cast a dancer in a piece I did last year when others didn't, he ended up being my muse for the piece, it was my statement. Then I heard people at the end saying "where did he come from?", I was glad I took that chance.

Every person at Rambert School has strong ambition. They have a real desire to do something for themselves and they're all completely different. There's a massive support network, not just among students, but also teachers and mentors. It feels like a company when we're in third year.

The teachers have contacts, they work in the profession, and Rambert School alumni are always in touch with the school, it's a strong family network. I will always have that connection as a Rambert School student.

Later she worked with a composer from the London Schools Orchestra. It was the first time she worked with music made specifically for her choreography. The result was presented in spring 2017 at the Barbican Concert Hall.

Choreographing is different from being a dancer; you need to get the right contacts and make people notice your work.

Theatre credits include: Particle Fever (Platform Theatre), Inversion (New Wimbledon Theatre), Athena (NYB, Sadlers Wells), Storm (Stratford Circus), Suitesong (Sadlers Wells), 'Cradle' (Barbican Concert Hall), T-Symmetry (Sadlers Wells), Lots of Varied Expectations (Sadlers Wells).

Television and film credits include: "Silent Me" (in collaboration with designer Maxwell Nicholson Lailey), "Beyond Ballet", Emerging Choreographers of the National Youth Ballet (BBC London News)

Education
Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance.

The Guardian newspaper has considered nominating her among one of the 5 choreographers who are changing the landscape of dance in Great Britain.

Arielle Smith, trained at Rambert, had one of the best starts you can imagine: a young associate choreographer for Matthew Bourne's New Adventures company, working alongside Bourne on his new production of Romeo and Juliet.

The 22-year-old, born in Havana, raised in Great Britain, created several pieces at the National Youth Ballet and has now created her own company, with some excellent younger dancers.

Smith likes to create abstract movements of masses, as in the piece Storm, which she created while still in school. But she is more interested in creating dance that explores the human being, not just dancing for the sake of dance. Her short piece Lots of Varied Expectations addresses love, in a warm and whimsical context of 1940s songs, with fun and quirky movement, and with playful use of rhythm, but always with an underlying emotion. Smith is expanding the work to achieve a full-length piece and plans a national tour next year.

"Arielle is a marvel," says Bourne. "I really liked the choreography she did for the National Youth Ballet. She stood out for being very contemporary, very different. She is very mature for her age. We laughed a lot. I think she has a great future."