Paul Harris (choreographer)

Paul Harris
File:Paul Harris Choreographer.jpg Paul Harris at work
Born	St. Helens, England, UK
Occupation(s)	Choreographer Dance Teacher Movement Director
Website	www.paulharris.uk.com

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.

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 3 times English Champion, United Kingdom, International and West European Champion and placing in the first 3 of every major competition, including the World Championship as an adult.

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.

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 one of the UK's most prolific choreographers and dance instructors 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.

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. Notable directors he has worked with are David Yates and Dowie Humphreys; he has worked with both directors four times.

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, Paul 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 dance, 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. She continued to dance with the company until 2001. ĘρΣΌΎς

Works

Television dramas and films

Year	Typ	Titel	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 and 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.

Reality TV shows

Titel	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

Theatre

Titel	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
The Plague	BADA	Guy Retallack
Redemption Over Hammersmith Broadway	LAMDA	Max Key
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

Commercials/Music Videos

Name	Production	Director
My Name (McLean)	Atlantic Records	Nick Bartleet
Grease is the Word	ITV Creative	Simon Mitchell
Trafalgar Square Big Dance	British Tourist Authority	Michael Geigan

Stage and trade shows

Year	Titel	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

External links

• Official Website of Paul Harris
• Salsa Choreographers
• Swing Choreographers
• UK Salsa History
• Jive Choreographers
• Ballroom Choreographers
• Historical Dance Choreographers
• London Theatre of Ballroom
• Dance In Schools (London Theatre of Ballroom)
• Vintage Dance Choreographers
• Film and Television Choreographers