Interview: Joss Arnott celebrating 15 years of his company with “Meet the Hatter”, the world’s greatest showman
The premiere of Joss Arnott Dance‘s Meet the Hatter on 19 September 2025 marks the company’s 15th anniversary. Here, one of the players from Lewis Carroll‘s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland takes centre stage when the Hatter – famous for hosting the Mad Tea-Party – “uses the power of his imagination to escape by creating his own magical version of Wonderland, shown through breathtaking and immersive multimedia”.
Joss Arnott Dance is based in the north west of England, and its blurb says, “Our commitment to a ‘not I, but we’ approach means that we work with people in the North of England to design ambitious, exciting, extraordinary, inspirational shows.”
Meet the Hatter is the company’s most ambitious show to date, and it is choreographed by its founder and Artistic Director, Joss Arnott.
I talked to him during rehearsals before opening night at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre in Leeds in the north of England.
Joss, how does Meet the Hatter differ from other dance adaptations of the Alice story?
Our new adaptation of the Hatter puts him centre stage and combines dance, new storytelling, original music, digital projection, lighting and animation that has resulted in an epic, magical production featuring a new retelling of this iconic character.
The show begins at the Hatter’s tea party, where no one is arriving, so the Hatter passes time by using the power of his imagination to create a new magical version of Wonderland shown through really breathtaking and immersive multimedia that is always forever changing.
Our curious Hatter then navigates this unknown Wonderland and embraces the magic and challenges that come his way, which ultimately makes him a stronger person in general who can take control of his life and find happiness by looking at things differently.
With a desire to being the world’s greatest showman, we see the Hatter developing magical skills and control throughout the show to becoming the host he truly wants to be. We see how he fails, how he learns and ultimately how he becomes able to bring colour and happiness into his world for the very first time.
So, I imagine that the work contains many messages.
There are many themes and concepts… Curiosity, magic and escapism are at the heart of the show. Then overcoming loneliness and isolation with the Hatter’s longing for connection and his journey to making friends and finding where he fits in the world.
Embracing individuality is another theme with how being different is our superpower, and Meet the Hatter explores what this unlocks within us. Then there’s the importance of Imagination and playfulness, having a positive outlook on life, and realising that anything is possible if we put our minds to it… we can exceed our own expectations of what we’re capable of.
Certainly, this is important content when the show is ‘for audiences aged 5+’.
Our Hatter is completely relatable, we really care for him, and the dancer’s performance is compelling – you’ll laugh, you’ll be moved and feel connected to him in many ways throughout the show. The production also has an overall feel-good message of trusting we will always find purpose, happiness and belonging no matter what.
What does the multimedia part consist of?
There is so much in the show that creates the spectacle that is Meet the Hatter. I have collaborated with a team of amazing people, including a multimedia artist, lighting designer, animation artist, composer and costume designers, all of whom have helped shape the visual storytelling of the show.
Meet the Hatter is choreographed by Arnott, in collaboration with the dancers, Dominic Coffey and Robbie Ordoña. The creative team includes Dramaturg Sue Buckmaster, Theatre-Rites, Composer Oleta Haffner, Multimedia Artist Urban Projections, Lighting Designer Josh Tomalin, Movement Consultant Miguel Altunaga and Animation Artist Alexandros Savvides.
We’ve used projection design to immerse the Hatter in a fantastical world that he can physically interact with. By projecting onto a fine black gauze, the visuals take on a volumetric quality, surrounding the performer and giving the illusion of depth. This transforms the stage into a living, three-dimensional space that feels both real and otherworldly.
This has resulted in the production being completely cinematic, immersive and visually stunning through all the original and bespoke creative work of each artist.
You said that the production is the “most ambitious production to date” – in what way?
The show itself is the biggest we have ever produced technically. It’s our longest show to date, at 65 minutes, and the process has just been epic through various stages of development.
The whole creative team have put so much passion and love into making the show, and we truly believe we have made something special that I hope will be around for a long time and be seen by a lot of people. As I mentioned before, the show really is a cinematic spectacle that highlights what dance and multimedia can be achieved together.
How would you describe your choreography… its roots, its inspirations?
My choreographic language is an exploration of classical and contemporary dance techniques with a commercial, athletic flare. I’m interested in contrasting dynamic qualities and what dancers can achieve both technically and emotionally through a very stylistic movement vocabulary. The movement qualities are full-bodied, incredibly detailed, specific and expressive.
My work is always heavily influenced by music and I am interested between the interplay between music and movement to move, inspire and excite audiences of all ages, regardless of their dance knowledge or background. I have also worked very collaboratively with my brilliant dancers for this show, exploring their expertise and skills whilst embedding my movement language within them.
I’m very much inspired by film, pop culture, and ultimately creating a connection between performers and audiences. My aim for each piece I produce is to create a positive experience for both performers and audiences, and for them to feel energised, moved and inspired.
This show is commemorating the 15th anniversary of Joss Arnott Dance – has time sped by?
In some ways, it has gone by so quickly – I can still remember being in a studio on the first day of creating my first professional work with dancers, which seems like yesterday.
I’ve been fortunate to have had such a busy and creative career to date and making work for this length of time doing what we love, so I guess I may have lost track of time at some points whilst we’ve been keeping busy!
What do you think the company’s biggest achievement is?
I don’t think I could pick a biggest achievement but I never take for granted my core JAD team, as it’s because of them and through a joint effort that we have been able to continue making and touring work for 15 years, both indoors and outdoors.
Some highlights definitely include our 5th anniversary where we collaborated with Dame Evelyn Glennie with her performing live on a national tour with us, which was pretty awesome!
Our 10th anniversary was during the pandemic, so we produced an online initiative Dance:Connects, where we engaged with dancers of all ages from across the world including Asia, Europe, Africa, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the USA through live online workshops and accessible, pre-recorded Learn at Home videos.
Now we are celebrating with Meet the Hatter for our 15th, which feels very special and definitely one of our biggest achievements to date.
And of course there’s your Emergence project.
I’m really proud of our annual postgraduate dance company Emergence, which we created and is embedded within an MA Dance: Performance and Professional Practices that is co-delivered with the University of Salford.
Now in its eighth year, we commission guest choreographers annually to make new work on the company of 20 dancers that then tours the UK, whilst the dancers learn how to have thriving performance and portfolio careers around the world.
It’s been wonderful to then work professionally with dancers from the programme for JAD, see them produce their own work, teach and see them join prestigious companies such as New Adventures, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, Beijing Dance Theatre and Phoenix Dance Theatre, to name a few.
Touring is expensive. How does funding work?
We were fortunate to receive funding from Arts Council England through their National Lottery Project Grants scheme. The show is also commissioned by Lincoln Arts Centre where we are Associate Artists and supported by Northern Ballet, Z-arts, University of Salford, the Abderrahim Crickmay Charitable Settlement, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, Children’s Capital of Culture, Bradford Arts Centre, Barnsley Civic, The Golsoncott Foundation and Unity Theatre Trust.
I know that you have community projects to engage with the communities where the company performs.
We deliver workshops all year round in various setting and for a diverse range of participants as I am really passionate about engaging with people and providing them with having access to great art and engagement opportunities. We worked a lot within schools and community groups on the development of Meet the Hatter through our Human Centred Design approach to making work to make sure we were producing a show that was relevant for our intended audiences.
Are many who come to see your shows encountering dance, or even theatre, for the first time?
This is embedded within our work to engage with new audiences as well as existing ones. It’s been amazing to see how inspired children have been watching our previous shows and I think this new show will be so magical for them to experience.
We are passionate about developing audiences for dance and taking dance to theatres that are new to presenting dance so we can build audiences together. We find our outdoor productions also enhance this as we bring out movement language and productions to the streets and to audiences who may not have experienced contemporary dance before.
After the initial tour of Meet the Hatter, what comes next?
Very good question… we are on tour until February 2026 and are currently planning the future tours of the show, both UK and international, as well as creating new outdoor work for festivals and rural touring. Also, we will produce digital installations and programmes for public spaces to continue showcasing the magic of the Hatter!
Meet the Hatter tours the UK this autumn and winter to the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre, Leeds (19 Sept), Mansfield Palace Theatre (1 & 2 Oct), Barnsley Civic (29 & 30 Oct), Lincoln Arts Centre (31 Oct & 1 Nov), Bradford Arts Centre (12 & 13 Dec), Darlington Hippodrome (11 Feb), Z-arts, Manchester (13 & 15 Feb), and the Heywood Civic Theatre, Rochdale (20 & 21 Feb).
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
