Simon was raised in rural Essex and trained in contemporary dance in Leeds. Having made his home in places as near as Bristol and as far away as Shanghai, he is now based in London where his passion for theatre work stretches across the realms of movement, acting and puppetry. For Protein, he has performed in The Little Prince and En Route To Common Ground, and has also appeared in several works for both Theatre Rites and Tilted Productions, as a dancer, actor and puppeteer.

Other work includes Sleep No More – Shanghai and The Drowned Man (Punchdrunk),The Little Match Girl and Ten Sorry Tales (Ballo Arthur Pita), Betrayal: A Polyphonic Crime Drama (I Fagiolini), Mucky Pup (Theatre Alibi), Benvenuto Cellini (Terry Gilliam/ENO). He has worked with Secret Cinema, Tom Roden, Lucy Suggate, Fleur Darkin, Sweetshop Revolution, Hannah Buckley, Shobana Jeyasingh, Kim Brandstrup, and Hofesh Schecter. 

Born in London, Kassichana is a freelance contemporary dancer and movement director. She graduated from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in 2017 and has since worked with a range of UK choreographers –  including touring work by Extended Play, ACE Dance and Music and TRIBE. Kassichana worked with the BODHI PROJECT Dance Company (Salzburg); touring pieces by Reut Shemesh and Adrienn Hód. 

Kassichana has choreographed work for Sony Music, MORGAN and the BA (Hons) Degree at NSCD (TRIBE). She is interested in moving from sensation, improvisation and questioning the politics of bodies in spaces. 

Jenna Anne is a freelance dancer, model and poet. She mainly works as a performer with various dance theatre companies nationally and internationally. 

She is curiosity-led and inspired by her observations of the world around her. She seeks to record her interactions and experiences and their impact on her inner world through integrated artistic mediums, combining poetry, photography, modelling, dance, and film. She shares her perspective with a spirit of generosity. She seeks to create and be a part of work that will inspire, provoke conversation, and encourage connection between people. She has a passion for teaching and believes community engagement is vital to creating meaningful work. She teaches dance in schools, and youth centres and has facilitated workshops with various community groups and charity groups specifically supporting Refugee and Asylum Seekers in the UK. 

Born in London, Antony began performing in works by Royston Maldoom and Rosemary Lee for the Dance Umbrella festival. He then went on to train at the Centre for Advanced Training and subsequently at London Contemporary Dance School, where he graduated with a first-class honours degree.  

He has performed in original works by Pell Ensemble (800 Lifetimes, UR: Human Presence, Locus), Gwyn Emberton Dance Company (Raft. Nominated for ‘Best Production’ and ‘Best Choreographer’), Didy Veldman, Kerry Nicholls and he danced in Crystal Pite’s Polaris as part of Thomas Adés: See the Music, Hear the Dance at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. Antony also has an interest in design and is a self-taught costume designer.

Matthew has been working as a professional dancer and movement practitioner for the past 18 years. He began working with Protein dance in 2012, notably performing in (In)visible Dancing and May Contain Food. In his most recent work with the company, Matthew completed a rural tour of the duet May Contain Food, May Contain You.

His training began at Laban, where he completed his degree with first class honours. He then spent a year at London Contemporary Dance School as a member of EDge, performing works by Trisha Brown, Ben Wright and Kerry Nicholls. After graduating, Matthew went on to work with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Bare Bones dance company, and was a founding member of Ben Wright’s company, Bgroup. He has also worked with Liam Steele and Robert Tannion in their company Stan Won’t Dance, performed in operas at home and abroad, taught a series of classes and workshops in China, and completed his MA at London Contemporary Dance School. In recent years he has worked extensively Casson and Friends, and later this year will continue his work on Sleuth with Zoie Logic Dance Theatre – an interactive film Noir detective story. He has just completed his training to become a certified Franklin Method practitioner.

Born in Essex, UK, Eryck trained at The Royal Ballet School. Eryck’s dance career has seen him work for companies including Rambert Dance Company, Michael Clark Dance Company, Humanoove, Luca Silvestrini’s Protein, Company Chameleon, Alexander Whitley Dance, New Movement Collective, Musemotion, and Hong Kong Ballet. He has performed works by Christopher Bruce, Itzik Galili, Richard Alston, Merce Cunningham, Siobhan Davies, Luca Silvestrini, Garry Stewart, Mark Baldwin, Andre Gingras, Darshan Singh Buller, Paul Taylor, and many others.

For Protein, Eryck performed in Border Tales and was rehearsal director during May Contain Food. Eryck has also worked on movement development for numerous West End musicals including Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Groundhog Day and Frozen. In addition to dancing Eryck teaches yoga and Vedantic thought and trained under renowned teacher Claire Missingham. He teaches at studios across London.

Lauren is a London-born and based dance artist. She began her dance training at The BRIT School specialising in performing arts. After this, she went on to train at The Place on the BA (hons) course, studying contemporary dance. Deciding to explore her practice further, she continued at The Place, completing an MA on the postgraduate course EDGE in 2021.  

Since graduating Lauren has been freelancing in the UK. So far she’s delighted to have worked on a range of projects including: Starving Dingoes - Lea Tirabasso, Chicken Teriyaki - Rosalía X Holly Blakey,  Leaders of a New Regime - Corey Baker X United Nations X Nowness, WE HAPPY BUT WE BROKEN - Malik Nashad Sharpe and the 2022 Commonwealth opening ceremony. 

Luke was born and bred in Sheffield, England and began his journey into dance at the age of 13, attending the Northern School of Contemporary Dance’s CAT Scheme when he was 17. He then went on to train at Northern School of Contemporary Dance, graduating in the summer of 2022. During his time at Northern he has worked with Phil Sanger, Akeim Toussaint Buck and Mad Dog’s Dance Theatre. Luke also took part in Protein’s acclaimed dance film “The Sun Inside” in 2020.

Luke has prior training in acting, musical theatre and instrument playing, most notably the Trombone. He has a large interest in the use of text and language as a choreographic tool and is excited to push this skill set further in his career.

Luke is thrilled to be joining Luca Silvestrini’s Protein this year.

George is a London based saxophonist, composer, arranger & improviser.
Previously, he was Musical Director for Protein’s Invisible Dancing (2019) & En
Route (2021).

George can be heard playing a diverse range of jazz and improvised music
around the UK as either bandleader or sideman. He writes and performs original
contemporary music with his band Ideasthesia and experimental co-led
guitar/saxophone project Solmonath. Past performances include Ronnie Scott’s,
Royal Albert Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Snape Maltings and Cafe OTO.
He is an alumnus of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
(2017-2021), Aldeburgh Young Musicians (2014-17) and currently works with the
National Youth Jazz Orchestra (2020 – present). He offers private woodwind and
improvisation tuition and is available for gigs, recordings and compositional
commissions.

Trumpet player Celeste Cantor-Stephens plays music that focuses on the creative and exploratory,
embracing a range of practices and traditions, from klezmer to jazz to free improvisation. She is
also a composer, writer and educator-facilitator. Balancing practice and academia, Celeste has
studied widely, including with trumpeter-composer Dave Douglas, at institutions such as the
Conservatoire de Caen (Normandy) and the Creative Music Studio (NY), and gaining postgraduate
degrees from Oxbridge universities.

Celeste is deeply committed to developing the relationship between music and work that is socially
and politically engaged, with human experience at its centre. She focuses, in particular, on human
displacement and borders, and on radical approaches to education, using creative, interdisciplinary
approaches as an expressive, human-led means of exploring and confronting.

Anna is a versatile and creative freelance Tuba player and educator based in London. Graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2019 with a degree in Classical Performance, Anna has been fortunate enough to play with orchestras, ensembles and bands in prestigious venues across Europe.

Although specialising in Classical Tuba, Anna also has a keen interest in jazz, experimental and contemporary music and enjoys having the opportunity to experience new genres and musical challenges.

Laura completed an MMus in Jazz Trombone at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance 2020 with Distinction, during which she regularly performed in venues such as Ronnie Scotts with Mark Lockheart’s Contemporary Big Band, and various other smaller jazz ensembles. Laura plays in a plethora of other musical projects and genres including Barnacles, an experimental jazz quintet, and Latin Jazz ensemble The Voodoo Love Orchestra. She has toured with the renowned Giffords Circus, where she played trombone in their orchestra, and runs 11-piece afro-jazz band Yamäya that recently reached the final 8 bands (out of 5600 entries) in the Glastonbury emerging talent competition.

Laura has just received the Arts Council England Develop Your Creative Practice grant to explore her own contemporary jazz compositions and to continue studying under various renowned UK trombonists and composers.

Joel Waters is a Drummer, Guitarist and Educator originally from Bedfordshire, now living in South East London. Since completing his Jazz degree at Trinity Laban, Joel has had many successes touring and recording internationally with various artists. Including the likes of; Olivia Dean, Sultan Stevenson trio, Rae Morris and Mathilda Homer. Joel also shares a huge passion for teaching, and has taught across a wide number of schools, and institutions in the UK.