Piper, Rae – Grantham dancer created Horrible Histories

Rae Piper (b1978)

Rae Piper was born in Bristol and moved to London at the age of 17.

She met fellow dancer, Granthamian Paul Chantry, in London when introduced by a mutual friend. At the time she was dancing in the West End and Paul had just finished performing at Sadler’s Wells however they became a couple before they ever saw each other dance! After meeting they were engaged within 6 months and married within the year.

The couple, who re-located back to Grantham, are co-Artistic Directors of Grantham-based Chantry Dance Company, which she and Paul formed with a debut performance at Sadler’s Wells in London in 2012.

As a performer, Rae has been privileged to work in many different genres of theatre from contemporary ballet, to opera and musicals. Her credits include Principal dancer for Chantry Dance Company, dancing at Sadler’s Wells as a guest artist for Compania del Cuerpo di Indias of Columbia, being Swing and Acrobatics Captain in the original cast and second year casts of ‘Love Never Dies’ in the West End, and as a featured dancer in operas including for the Royal Opera House.

Rae is also an ex-aerial acrobat and ex-contortionist who toured her acts both nationally and internationally, performing at cabaret venues such as Café de Paris and The Spotlight Summer Ball, as well as for corporate clients including Nikon, Moodys, Canon, Gymbox and Magic TV.

Rae now works predominantly as a choreographer. For Chantry Dance Company, she works collaboratively with fellow co-Artistic Director, Paul Chantry, to create ballets as a principal dancer, but also often in a concept-creative director role. She conceived and wrote the original ballets, ‘THE SANDMAN’, ‘Vincent – a Stranger to Himself’ and ‘Ulysses Unbound’ which toured the UK, as well as ‘Chasing the Eclipse’ for CDC, which was commissioned for Gravity Fields Festival.

Outside of Chantry Dance Company, Rae and Paul’s partnership continues, and together they have choreographed numerous theatre productions. Highlights include choreographing the award-winning West End and UK Touring production of David Walliams’s ‘Gangsta Granny’, and his ‘Awful Auntie’ for a UK Tour. Also ‘Horrible Histories – Terrible Tudors and Vile Victorians’, ‘Horrible Histories – Horrible Christmas’ and ‘Tom’s Midnight Garden’ all for Birmingham Stage Company, and the UK Premiere of ‘The Last Days of Mankind’ for the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Royal.

Rae and Paul also choreograph opera and operetta. Highlights include ‘The Merry Widow’ and ‘Die Fledermaus’ for the Philharmonia Orchestra and John Wilson, at The Royal Festival Hall, and their subsequent revivals for Opera Danube at St John Smith’s Square; ‘The Magic Flute’ and ‘La Traviata’ for The Merry Opera Company. They revived Lucy Burge’s choreography for ‘The Queen of Spades’ for Grange Park Opera, and were assistant choreographers to Ms Burge on the Royal Opera House’s production of ‘Un Ballo In Maschera’. They also revived Richard Jones’ production of ‘The Queen of Spades’ for Teatro Dell’Opera Di Roma, with Rae as Assistant Director for this production.

Highlights of Rae’s solo choreographic work include ‘Gloria – a pigtale’ for Mahogany Opera Group performed at the Royal Opera House Linbury Studio, Buxton Opera Festival, and Bregenz Opera Festival, and a specially commissioned shadow show, ‘Shadowbox’, for BESIX performed in the presence of the Prince of Belgium.

In addition to performing and choreography, Rae is the Director of Chantry School of Contemporary & Balletic Arts which is the official school of Chantry Dance Company. She is also in high demand as a guest teacher throughout the UK, and has taught at many of the top vocational schools, including Elmhurst, English National Ballet School and Central School of Ballet.

Rae holds a BSc (1st Class Hons) from The University of Birmingham in Sport and Exercise Sciences, and is a qualified Personal Trainer.