Every year, Dance Base offers a group of dancers and physical performers a place on our Dancers Emerging Bursary Scheme (DEBS). The scheme includes mentoring from experienced dance artists, free professional classes and workshops at Dance Base, free selected community classes, up to two week-long group residencies at Dance Base and free studio space.
Our 2026/27 group are mentored by Thomas Small.
Thomas is a Scottish choreographer, director, and educator best known as the founder and Artistic Director of the multi-award-winning Dundee-based dance company Shaper/Caper. His work spans stage and film, often combining contemporary dance with social themes and community engagement. Thomas graduated from London Contemporary Dance School. He has received numerous awards and commissions, including the Bonnie Bird New Choreography Award and the Robin Howard Foundation Commission, and was the first-ever BBC Radio 2 Artist in Residence.
This year, Scottish Dance Theatre are also providing support by giving access to their work, inviting the DEBS over to Dundee for a day in the venue to join class and chat to SDT Artistic Director Joan Cleville.
We also partmer with The Work Room, who offer the DEBS a year of membership through the programme.
The 2026/27 DEBS programme is supported by the Turtleton Trust.
How Thomas will work with DEBS
Thomas is deeply interested in storytelling that is both visually dynamic and emotionally resonant. His creative practice explores themes of identity, transformation, and human connection, using movement as a primary language to express complex ideas while weaving together strong narrative and social commentary.
Thomas is interested in supporting performers, choreographers, and facilitators to bridge the gap between their craft and their leadership. By fostering this dual confidence, he will help the DEBS evolve into well-rounded, self-assured and intentional practitioners.
Meet the artists
Evelina Tiger (she/her)
Evelina Tiger is a dance artist and choreographer from Lund, Sweden. She graduated with a First Class degree from The Scottish School of Contemporary Dance (The Space), and has since choreographed work for the Scottish Dementia Arts Festival in Inverness, Edinburgh and Stirling. She has also performed at events including Hidden Door Festival and Edinburgh Fringe – the latter as a part of the community cast of Small Town Boys by Thomas Small.
Over the past year, she trained in various dance styles across different countries, expanding her movement vocabulary and developing her choreographic practice. This has included participating in dance film projects and attending her first international West Coast Swing festival as a follower.
As a disabled dance artist and support worker for adults with disabilities, Evelina is always looking for ways to develop, create and connect with an inclusive approach at the core. She enjoys finding creative ways of tailoring movements to the bodies and needs of the performers she works with.
Having grown up immersed in alternative subcultures, Evelina is particularly interested in the relationship between dance, music, fashion and identity. She is currently exploring how to merge the influences she grew up with into her choreographic practice.
Marcus Burns (he/him)
Marcus, 23, was born in Aberdeen. Originally a keen rugby player, he started his dance training later on in his teenage years. He joined National Youth Dance Company of Scotland where he toured nationally and internationally for 3 years with his highlight being performing in Estonia and the Edinburgh Fringe 2023. He joined the BA course at Northern School of Contemporary Dance graduating with first class honours. He later gained a place in VERVE the postgraduate company at NSCD. Since touring internationally with VERVE in 2025 Marcus has performed at the BRITS 2026 with Rosalia and Bjork , appeared in dance films and music videos and also been an actor with theatre company Rusticus.
Choreographically Marcus has made work on a variety of ages and abilities from community colleges, to CAT schemes and also having two of his own works ‘The World Spins’ and ‘Can I Wear Your Hands as a Scarf?’ selected to be performed at NEW GROUND 2024 at the Riley Theatre. Marcus’ work is usually autobiographical and speaks about matters that are important to Marcus and his collaborators; he feels it’s important for anyone performing his work to be able to bring themselves to the space and the work.
Islay Spanswick (she/her)
Islay is a dance artist from Dundee, Scotland. She began her training at The Scottish School of Contemporary Dance before completing her studies with First-Class Honours. While studying Islay performed with The National Youth Dance Company of Scotland, touring across Northern Ireland and Germany.
In 2025/2026, Islay joined the MapDance Master’s cohort, working with choreographers including Luca Silverstrini, Cathy Waller and Amy Morvell. She toured across England as part of the programme, gaining experience in collaborating with a vast array of people from different backgrounds.
Islay’s current choreographic practice explores the connections between people, the human body and the movement quality of snails. She is also interested in using choreography to express her relationship with Scotland, its people and its politics, with hopes to further explore these themes through research of her heritage and home.
Islay is excited to be part of this year’s DEBS programme. She hopes to connect with new people, broaden her creative practice and continue developing her artistic voice, particularly through the observation of how others work and create.
Sophie Morrison (she/her)
Sophie is a contemporary dance artist from the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. She graduated from London Contemporary Dance School where she worked with different artists whose work challenges the extremities of human physicality, including Liam Francis and SAY Dance Company. She is now based in Dundee where she works as an engagement dance artist for Shaper/Caper, using the medium of dance to empower young people to make positive decisions.
She recently undertook a 2-month work placement for emerging artists in Thailand with Pichet Klunchen Dance Company. During this, she engaged in embodied practice sessions led by nine dancers from Southeast Asia. She is particularly interested in how Southeast Asian cultures have preserved the community-building aspect of their traditional dance forms, and how this is celebrated within their education systems. She hopes to share the joy she experienced from this rich dance culture within her own community in Scotland.
She is interested in exploring themes of human emotion. Although she wants to clearly represent specific emotions in her work, she appreciates how individual experiences will inevitably cause it to carry space for interpretation. Sophie is passionate about making work for the community that is both accessible and artistically ambitious. She is curious about how her cross-cultural collaborations can inform her community engagement approach.
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