Me

How did I start writing on dance? By accident. I took my first dance class while I was still doing a diploma in publishing, following a degree in biology. After a couple of years working for a medical publisher, I did a one-year dance course at Laban, then got a job at Dance Books Ltd where I took on their publication production: copy-editing, layout, typesetting of their books, and co-editing Dance Now magazine.

The editor of Dance Now suggested I try writing a review. Why not? That’s how the writing started. A couple of years after leaving Dance Books I got a call from Guardian dance critic Judith Mackrell asking if I’d consider some reviewing for the paper.

Since then, I’ve been writing freelance for the Guardian and many other publications. The biggest single project was the Guardian’s Step by Step Guides (2008–2011) – a series of 59 user-friendly profiles of companies and choreographers that I wanted to be as engaging and entertaining as they were informative. I also conceived and scripted an animation series called Planet Dance: a visitor’s guide to contemporary dance, which has been subtitled into more than 10 languages!

One day I was doing some research and came across an article that turned out to be by – me! Time to catalogue my stuff, I thought, and in 2013 built the first version of what you see now: sanjoyroy.net.

From 2015 I have been one of the mentors of the annual Springback Academy, a Europe-wide dance writing project by Aerowaves Europe. In 2018 I became founder editor of Springback Magazine, a sort of ‘graduate magazine’ for the Academy writers.

Important to add: dance writing has always been ‘side hustle’. After leaving Dance Books in 2000, my day job was nothing to do with dance, art or culture: I worked for 19 years at WorldAccent translations in producing and typesetting multilingual publications – an experience (and a regular salary) for which I remain grateful.