About Us.

Artistic Director & Founder.

Lee Smikle

Originally from Bradford, Lee discovered his passion for dance and performance at the late age of eighteen. He went on to train at the prestigious Rambert School of Ballet & Contemporary Dance. Following his training, Lee spent nearly a decade as a performer and rehearsal director with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, touring globally in many of their iconic productions.

In 2007, Lee transitioned from performing to focus on teaching, mentoring, and nurturing the next generation of dancers. As Creative & Pedagogy Lead, he taught and choreographed for many years at Trinity Laban’s Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) and The Place’s CAT program.

One of Lee’s most impactful achievements was founding Shoreditch Youth Dance Company (SYD) in 2010. Based at RichMix in East London, SYD was created to provide a creative home for aspiring young dance artists, offering opportunities to create, play, and learn from one another and industry professionals.

SYD was groundbreaking in its approach, being among the first contemporary youth companies to treat young dancers as professionals and future leaders rather than simply youth performers. The company provided professional-level training, empowering its members to train, lead, explore, create, and tour works driven by their own artistic voices.

Whilst an associate artist at RichMix in 2011, Lee created Free to Fall, one of the first dance/movement scratch nights in London. Through this platform, Lee worked with and connected hundreds of artists from around the world, hosting Free to Fall events in London, Brazil, and Sweden. He later went on to produce and support select artists, helping them develop, create, and tour their work.

After relocating to Brighton in 2017, Lee continued to run SYD, rebranding it as Smikle Youth Dance instead of Shoreditch Youth Dance. He retained key elements of the original SYD model, including its focus on community, creativity, mentorship, and offering a home for curious, talented young dancers and artists.

In 2020, Lee realized a long-held ambition by opening Smikle Dance Studio—a space to expand his creative work with SYD’s young dancers while sharing his passion for dance and movement with the local community, engaging both children and adults.

Associate Artist, Resident Choreographer & SYD Rehearsal Director

Natalie Ayton

Natalie, a Brighton native, trained at Rambert School of Ballet & Contemporary Dance and London Contemporary Dance School. She has had an exciting and varied professional performing career, working with companies such as Gecko Theatre, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Wayne McGregor Company, Retina Dance and Candoco Dance Company.  

Before moving back to Brighton, Natalie spent several years working at Sydney Dance Academy, where she led workshops for the Pre-Professional Year Course. She was also a teaching artist on the DancED team and was the Lead Teaching Artist for Mulkadee Youth Arts Festival for three years.  

Natalie has been an integral member of the Smikle Team since 2010 creating innovative choreographic works with our SYD:B students, such as Maelstrom from ORIGINS ’22. She is also a lecturer at IC Theatre in Brighton alongside creating and producing her own creative dance works. Keep your eyes peeled for new work from Natalie!