Publishing date expected November 2025. Join the mailing list to keep up to date
About the Author
Paul has been active on the Northern Soul scene since 1976 as a dancer and a record collector.
He commissioned the writing of, and was the director and producer of the original stage play Once Upon A Time in Wigan (2003-2005).
He was the movement director for Elaine Constantines BAFTA nominated feature film Northern Soul (2014).
He was the movement director for the groundbreaking Gucci Soul Scene campaign (2017)
He is an ‘outsider’ academic scholar who specialises in how vernacular dance culture is gentrified, legitimised, and corporatised for financialisation.
Paul is a Capoeira Professor and was the Artistic Director of the celebrated Dance Offensive company
Pauls doctoral work focussed on the co-optation of hip hop dance culture within the space(s) of elite contemporary dance institutions in the UK and the resulting commodified and legitimised Hip Hop Dance Theatre products that emerged from that context.
He has written for Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Dance Studies as well as contributing a chapter about northern soul dance culture for the Equinox Northern Soul Scene book.
Paul works globally as a Movement Director for fashion, cinema, dance and theatre
Vernacular dances are dances which have developed 'naturally' as a part of 'everyday' culture within a particular community. In contrast to the elite and official culture,