Brendon Hansford's Biography

Who is Brendon Hansford?

When one first meets Brendon Hansford one is immediately struck by his infectious vitality. His open and energetic body language comes as no surprise given his lifelong attachment to dancing, but more striking is the passion and the vibrancy of his conversation.

Brendon Hansford was born on 16 June 1983 in Hertfordshire, but grew up in Dorset with his father and two brothers.

At 16 he left Sir John Calthorpe’s comprehensive school and set out on his own for London to study at the London College of Fashion.

It was whilst in London that he first found his admiration for dance: “I remember walking past Pineapple and looking though the window and being in awe.”

It was at the end of a year training at the Laban Centre (now Trinity Laban) that injury led Brendon to switch to breakdance.

He danced with a few dance companies, and then followed another one of his great passions, teaching.

Brendon started running classes back in Hertfordshire and opened his own dance studio Alter Ego, which was also his dance name: “At school I was painfully shy, but when I started to perform I became a different person. So, I developed this theory that everybody has an alter ego.”

He ran the studio from 2009 to 2014, when he suffered a bad shoulder injury. It led to him searching for a change of direction and giving up dancing and everything to do with it.

He became a fitness model, and decided to be a life coach, and it was during his training for that role that he had an epiphany: “It was as I went on that journey and explored myself in training as a life coach that ironically I realised I missed dancing!”

It was then that he pursued a carer as a choreographer and was picked up by the agent Stuart Bishop, who in many ways became his mentor.

It was at this point that it really hit home to Brendon Hansford that to be a choreographer, you needed abilities outside of dancing, in particular, good networking and business skills. As well as adopting this for himself, this notion would be at the core of his subsequent work for others.

“Straightaway I got 3 classes at Pineapple dance studios. And have been choreographing constantly on music videos, short films, live shows, and have taught around the world. As well as Pineapple and dance workshops around the world, I teach at Base Dance studios in Vauxhall. If there is one thing I would like to get across it is that I love teaching!

“I also have a youth company and the classes I teach I call core commercial and urban commercial.”

Brendon developed a keen YouTube following and used his videos to instruct not just in dance but in the business, marketing and networking skills he believes are so important.

Out of this work, evolved the full-length documentary “Building a Dancer” where he takes one dancer, who had admitted that she had struggled, and charts her progress as she acquires a range of business and other relevant skills. Hundreds of people applied for the opportunity to be the dancer, but in the end Yiotta Hadjigeorgiou was selected.

Brendon Hansford himself directed 'Building a Dancer', which was filmed and edited by James Williams.

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