Alison’s portfolio spans several years. She has worked extensively with companies and choreographers including Barrowland Ballet, Catherine Wheels, Charlotte Mclean, Farah Saleh, Grid Iron, Kirsten Newell, Lung Ha’s, The Lyceum, Malcolm Sutherland, The Macrobert, Rob Heaslip, Scottish Dance Theatre, Starcatchers and Suzi Cunningham.

  • Two dancers wrapped together.
  • Two dancers against a black background.
  • Two dancers in motion against a blue background.
  • Smocking to create a backbone.
  • Two dancers talking animatedly.
  • Dancer against a blue background.
  • Dancer leaping.
  • Costume illustration of the back of a dancer.
  • Dancer with her arms in the air.
  • Close up of rib detail on a T-shirt.
  • Dancer with outstretched arms.

Futuristic Folktales

2024

Futuristic Folktales, a dance for hope, reimagines the story of creation. Through storytelling, acts of birth and un-birth, Scottish Highland and contemporary dance, we attempt to tell the unknown tale of the first ever womb - the place we have all come from. This experimental dance theatre show questions the preservation of tradition, myth and identity whilst scrutinising body politics and reproductive injustices, set alongside an evocative soundscape of experimental bagpipes composed by Malin Lewis.

Concept & Director Charlotte Mclean

Creative Producer Helen McIntosh

Lighting Designer & Production Manager Emma Jones

Writer Nelly Kelly

Composer Malin Lewis

Costume Designer Alison Brown

Dramaturg Rob Evans

Performers Astro Scheidegger, Seke Chimutengwende, Orrow Bell

Technical Manager Lynn Wiseman

Photography Brian Hartley and Amy Sinead Photography

Strawboys

2021

Strawboys is a vibrant and energetic outdoor pop-up performance, blurring the lines between traditional and contemporary dance and music.

​Featuring luminous straw dancers whirling to Balkan inspired beats, the work is a unique spin on the cultural tradition of ‘The Strawboys’, also known as Mummers, Guisers, Burdie Boys and Skekklers; identified by their ornate straw costumes while out rambling streets, fields, towns and parks, parading their merriment to the joy of onlookers.

Choreography & Direction Rob Heaslip

Costume Designer Alison Brown

Composers Zoe Katsilerou, Eilon Morris

Performers Amy Robertson, Jorja Follina, Molly Scott Santer, Malcolm Sutherland, Tess Letham, Joanne Pirrie, Salma Ataya, Sophie Hutchinson, Favour Odusola, Anita Durtová

Rehearsal Directors Jen Wren, Kristin Fontanella

Wardrobe Team Hilary Haman, Cleo McCabe, Zoë Beth Murdoch, Caragh Vetch Philip, Ruth Main, Catherine Rose Elliot, Lise Bech

Textile Designer Lorna Brown

Producer Helen McIntosh

Photography Amy Sinead Photography and Ruari Barber-Fleming

TutuMucky

2017

Powerful and complex, TuTuMucky explores how we’re shaped by the world around us, searches for peace in chaos, and celebrates revolt against the regimens of modern daily life. Blurring the boundaries between ballet, contemporary, and hip-hop technique, this work challenges traditional convention to offer a distinctively innovative form of dance.

Choreographer Botis Seva

Creative Associate Victoria Shulungu

Composer Torben Lars Sylvest

Costume Designer Alison Brown

Lighting Designer Emma Jones

Rehearsal Director Naomi Murray

Rehearsal Assistant Victoria Shulungu

Dancers Kieran Brown, Harry Clark, Francesco Ferrari, Amy Hollinshead, Anne-Charlotte Hubert, Alison Jaques, Oscar Pérez Romero, Jessie Roberts-Smith, James Southward, Astrid Sweeney

Photographer Brian Hartley

Masked

2021

The use of masks in rituals and socially significant ceremonies is an ancient practice across the world and significant to many cultures. Masks in various forms (sacred, practical, or playful) have played a crucial historical role in the development of what it means to be human, because they permit the imaginative experience of what it is like to be transformed into a different identity, or to affirm an existing social or spiritual identity.

Masked was a self led project funded by Creative Scotland during the coronavirus pandemic, a period when masks as PPE were mandatory. The creative aim was to pay homage to the mask as an object of cultural significance, social commentary and camouflage.

Costume Designer & Maker Alison Brown

Performers Suzi Cunningham, Niamh O’Loughlin

Lighting Designer Emma Jones

Photographer Brian Hartley

Mama

2022

MaMa is a motherhood-inspired South Asian dance production exploring themes of pregnancy and early motherhood. The production reflects on the joys and the fears, the exhilaration and exhaustion of becoming a new Mum. Bringing together gorgeous videography, an irresistible blend of Celtic and Carnatic music and two dancers performing with sympathy, sensitivity and skill, MaMa does not shy away from some of the darkest feelings that can overcome new parents, but neither does it indulge them. Instead, it observes them and lets them be. It is a compassionate, supportive and inclusive piece. New parents, overwhelmed whether by joy or anxiety, can feel the need for their own mothering. This production is about mothers, but it is also a mothering caress.


Artistic direction & Choreography Kirsten Newell and Oxana Banshikova

Costume Designer Alison Brown

Photography Brian Hartley

Looping:

Scotland Overdub

2018

Looping is a dance, party and political experience where everyone is welcome. 

Led by Scottish Dance Theatre’s full company of dancers and embracing the collective spirit of ceilidh dancing and Brazilian street festival vibes, Looping is an immersive performance-party with a distinctively Scottish edge. Celebrating individual freedom and the collective right of revolution through text produced in collaboration with acclaimed writer Kieran Hurley, and set to a fresh electronic dance score performed live by Torben Lars Sylvest.

Choreographers Felipe De Assis, Leonardo França, Rita Aquino

Lighting Designer Emma Jones

Costume Designer Alison Brown

Wardrobe Supervisor Cate Mackie

Textile Design Timorous Beasties

Music JD Twitch, Torben Lars Sylvest

Text Kieran Hurley

Dancers Kieran Brown, Harry Clark, Alison Jaques, Luigi Sardine, Adrienne O’Leary, Jessie Roberts-Smith, Oscar Péréz Romero, James Southward, Pauline Torzuoli, Reece Carver, Molly dancer, Georgia Pirozzi

Little Red

2015

Little Red sets off from home, destined for her Granny’s house, trying to be the girl she’s expected to be. But as the woods get darker and the path more strange an overwhelming urge arises; to step off the path, go into the forest and find out what’s really out there.

Little Red is a fun and thrilling show for children aged 7 and up, presented by Barrowland Ballet. It is a story about growing up. Reaching the point where we have to make our own decisions. Which path to take? How far to go into the woods.

Choreographer/Director Natasha Gilmore

Dramaturg/Director Robert Alan Evans

Text Robert Alan Evans

Performers Jade Adamson, Kai-Wen Chuang, Vince Virr

Set & Lighting Designer Fred Pommerehn

Costume Designer Alison Brown

Composer/Sound Design Kim Moore

Producer Belinda McElhinney

The Lover

2018

The Lover is an exotic tale of remembered passion written by Marguerite Duras and adapted for stage by Fleur Darkin and Jemima Levick.

In 1984 French novelist Marguerite Duras wrote the story of her own youth in Vietnam, a personal truth told in passionate, vivid fragments. These incandescent glimpses of remembrance became one of the most acclaimed and widely read books of modern French literature.

The Lover was co-produced by:Stellar Quines, The Royal Lyceum Theatre and Scottish Dance Theatre.

Adaptors & Directors Jemima Levick & Fleur Darkin

Dramaturgy David Greig

Cast Susan Vidler, Amy Hollinshead, Yosuke Kusano, Francesco Ferrari, Kieran Brown

Set Designer Leila Kalbassi

Costume Designer Alison Brown

Lighting Designer Emma Jone

Sound Designer Torben Lars Sylvester

Endling

2019

An endling is an individual that is the last of its species. Once the endling dies, the species becomes extinct. With Endling, Rob Heaslip reimagines mourning rituals through dance, vocals, music and design. Popular and folk culture collide in a world where death is tinged with acid pink, green and purple.

​Concept & Choreography Rob Heaslip​

Composer Michael John McCarthy

​Performers Michelle O'Rourke, Robbie Blake, ​Gillebrìde MacMillan,
​Marion Cronin, Evan Schwarz, Tamsyn Russell, Joanne Pirrie

Dramaturgy Brigid McCarthy

Set and Costume Designer Alison Brown

Lighting Designer Rob Moloney

Producer Helen McIntosh

Photographer Brian Hartley

Hansel & Gretel

2006

Deep in the dark and eerie forest, Hansel and Gretel have been abandoned by their cold-hearted stepmother and spineless father. Trying to find their way home the children discover the sweetest of houses and the wickedest of witches.

Catherine Wheels Theatre Company reinvents the classic fairytale as a spine-chilling promenade adventure. This version of Hansel and Gretel was part of National Theatre of Scotland’s Home: East Lothian, performed in Prestongrange Mining Museum and grounds. Latterly it toured to New York and was winner of the 2006 Critics Awards for Best Design and Best Show for Children and Young People.

Director Gill Robertson

Set Designer Karen Tennent

Costume Designer Alison Brown

Lighting Designer Jeanine Davies

Sound Designer Mark Sodergren

Composer Steve Kettley

  • Woman in big purple hat holding up a knife and fork.
  • Pantomime dame dressed as an octopus.
  • Two Medieval characters in neon costumes.
  • Two characters in patterned 60's inspired outfits.
  • Jester leaping high into the air.
  • Pantomime character riding a bike.
  • Two laughing characters wearing neon Medieval inspired costumes.
  • Costume illustration of a Medieval inspired character.
  • A colourful character waving their arms.
  • Beast costume with horns.
  • Panto dame wearing a handbag costume and huge red wig.
  • Panto characters in a row.
  • Pantomime dame in dress resembling a bed,
  • Dancing pantomime dame in huge orange curly wig.
  • Costume illustration of 60's inspired pantomime dame.

Pantomime

2004 - 2019

Alison costumed pantomimes at the Macrobert Arts Centre for 16 years, gaining critical acclaim and a nomination for Best Costume Design from The Great British Pantomime Awards in 2018.

“Alison Brown’s costumes are constructions of kitsch art form.”

“Brown’s work is a treat, a cornucopia of sweetie wrapper-bright designs.”

"Brilliantly outrageous costume designs (think Madonna designed by Haribo)."