Joseph Toonga

Joseph is a choreographer creating dance productions relevant to the here and now which are embedded in hip hop and inspired by real life stories. Trained in both hip hop and contemporary dance, his craftsmanship and signature choreographic style challenges conventions commonly used in hip hop dance, and shifts audience perceptions by addressing racial stigmas and societal stereotypes.  

His critically acclaimed trilogy Born to Manifest (2019), Born to Protest (2021), and Born to Exist (2022), sharing Black experiences, were performed in several festivals in the UK, Europe and Canada. With his dance company Just Us Dance Theatre, a collective founded in 2007, he has established an Artist Development Programme both in the UK and Brazil, and initiated UK’s first annually-running hip hop apprenticeship company. He is also co-founder of artist-led hip hop initiative Artists4Artists. 

Known for his ability to inspire dancers by exploring the boundaries of the established dance languages, he has created works for The Royal Ballet School, English National Ballet School, Boston Conservatoire of Dance, Middlesex University, Codarts University of the Arts/Rotterdam, as well with EDge, National Youth Ballet/Bundesjugendballett and Junior Ballet Madrid. He has created work for the Richard Alston Dance Company and East Wall/Hofesh Shechter; was the movement Director for Fair Play, A Bush Theatre Direction; choreographed for Secret Cinema, in collaboration for the premiere of Les Miserables; and was choreographer and movement director for Rumble in the Jungle. He has been an Associate artist for DanceEast, and awarded the Best Choreography Award at New York’s Reverb Dance Festival. 

Joseph Toonga joined The Royal Ballet as the Company's Emerging Choreographer in 2021/22 Season. He was later appointed the Choreographic Residency role in 2023/24. In addition to choreographing for Draft Works, he made his Main Stage debut in 2022 in See Us!!, for The Royal Ballet: A Diamond Celebration.