SALLY POTTER

Sally Potter started making films when she was a teenager and, at about the same time, started learning how to dance. The parallel paths as performer and director continued until The Tango Lesson, when, for the first time, she has performed in one of her own films. Sally trained as a professional dancer and choreographer in the 1970's at the London School of Contemporary Dance, and went on to join Richard Alston's innovative dance company, Strider, before founding her own company, The Limited Dance Company, with Jacky Lansley. During the same period Sally made several short dance films, including Combines (1972), shot in black and white and colour, and projected on three screens at The Place contemporary dance theatre in London.

Sally went on to become an award-winning performance artist and theatre director with a reputation for work that managed to be both challenging and entertaining. For the theatre, Sally created solo shows as well as large-scale theatrical performances (for example, Mounting; Death and the Maiden; and Berlin; all collaborations with Rose English). In addition, she is a lyricist and singer, has performed in various improvised music bands and collaborated with composer Lindsay Cooper on the song cycle Oh Moscow - which she performed throughout Europe and North America. She also co-composed with David Motion the soundtrack to Orlando.

Sally's short film Thriller (1979), a critical re-working of Puccini's opera "La Bohème", was a cult hit on the international festival circuit and brought her work to a wider audience. This was followed by her first feature film, The Gold Diggers (1983), starring Julie Christie; and then a short film, The London Story (1986); a documentary series for Channel 4, Tears, Laughter, Fears and Rage (1986); and her film on women in Soviet cinema, I am an Ox, I am a Horse, I am a Man, I am a Woman (1988).

The internationally acclaimed Orlando (1992), was Sally's highest profile film to date - starring Tilda Swinton and based on Virginia Woolf's classic novel of an Elizabethan nobleman who lives for four centuries and changes sex half way. In addition to 2 Academy Award nominations, Orlando has won more than 25 international awards, including the "Felix" awarded by the European Film Academy for the best Young European Film of 1993.

Yes (2004/I)with: Joan Allen, Shirley Henderson, Sam Neill and Simon Abkarian.

The Man Who Cried (2000), with Christina Ricci, Johnny Depp and Oleg Yankovsky.

The Tango Lesson (1997)with: Sally Potter, Pablo Verón

Orlando (1992)with: Tilda Swinton, Quentin Crisp,

I Am an Ox, I Am a Horse, I Am a Man, I Am a Woman (1988) ... aka Women Filmmakers in Russia (USA) Tears, Laughter, Fear and Rage: Rage (1987) (TV) Tears, Laughter, Fear and Rage: Tears (1987) (TV) The Gold Diggers (1983) London Story (1980) Thriller (1979)