Amici Dance Theatre Company has never been just a dance company. It’s a revolution wrapped in music and movement, a place where bodies that don’t conform to tradition take centre stage. At its heart was Wolfgang Stange.
Amici Dance Theatre Company's founder, director and principal choreographer, Wolfgang, was born in Berlin and came to Britain in the late 1970s to train at the London Contemporary Dance School. During this time, he worked with the distinguished dance expressionist Hilde Holger, who became his mentor and a guiding influence in his approach to inclusive dance.
When Wolfgang passed away in December 2024, the shock reverberated through generations of dancers, facilitators, and communities he had touched. Wolfgang wasn’t just a choreographer or teacher, he was a hero, an inspiration, a rescuer to so many of us.
He saw people in ways that few ever do.
Wolfgang’s work spanned the globe, from Japan to Sri Lanka, from Germany to all over the UK. He collaborated across languages, identities, and experiences, always drawing out something essential and beautiful in each person.
He worked with those excluded from traditional arts, people with learning disabilities, physical impairments, trauma histories, and mental health conditions. But to Wolfgang, no one was ever “less than.” Everyone was a dancer. Everyone had something vital to say through their movement.
This is my story.
I was 23 when I rolled into the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith. Newly diagnosed with dystonia, I had just lost the ability to walk and was using a wheelchair full time. My body, once my creative instrument, now felt unfamiliar and unreliable. I had just started my own inclusive dance company, Silverbirch, working with children facing barriers to participation. I was slowly gaining confidence through my work with them- being useful gave me purpose- but I didn’t see myself as a dancer anymore. That part of me had receded into shadow.
Then I met Wolfgang.
He saw me move. Really saw me. And without hesitation, he declared me his “prima ballerina.” He put me in a tutu, and in doing so, placed me back into a role I thought I’d lost forever. Not in a way that erased my disability, but in a way that honoured it. He welcomed my body as it was - erratic, involuntary, glorious - and insisted it had something to say.
That moment changed my life.
Many productions followed. So did laughter, tears, deep friendships, and some of the most powerful artistic experiences of my life. Wolfgang’s work wasn’t just about choreography, it was about restoration. Of confidence, of dignity, of community.
Recently, I’ve been writing about “access magic”. Access magic is what happens when access goes beyond ramps and captions, it’s when someone makes you feel entirely, unapologetically welcome as you are. If anyone embodied access magic, it was Wolfgang. He saw potential before we saw it ourselves. He made it feel safe to take risks. He made us believe we were worth watching.
When I learned of his death, I was devastated. At the time, my own father was seriously ill and nearing the end of his life. The grief was layered and sharp. Wolfgang had been father-like to so many of us in the dance community. And yet, amidst the sorrow, I felt a profound sense of legacy.
Wolfgang is in all of us who worked with him, in how we teach, how we move, how we hold space for others. His influence is stitched into the work of countless individuals and organisations across the world. That kind of spirit doesn’t disappear.
True death is not really possible when you’ve lived the way Wolfgang did. He gave people back to themselves. And for me, he gave back something I feared I’d lost forever.
The ballerina in the tutu still dances. And that is because he saw her.
And Amici continues, not unchanged, but held together by the very values Wolfgang taught us: inclusion, courage, and belief in one another’s beauty.
[Image caption: Suzie with Rosie Leak and Wolfgang. Suzie wears red lipstick and a blue velvet short dress featuring white dots and a stripy tshirt. Her arm is in a sling made from blue velvet. She is smiling. Rosie has a red top hat and tails, white shirt and black bow tie. Her arm is around Suzie and she smiles. Wolfgang rests his head on Rosie's shoulder and smiles. He has kind eyes and grey hair and moustache.]