Colin Ross Waterson is the co-creator, composer and lyricist for new musical, One Life Only—produced by Scissor Kick and premiering 2027. He scored multi-award-winning short films Blood Out of a Stone & Early Mourning—both streaming on Amazon Prime. He is also the co-creator, composer and lyricist for A Second Chance—a new musical. Recent commissions include: The Vesica / Horror Show at Somerset House, The Game of Life with The Sinistry and Sensoring Sound for UEL / Arts Council. He is currently developing three new pieces of musical theatre: Two Susans, Quad Squad and Harris & Greta. He is also scoring new play Remember You are Beauty Full for Perth Theatre.
Colin is a performing arts / music educator specialising in music production, performance, music business, dance, composition, songwriting and lyric writing. He is an Associate with Pearson, writing for and providing quality assurance on their Higher Nationals qualifications for Theatre, Music and Dance. He was a faculty member at Bodywork Company Dance Studios, Institute of Contemporary Music Performance and The British Academy of New Music. Colin was a member of Matthew Bourne's education / outreach team, teaching workshops based on Swan Lake and Highland Fling.
Prior to his career as a composer, Colin was a dancer for many years. He was member of Matthew Bourne's dance theatre company, creating roles in the original West End, LA and Broadway productions of Swan Lake. He also created roles in the original West End of production of Cinderella. He was a founding member of Intoto Dance Company, performing repertoire by Richard Alston, Siobhan Davies, Darshan Singh-Bhuller, Ian Spink, Rafael Bonachela & Sally Owen. He worked on a wide range of projects with Bunty Matthias Company. Other theatre standouts include: Britten’s Death in Venice (starring Philip Langdridge), the English National Opera revival of Purcell's The Fairy Queen (directed by David Pountney), and the Opera du Rhin production of Mozart's Seraglio with Les Arts Florrisants.
He also recorded as Waterson, making three solo albums—Dada, Basquiat Beats & Paris Still Burns—and a slew of underground classics including Scars with KDA on the [PIAS] label, Strip Down with Smokin' Jo on the Junior Boys Own label and Ego with Ashley Beedle on the Ramrock label. He also had a massive club hit Tell Me with KDA, later remixed by Kenny Dope. During his time recording he collaborated with Black Science Orchestra, Honey Dijon, Victoria Wilson James, Terry Farley, Billie Ray Martin and Severino. Performing as Waterson, Colin appeared at Lovebox, Womad, Defected in the Park, Horse Meat Disco, Trade, DTPM, Ministry of Sound, Vega, Space, Creamfields and Pride.