21Common blend iconoclastic references, pop culture and preoccupation with risk and danger to create spectacular dance experiences. It’s key collaborators are Artistic Directors Lucy Gaizely and Gary Gardiner, Scotland’s leading learning-disabled dancer Ian Johnston and Executive Producer Louise Irwin.

Their show Dancer was presented at UNLIMITED at Southbank, London; Fierce Festival, Birmingham; Battersea Arts Centre, London; People's Dancing Festival, Cardiff Millennium Centre (all 2014); Behaviour Festival, The Arches, Glasgow; The Place, London; Bounce Festival Belfast (all 2015); Edinburgh Fringe 2016; (Made In Scotland Showcase / Total Theatre Award Nominee); GAM, Santiago, Chile 2017; Nøtterøy Kulturhus, Ibsenhuset, Skien, Bølgen Kulturhus, Larvik and Drammens Teater, all Norway 2017. Lancaster Arts, Colchester Arts Centre, York St Johns and Chats Palace, London (2018) and Made in Scotland Festival, De Kriekelaar, Brussels 2019.

The Ballad of the Apathetic Son and His Narcissistic Mother was presented at Take Me Somewhere, Tramway, Glasgow, The Place, London. (2017); Summerhall, Edinburgh, as part of Made In Scotland Showcase, Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2018) and toured to Kontrapunkt Festival, Pałac Młodzieży, Szczecin, Poland; EUROPEAN BÜRGERBÜHNE FESTIVAL, Kleines Haus 3 Dresden, Germany; Taranaki Festival, New Plymouth, New Zealand, Sydney Fringe Touring Hub Headline Act, Australia (all 2019) and tanzhaus nrw, Dusseldorf, Germany (2023).

Just before the pandemic they created IN THE INTEREST OFHEALTH AND SAFETY CAN PATRONS KINDLY SUPERVISE THEIR CHILDREN AT ALL TIMES which was presented at Take Me Somewhere, Tramway, Glasgow (2019) and Made in Scotland Showcase, Assembly Ballroom, Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2022).

During lockdown 2020 they created a dance film called Anyone, an immersive experience about loneliness, love, boredom and Tiktok, designed to be watched on a mobile phone. Then followed a commission by National Theatre of Scotland to research the concept of ‘care’ in contemporary Scotland, resulting in Non Optimum: When It's Safe To Do So- a film, dance collage and artistic enquiry revealing the lives of four learning disabled protagonists when the vital services they are dependent on suddenly stop.

Their work Common Is As Common Does: A Memoir was presented as part of the Future Paisley Partnership and commissioned by One Ren/ Renfrewshire Council. It will appear at Zoo Southside as part of the Made in Scotland Showcase at the Edinburgh Fringe 2024.

In 2023, 21Common began its pioneering arts based learning programme in schools Disruptive Pedagogy which is funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Currently they are under commission from National Theatre of Scotland touring a new work Thank U Next for presentation in schools across Scotland in 2024/25.

Residencies and delegations the artists have undertaken include Imaginate’s PuSH Lab in Hasslet, Belgium (2017) ITAC, New York (2017); Scottish delegation to Tanzmesse, Dusseldorf (2018); British Council Europe Beyond Access (EBA), Kampnagel, Hamburg (2019); IPAY Scottish Delegation, Philadelphia (2019 & 2020) and Artist Fellowship, Centre for Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society, University of Edinburgh (2021-2022).