About me

Photo : Laurent Quinkal

Hi! I’m an aerial dancer, physical performer and rope access technician in performance, who trained at Bretton Hall and with Philippe Gaulier in Paris.

For rope access work I trained first for safety working at height and aerial rigging with AERISC (La Cascade, Bourg Saint Andeol) and then I obtained my CPQ1 in 2017 (Matières, Le Touvet), and my IRATA in 2020 (Formacan, Mirmande). In 2021 I obtained the CQP in Rigging (Rigup, Couëron).

Working as a physical performer for companies such as Horse and Bamboo Theatre and Faceless Street Theatre I asked myself if the work I was creating with other companies was accessible to Deaf audiences, and the general opportunities for Deaf performers in the arts.

With this reflexion in mind, in 2005 I founded Cie Animotion with the aim of creating visual and international theatre and promoting sign language and Deaf culture.

In 2006 I was invited to be artist in residence with Dance company Cie Songes in the south of France and spent six months developing projects for them with Deaf and hearing professional and non-professional performers as well as choreographing for the biennale de la danse in Lyon, and again in 2008. In 2007 I worked again with Cie Songes, creating a masked and physical theatre piece with Deaf and hearing performers, and again in 2008 with a piece of commedia.

In 2007 I created The War of The Buttons that has since toured in the UK, France, Finland and Ireland. The creations continued with  L’enfant Lune, based on Joyce Dunbars book ” Moonbird ” (2008)  the multi-disciplinary and homage to silent cinema, children’s show Portmanteau (2009) and in 2010 the street show Diaspora.

In 2014 I worked on three creations for the company using three different non-verbal styles, : aerial dance piece and live electronic music Je m’appuie sur toi (R &D), JoJo and Billie’s Tour de France and Silver Moon, as well as heading LAB+, an international artistic laboratory of creative development and exploration in visual and physical theatre.

With Compagnie Animotion Je m’appuie sur toi was in residence at Jacksons Lane, London in 2015, supported by la Gare à Coulisses, Eurre, Cirque D-marches, Chabeuil, Adrian Berry and Arts Council England.

This was the beginning of the show Mâ, an outdoor nighttime piece for corde lisse, Chinese Pole, aerial dance, dance and live music by electronic French Duo Radio Edith.

In 2016 I collaborated with Transe Express, creating vertical dance choreography for the show, ‘Vivace’, and I was commissioned by ARC, Stockton and The Civic, Barnsley to make a new early years piece for 2017 with the company, mixing circus with live music, The Musicians of Bremen. 

The creation was supported by Arts Council England, 101 outdoor Arts, Seachange and La Gare à Coulisses.

Tango dancer since 2003,  I have trained with many dancers including Pablo Rodriguez, Fernando Sanchez, Marcelo Almiron and Andres Cejas, and worked as  performer for compagnies such as Duo Des Branches and outside eye for dance such as Cie 158. 

I have worked in rigging and rope access for CATS Engineering, at ESAC – Brussels, U-Arena – Paris, La Cascade – National Circus Centre, for various street and circus companies, for the Israeli straps artist Danny Tavori, and for Wired Aerial for the Opera “Rigoletto” in Bregenz, Austria, as a stunt climber. 

I have performed and taught in France, UK, Spain, Italy, Austria, Finland, Ireland and the Czech Republic, and have worked with children, adults, young people with learning and behavioural difficulties, and in universities, schools and prisons. I have also developed my own pedagogy in inclusive choreography, working with different types of ability and social behaviour.

I am currently developing my own solo performance work alongside that of my company.