Featured in Circus Sessions #5
Don’t Drop the Ball: Object Manipulation.A crystal ball. An oversized…
FdFC creates performance work through collaboration with artists across disciplines, combining contemporary circus/dance with artistic curiosity, risk and reflection.
Our mission is to engage and inspire through artistic activities in circus and dance across diverse audiences and artists for happier and healthier lives.
Concept by: Holly Treddenick
Creation by: Holly Treddenick
Direction: Monica Dottor
Performer (s): Holly Treddenick
Original Score: John Gzowski
Costuming: Stacie Patterson and Sara Torrie
Photo Credits: Brian Medina
Videography: Eamon MacMahon
Performance History:
Past Collaborators
Choreographic Dramaturge: Sara Poole (CCAFT Residency collaborator)
Aerial coaching and dramaturgy: Angola Murdoch
Memoir & Movement: Sara Porter
Lighting Design: Michelle Ramsay
Set Design: Monica Dottor, Holly Treddenick, Peter Benedetti
Apparatus Design and Build: Upstage Fabrication
Accessibility Consultant: Alex Bulmer
Producing Partner: Theatre Gargantua
Administrative support: Dance Umbrella of Ontario
Performance History: Rhubarb Festival 2019, TOHU 2021
IN THE FIRE is a solo dance/aerial circus show about my dad. The show is based around stories from my dad’s experience as a Firefighter. It’s about my relationship with my dad. It’s about me. This show is about Fire. This show is about memories. This show is about trauma. This show is an homage to all the Firefighters out there, and to all those who have lost something or someone to Fire.
IN THE FIRE works with all new invented apparatuses – a turn-out coat on a pipe, a rope loop and an aerial ladder. Dance, aerial circus, video, music and storytelling come together to light this fire.
Generously supported by the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts.
Produced by: Femmes du Feu
Concept by: Lindsay Goodtimes and Holly Treddenick
Created & Choreographed by: Lindsay Goodtimes, Holly Treddenick & Monica Dottor
Performed by: Lindsay Goodtimes and Holly Treddenick
Directed by: Monica Dottor
Apparatus Creation: Upstage Fabrication Inc
Set Design: Kelsey Carriere
Sound Design: Monica Dottor
Lighting & Bird Watcher: Ian Goodtimes
Costume: Tanis Sydney McArthur
Performance History: Wee Fest, 2018 + 2019, Soulpepper 2018 + 2019, Ontario Presents Tour 2020, Childrens Fest Tour 2020 + 2021, Digital Adaptation 2021, CAPACOA 2021
Upcoming Shows: Canadian Children’s Festival circuit, Hamilton, Ottawa, Surrey, Winnipeg – May 11, 2022 – June 12, 2022
Reviews of Tweet Tweet!
Flora & Fauna is part installation, part performance, to create a rich outdoor performing arts experience for young audiences and their caregivers. This show is created to be presented outdoors, on a variety of terrains in summer or winter.
Creative Team
Concept by: Holly Treddenick & Lindsay Goodtimes
Creation by: Holly Treddenick, Lindsay Goodtimes & Monica Dottor
Direction: Monica Dottor
Performer (s): Holly Treddenick, Lindsay Goodtimes
Sound Design: Monica Dottor and Rita Dottor
Original Composition: Rita Dottor
Costuming: Tannis MacArthur
Photo Credit: Mark Zelinski
Videography: Upstage Dynamics
Booking contact: Tara Bailiwick, bailiwick.biz@gmail.com
Performance history: Premiere for 2022/23
“Isn’t this what we want for our children? This immersion in the natural world, this feeling-at-oneness, these eyes sparkling with fire.”
– Child & Nature Alliance of Canada
Flora & Fauna began creation in Fall 2020. We are preparing a free-standing apparatus for an outdoor performance experience, maintaining awareness around Covid-19 and the new restrictions placed on the performing arts. We are approaching this creation process as an opportunity to create outside the box for these unknown times.
Femmes du Feu Creations is grateful to Theatre Gargantua, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, the OAC Recommender Grants for Theatre Creators from Carousel Players and Young People’s Theatre, and the Canada Council for the Arts for the support of this project.
BIND Credits (Live Show)
Concept by: Holly Treddenick
Direction: Monica Dottor
Performer (s): Angola Murdoch, Natlalie Fullerton, Lara Ebata, Lindsay Goodtimes, Holly Treddenick
Costuming: Sara Torri
Painting credit: Diane McGrath
Videography: Eamon MacMahon
Performance history: Rhubarb Festival, Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, Toronto, February 2018
BIND (Video)
Concept by: Holly Treddenick
Performer (s): Angola Murdoch and Holly Treddenick
Music: Jennifer Castle, Dr. Draw
Photo Credit: Upstage Dynamics Inc
Videography: Upstage Dynamics Inc
Performance history:
St. John’s International Circus Fest (digital festival), September 2020
Mighty Niagara Film Festival, Stratus Winery, July 2021
Concept by: Holly Treddenick
Creation by: Holly Treddenick
Performer (s): Lara Ebata, Natalie Fullerton, Diana Lopez, Angola Murdoch
Music: Squid Lid
Videography: Eamon McMohnn
Booking contact: Femmes du Feu Creations
Performance history: HarbourKids Circus 2019
Commissioned by Harbourfront Centre for HarbourKids Circus 2019
Direction & Concept: Sabrina Pringle and Holly Treddenick
Performer (s): James FIsher, Natalie Fullerton, Lara Ebata, Sabrina Pringle, Holly Treddenick
Music: Squid Lid
Costuming: Sabrina Pringle
Photo Credit: Dan Huziak
Videography: Peter Benedetti
Performance history:
Zero Gravity Circus, Toronto, 2010
Toronto Pride Festival, Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, Toronto, 2010
The Grand Theatre, London Fringe Festival, 2010
Hamilton Fringe Festival, 2010
The Aster Theatre, Winnipeg Fringe Festival, 2010
Femmes du Feu’s Holly Treddenick and Sabrina Pringle brought back performers Lara Ebata and Natalie Fullerton to collaborate and join forces with musician James Fisher of Zirco Circus to create their new aerial dance show Airship.Inspired by the culture and esthetics of Steampunk, Airship imagines the path not taken for technology in the early explorations of flight, and reveals the inner workings of a ship powered by human movement.
Leonardo Da Vinci said “For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return”.
Jump into the rigging, set sail and dive into the legend and lore of women on the high seas in this aerial dance show!
Concept by: Sabrina Pringle and Holly Treddenick
Creation by: Sabrina Pringle and Holly Treddenick
Direction: Mark Richard
Performer (s): Sabrina Pringle and Holly Treddenick
Costuming: Sabrina Pringle, Lucian Matis
Performance history:
Zero Gravity Circus, Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto Fringe Festival
Winnipeg Fringe Festival
(TOHU, The Cultch, Femmes du Feu Creations)
Date: June 6 – 11, 2022
Where: The Bank Art House, Welland, Ontario
Project Description:
Circus Sessions is a creative residency for circus artists and multidisciplinary artists who intersect with circus, originally conceived by Holly Treddenick and Lynanne Sparrow.
In this 6th iteration of Circus Sessions, we focus hyper local and hyper now with mentors and all artists from across Ontario. Alex Bulmer (Common Boots Theatre) and Angola Murdoch (LookUp Theatre) will guide artists through a week of exploration, play and collaboration focusing on telling our stories and working through the unique approach of “de-centralized vision” developed by Alex Bulmer.
2022 Participating Artists:
Erica Liu
Tanis MacArthur
Diana Lopez Soto
Hilary Wear
Thomas Vaccaro
WEEK 1
Monday, June 17 to Saturday, June 22 – Emerging Artists
WEEK 2
Monday, June 24 to Saturday, June 29 – Professional Artists
Alex Bulmer, blind theater artist, writer and dramaturge, will be working with each group on creative audio description and creating with a framework of “decentralizing vision”.
Audio Description will be offered Saturday June 22nd and Saturday June 29th
ASL Interpretation will be offered Saturday June 22nd.
For information about venue accessibility, parking, TTC and more, see
http://www.tocentre.com/information-theatregoers
Circus Sessions participants:
Natayu Mildenberger (Toronto), Rebecca Anne Zelewicz (Toronto), Miranda S Tempest (Toronto), Jennifer Dallas (Toronto), Aude Lavergne (Montreal), Andrei Anissimov (Montreal), Noemie Beauchamps (Montreal), Giselle Mar (Montreal), Myriam Bloom (USA), Wondercabinet Weshinskey (USA), Sarah Muehlbauer (USA), Maggie B. Karlin (USA), Inka Lilja (Finland), Ida Cramer (Germany), Tina Carter (UK)
This year we have Alex Bulmer with us to work with 3 artists, Whitney Nicole (Kelowna), Erin Ball (Kingston), and Kate Kavanagh (UK), on audio description and to lead research around increasing accessibility in circus.
Circus Sessions Mentor:
Sean Gandini from the UK. Sean is co-artistic director of the fantastically avant-garde Gandini Juggling. Read more about them here: http://www.gandinijuggling.com
Circus Sessions participants:
Greg Tarlin (Toronto, ON), Mighty Mike (Toronto, ON), Louis Barbier (Toronto, ON), Christel Bartelse (Toronto, ON), Manuel Rodriguez (Toronto, ON), Britt Howlett (Toronto, ON), Dominique Rabideau (Montreal, QB), Kevin Cheng (Montreal, QB), Bekka Rose (Montreal, QB), Bailey En (Montreal, QB), Antoinette Lane (Battelboro, VT), Shayna Swanson (Chicago, IL), Courtney Propokas (Chicago, IL), Ty Vennewitz (Ashland, OR)
CIRCUS TALK: A day of panel discussions – Saturday May 21 10-4pm
Mentor:
Adell Node-Langlois (Paris, France).
Circus Sessions participants:
Dana Dugan (Chicago, IL), Vanessa Furlong (Halifax, NS), Leah Samelson (Quebec, QB), Yury Ruzhyev (Toronto, ON), Katelyn McCulloch (Toronto, ON), Jamie Holmes (Toronto, ON), Rachelle Ellie (Ottawa, ON), Chriselle Tidrick (Brooklyn, NY), Erin Ball (Kingston, ON), Marie-Noel Bety (Montrel, QB), Nicki Miller (Brooklyn, NY)
Circus Sessions greatly acknowledges the generous support of the Ontario Arts Council and The Canada Council For The Arts.
Circus Sessions participants: Lara Ebata, Angola Murdoch, Diana Lopez Soto, Emily Hughes, Molly Keczan, Diane McGrath, Greg Tarlin, Zita Nyarady, Airin Dalton, Gabrielle Martin, Jimmy Tommy, Noa Lara Meir, Leda Davies, Esther de Montflores, Lou Poirier
Circus Talk – A Day of National discussions on Contemporary Circus
Saturday, May 16 from 10am to 4pm
Panel discussions with circus artists and organizations from across the country including En Piste, Canada Council for the Arts, TOHU, Firefly Theatre & Circus, Allison Collins of the Vancouver Circus Festival, Circus Stella, and more. Free.
Cross Canada glance featuring
Niagara based professional artists will work with Welland residents of mixed ages, abilities, and backgrounds through art-making to explore and share personal and historical stories.
Workshops will culminate in a week-long residency to shape the material generated into a closing public interactive installation and performance to be shared both in person and online.
Through this process, in whimsical and meaningful ways, we will discover, combine and juxtapose cultural perspectives (Indigenous, settler, newcomer, long-term and recent local residents). The final installation and performance will be determined by the process and the input of participants as well as artists.
A Community Arts Project supported by The Ontario Arts Council
In partnership with Ruth Howard (Jumblies Theatre)
Participating Artists: Sara Lou Stuart, Kitsune Soleilo, Deanna Jones
For ongoing classes and workshops, visit our sister site CIRCUS IN THE TREES!
Locally in Toronto, Joanne Galligan will be teaching for Femmes Du Feu, offering Static Trapeze classes at Pursuit OCR. Static Trapeze is a fun, dynamic apparatus that builds strength and aerial awareness. Session classes and workshops available.
Aerial silks are a beautiful and exciting circus apparatus requiring strength and flexibility. Students will learn how to control their body in the air and move against gravity. These skills are learned with careful coaching through conditioning and play.
Regular classes, Family classes and Conditioning classes are available. There are no prerequisites and all levels welcome.
For more information, visit: https://thebankah.com/2020/10/15/the-bank-family-days/
Class will begin with a game, include stretching, some acrobatics such as somersaults, some juggling, some dance, and a craft or drawing. Participants will be welcome to use the props suggested, but we will also bring reference to household items participants can use.
Don’t Drop the Ball: Object Manipulation.A crystal ball. An oversized…
Contemporary Circus can be_______.Growing up in New Brunswick, my first…
This year’s Circus Sessions, was a bold experiment in accessibility.…
Four days into development and rehearsal for their upcoming show,…
“The contemporary circus world continues to expand beyond the fringe…
Originally from Winnipeg, Holly moved to Toronto in 1995 to study at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre.
Holly has been dancing since she could walk, and has been in circus for more than 16 years.
Holly is artistic director and co-founder of Femmes du Feu (founded in 2003), under which she produces several sector development projects including Circus Sessions (since 2014), Aer Times (since 2010) and teaches workshops.
Through Femmes du Feu, Holly has been performing and creating new contemporary circus works and presenting them across Canada and the USA. She is passionate about community and art, both as a creator and interpreter. She believes art can inspire, educate, build community and catalyse transformation. Holly is also an osteopath (DOMP), and a mother of two beautiful girls.
Lindsay Goodtimes has been entertaining audiences for the past two decades. After graduating from Toronto Dance Theatre in 1998 she spent many years performing and choreographing in the US, Canada and abroad. Her travels took her to South East Asia where Lindsay trained at the Thai fire school. It was there she was first introduced to the circus arts. Upon returning from her travels she was impassioned with a great desire to incorporate fire arts in dance, it was at that time that Lindsay co-founded Femmes Du Feu with Holly Treddenick as a vehicle to explore this fusion. Lindsay was honoured to be a part of the Circus Orange team for many years and participated in their trade mark spectacle performances at JFL Montreal, Winterlude Ottawa and Cavalcade Toronto to name a few. She began her aerial training with Sabrina Pringle in 2006 and is thrilled with the new direction that Sabrina and Holly have guided FDF into. A women of many interests, Lindsay has been a member of multiple bands over the years from Punk Rock to Kindie, Lindsay utilizes different types of performance mediums to explore human expression with the ultimate goal of entertainment.
Sabrina is a mover, creator, entrepreneur, and community maker. Her career has spanned performing, choreographing, rigging and teaching hundreds of students over the last 3 decades. Sabrina has worked with all sorts of people in hugely diverse scenarios. Choreographing within complex rigging, set, and site specific designs is an ongoing feature of her work. This range includes tall ships, tall buildings, sides of buildings, outdoor structures, circus tents, small winding intricate rooms…rarely a blank stage. Some highlighted past collaborators include The Caravan Stage Barge, Circus Orange, DNA Theatre, Company Blonde, and she was the co-artistic Director of Femmes Du Feu 2008-2012. Since 2013 Sabrina has spent much of her efforts on the creation of Circus In The Trees, a rural circus school in Southwestern Ontario.
Rachel lives in Welland with her family. She works for the St Catharines Downtown Association supporting more than 500 small businesses through events, marketing, advocacy and more. She also sits on the Board for the Ontario Business Improvement Association.
Melissa Fishman is a 2-Spirit Salish woman of the Thunderbird clan, raised in Tkranto with origins in Lillooet Valley First Nation in B.C.
Her work over the last decade has focused on access and supports for Indigenous communities, primarily through student outreach, recruitment and retention at the post secondary level. Sharing her passion for learning and seeking ways to overcome barriers to education and community connection within the local Indigenous communities.
Circus has taken on an ever-expanding role in Jackie’s life for over a decade now. She has grown from a student learning to navigate the silks in a small Toronto studio and is now a more accomplished student and performer of various apparatus, including silks, lyra, and hula hoop. Several years ago Jackie realized that she could utilize her journalism background as a means to amplify the Ontario circus community here and abroad. Since, she has written about circus and provided circus critique for The Circus Diaries (UK), Circus Talk (USA), My Entertainment World (Canada), and of course, Femmes du Feu Creations (Canada). What once seemed a dream, is now an integral part of her personal and professional development that she hopes to continue to build on as a part of the Femmes du Feu team.
Angola’s childhood was spent mostly upside down, dancing and doing gymnastics while growing up on her family farm in Grey County, Ontario. She has trained and performed in a multitude of movement disciplines including over fifteen years of capoeira, aerial circus and acrobatics. Her strength is creating new aerial equipment that make sense in a theatrical setting. Angola is an international performer. Some highlights include: Cirque Pacifica (Maui), Waiting for Calder (Art Gallery of Ontario), Planet Power (HarbourKids, Toronto), Maravilla (Second City, Toronto), Granmercy Theatre (NYC), Command Performance (Europe), and Zip Zap Circus (South Africa). Angola has graduated from the National Circus School in Montreal where she obtained the highest level of coaching certification for circus arts. She has taught all over the world offering social circus workshops and her unique master classes. Angola is thrilled and honoured to be part of the Femmes Du Feu team.
Lara has been a dancer for over 25 years. Her formative training began with ballet with the Royal Academy of Dance. An insatiable appetite for dance has led to studies in modern, jazz, Indian dance, Afro-Caribbean, hip hop, Latin ballroom, tap, fire dance, stilts, and various aerial apparatus. Since graduating from the York University Dance Program in 2000, Lara has performed across North America in festivals such as the Toronto Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists, Dusk Dances, the Toronto, Ottawa, London, & Hamilton Fringe Festivals, the Yonge St. Festival, Just for Laughs (Montreal & Toronto), Cavalcade of Lights, the Calgary Stampede, Wintercity, the Rhubarb Festival, and the Second City Late Night Cabaret. Lara has had the opportunity to work with Toronto circus companies such as Circus Orange, Femmes du Feu, A2D2, and Suspended Animation, and is co-artistic director of her own small fire dance company, Goodness Gracious…
Deanna Jones is co-founder and Artistic Director of Suitcase in Point with whom she has created and performed in over 15 original plays, including Barrel Crank, the Dora award nominated Keith Richards One Woman Show and Be Wearing Wolf. Other selected acting credits include: Silly Old Men Ought Not to Fall in Love (Theatre Beyond Words), Bluenose (Carousel Players), and Trout Stanley (Essential Collective Theatre). She is part of FIXT Point’s ensemble for the Tale of a Town Canada, directed Niagara Artists Centre’s STRUTT Wearable Art Runway Show (2011-2014), and is Artistic Director of In the Soil Arts Festival. Deanna has a B.A. in Theatre from Brock University, and has trained with One Yellow Rabbit, Philippe Gaulier, Upright Citizen’s Brigade and SITI Company. Deanna is currently working on a new show about the history of smoking cigarettes, des antécédents de tabagisme.
Sara Porter is a contemporary choreographer, multi-disciplinary dancer, performer, writer, mentor and teacher based in Toronto. Creator of over 30 works since 1990, her one-woman show Sara does a Solo – about returning to dancing after having 3 kids – premiered in 2014 and toured Canada and internationally. Her work is feminist, theatrical, quirky and engages a wide audience. Sara’s dance writing has been published in print and online in Canada and the UK for 30 years. She has taught contemporary dance theory and practice at colleges and universities in Canada and Scotland and is currently developing a practice melding memoir & movement that she teaches in-person and online internationally. Her one-woman show Getting to know your fruit – investigating the potential of queer memoir – was CoVid cancelled and is being revisioned as a film.
Ruth Howard is an interdisciplinary artist, and the founding Artistic Director of Jumblies Theatre + Arts: a company based in Toronto with an Ontario and Canada-wide reach, that makes art with, for and about people, places and the stories they hold. Ruth and Jumblies have created multi-year residencies in a series of Toronto neighbourhoods, resulting in large-scale productions and lasting Offshoots, as well as cross-country tours (Train of Thought and Four Lands), and many other collaborative community-engaged events, projects and productions. Ruth has worked across Canada and in the UK as a theatre designer, has taught at many universities, colleges and schools, mentored numerous emerging artists and organizations, and won awards and recognition for her work. Her most recent multi-year project with Jumblies is and Grounds for Goodness, a suite of short new works on the theme of ‘social goodness’.
I am a mother, land caretaker and a Mexican/Canadian multidisciplinary artist (producer, director, choreographer, rigging designer, performer and visual artists) My work explores the relationships between ecology, body and performance art with a focus on process, decolonization and sustainability. I was born and raised in Mexico and hold a BFA from Emily Carr University. I have participated, exhibited, presented and performed my work in France, Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, USA and Canada. I work in collaboration with other artisans, knowledge keepers, sculpture artists, dancers and riggers. I am a member of Vanguardia Dance Projects, work for Circus Orange and also collaborate with Ana Prada, Alejandro Ronceria, Femme Du Feu, Flying Solo, Hercinia Arts, Fly with Me and Look up Theatre.
Sara Lou Routley is a flying acrobat from Niagara Falls. She has been Creative Director to her troupe Harmonic Shadow Circus for five years. Harmonic Shadow Circus is a collaborative low frequency doom ensemble that averages two productions per year. They use handmade costumes, sounds, and animal masks to play the roles of shapeshifters. Through their creative works, she explores fungi, urban animals, folk history, and historical spaces. Sara Lou is also a painter, sewist, and musician, and enjoys incorporating these handmade elements into her shows. She lives in Niagara with her partner and their husky.
Natalie Fullerton is a classically trained dancer who also holds a BFA in dance from York University. After completing her degree she discovered the circus arts and has never looked back. In addition to co-directing her own fire and aerial company, Goodness Gracious…, she has also performed across Canada, the USA, Europe and Asia with various companies and choreographers. Most recently she has been working with Circus Orange, Femmes du Feu, Les Coquettes and Lady Luck Productions on selected events including, Airship with Femmes du Feu as part of the 2011 Rhubarb Festival, City of Toronto Wintercity Festival 2010, Femmes du Feuʼs production Head First, winner of Toronto Fringe Festival 2009 Best of Fringe award and Patronʼs Pick, The Calgary Stampede 2008 and Just For Laughs 2006 (Montreal), 2007 (Toronto) with Circus Orange, as well as an ongoing residency at Revival with Les Coquettes.
Kitsuné is a 2Spirit, Plains Cree (Nehiyaw), a multi-disciplinary artist residing on Treaty 3. They’re currently working on their first play called “H.E.R. Show,” which explores the dangers of social media and toxic relationships. They are managing ways to display it virtually as a work in progress through pandemic times. She’s constantly exploring themes around culture and balancing today’s digital world to intersect in that work. In addition, she continues to pursue theatre arts through writing and artist collaborations in safe distances and safe spaces in these trying times. As an imaginative soul, she likes to express herself through fashion and storytelling online through her socials and bringing light to indigenous issues.
With over 70,000 hours of experience working with clients such as Cirque du Soleil, The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre, Veld, Burton Cummings, and Rock of Ages.
Peter has extensive expertise in turning even the wildest dreams into highly-detailed reality.
Sara Torrie is a Canadian artist exploring the regenerative potential and ingrained intelligence found in textiles and objects. She is currently organizing her fashion project, Sartoria, to make more space for costume and installation work. her involvement with Femmes du Feu has included a number of costuming contracts/invitations including the great privilege to be part of Circus Sessions, in May 2019.
Circus has taken on an ever-expanding role in Jackie’s life for over a decade now. She has grown from a student learning to navigate the silks in a small Toronto studio and is now a more accomplished student and performer of various apparatus, including silks, lyra, and hula hoop. Several years ago Jackie realized that she could utilize her journalism background as a means to amplify the Ontario circus community here and abroad. Since, she has written about circus and provided circus critique for The Circus Diaries (UK), Circus Talk (USA), My Entertainment World (Canada), and of course, Femmes du Feu Creations (Canada). What once seemed a dream, is now an integral part of her personal and professional development that she hopes to continue to build on as a part of the Femmes du Feu team.
Miranda Forbes is an arts manager with a strong connection to the Toronto dance community. She graduated with honours from the Arts Administration and Cultural Management Program through Humber College and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Performance Dance from Ryerson University.
In 2017, she began her role of Manager of Producing and Administration at the Dance Umbrella of Ontario (DUO). She has been fortunate to provide administrative support for Ontario Dance/Circus Artists including, Christine Friday, Esie Mensah, Holly Treddenick, Bill Coleman, Holly Small, Lua Shayenne and Roshanak Jaberi. Prior to joining the DUO team, she was the Executive Director of the Mississauga Children’s Choir (MCC) and now sits on MCC’s Board of Directors.
She is delighted to play an active role in supporting the Ontario dance community.
With 30 professional years across theatre, television, film, radio, and education, Alex Bulmer is dedicated to inclusive collaborative art practice, fuelled by a curiosity of the improbable and deeply informed by her experience of becoming blind. She is activated by obstacles, well exposed to the absurd, and embraces the disciplines of generosity, listening, time, and uncertainty within her artistic and personal life. Alex is currently part-time Artistic Director of Common Boots Theatre, co-founder and artistic director of Cripping The Stage with The British Council, and the lead curator of Brave 2021 Festival: CoMotion, an international disability arts festival produced by Harbourfront Centre.
Tanis Sydney MacArthur has been an independent costumier for performing artists for more than 25 years. She is also an interpretive dance artist, choreographer, aerialist, stilt walker, prop maker and large scale inflatable sculpture artist. Clients of note include Femmes du Feu, Hamilton Aerial Group, Aeris Korper, Fly With Me Aerial Dance, Steel the Sky Aerial Arts, Team T&J, Mabel Moon, Learie McNicolls, Red Betty Theatre, Aoucheva Dance Studio, Defining Movement Dance Company, Hamilton Dance Company, MacDancers, Parahumans, the Acromaniacs and Artword Theatre. She executed wardrobe and creature design for the independent short film The Sail Tree by Radha Menon. She placed third nationally in the Smirnoff International Fashion Awards 1994 and regularly contributed original designs to Fashion Cares. She served as designer and key wardrobe for the film A Windigo Tale by Armand Garnet Ruffo. She designed and built The Arctic Fox and Inspired by Icebergs, outdoor installations of multiple 16′ tall inflated sculptures in collaboration with Cobalt Connects.
Originally from Winnipeg, Holly moved to Toronto in 1995 to study at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre.
Holly has been dancing since she could walk, and has been in circus for more than 16 years.
Holly is artistic director and co-founder of Femmes du Feu (founded in 2003), under which she produces several sector development projects including Circus Sessions (since 2014), Aer Times (since 2010) and teaches workshops.
Through Femmes du Feu, Holly has been performing and creating new contemporary circus works and presenting them across Canada and the USA. She is passionate about community and art, both as a creator and interpreter. She believes art can inspire, educate, build community and catalyse transformation. Holly is also an osteopath (DOMP), and a mother of two beautiful girls.
Lindsay Goodtimes has been entertaining audiences for the past two decades. After graduating from Toronto Dance Theatre in 1998 she spent many years performing and choreographing in the US, Canada and abroad. Her travels took her to South East Asia where Lindsay trained at the Thai fire school. It was there she was first introduced to the circus arts. Upon returning from her travels she was impassioned with a great desire to incorporate fire arts in dance, it was at that time that Lindsay co-founded Femmes Du Feu with Holly Treddenick as a vehicle to explore this fusion. Lindsay was honoured to be a part of the Circus Orange team for many years and participated in their trade mark spectacle performances at JFL Montreal, Winterlude Ottawa and Cavalcade Toronto to name a few. She began her aerial training with Sabrina Pringle in 2006 and is thrilled with the new direction that Sabrina and Holly have guided FDF into. A women of many interests, Lindsay has been a member of multiple bands over the years from Punk Rock to Kindie, Lindsay utilizes different types of performance mediums to explore human expression with the ultimate goal of entertainment.
With over 70,000 hours of experience working with clients such as Cirque du Soleil, The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre, Veld, Burton Cummings, and Rock of Ages.
Peter has extensive expertise in turning even the wildest dreams into highly-detailed reality.
Sabrina is a mover, creator, entrepreneur, and community maker. Her career has spanned performing, choreographing, rigging and teaching hundreds of students over the last 3 decades. Sabrina has worked with all sorts of people in hugely diverse scenarios. Choreographing within complex rigging, set, and site specific designs is an ongoing feature of her work. This range includes tall ships, tall buildings, sides of buildings, outdoor structures, circus tents, small winding intricate rooms…rarely a blank stage. Some highlighted past collaborators include The Caravan Stage Barge, Circus Orange, DNA Theatre, Company Blonde, and she was the co-artistic Director of Femmes Du Feu 2008-2012. Since 2013 Sabrina has spent much of her efforts on the creation of Circus In The Trees, a rural circus school in Southwestern Ontario.
Circus has taken on an ever-expanding role in Jackie’s life for over a decade now. She has grown from a student learning to navigate the silks in a small Toronto studio and is now a more accomplished student and performer of various apparatus, including silks, lyra, and hula hoop. Several years ago Jackie realized that she could utilize her journalism background as a means to amplify the Ontario circus community here and abroad. Since, she has written about circus and provided circus critique for The Circus Diaries (UK), Circus Talk (USA), My Entertainment World (Canada), and of course, Femmes du Feu Creations (Canada). What once seemed a dream, is now an integral part of her personal and professional development that she hopes to continue to build on as a part of the Femmes du Feu team.
Angola’s childhood was spent mostly upside down, dancing and doing gymnastics while growing up on her family farm in Grey County, Ontario. She has trained and performed in a multitude of movement disciplines including over fifteen years of capoeira, aerial circus and acrobatics. Her strength is creating new aerial equipment that make sense in a theatrical setting. Angola is an international performer. Some highlights include: Cirque Pacifica (Maui), Waiting for Calder (Art Gallery of Ontario), Planet Power (HarbourKids, Toronto), Maravilla (Second City, Toronto), Granmercy Theatre (NYC), Command Performance (Europe), and Zip Zap Circus (South Africa). Angola has graduated from the National Circus School in Montreal where she obtained the highest level of coaching certification for circus arts. She has taught all over the world offering social circus workshops and her unique master classes. Angola is thrilled and honoured to be part of the Femmes Du Feu team.
Sara Porter is a contemporary choreographer, multi-disciplinary dancer, performer, writer, mentor and teacher based in Toronto. Creator of over 30 works since 1990, her one-woman show Sara does a Solo – about returning to dancing after having 3 kids – premiered in 2014 and toured Canada and internationally. Her work is feminist, theatrical, quirky and engages a wide audience. Sara’s dance writing has been published in print and online in Canada and the UK for 30 years. She has taught contemporary dance theory and practice at colleges and universities in Canada and Scotland and is currently developing a practice melding memoir & movement that she teaches in-person and online internationally. Her one-woman show Getting to know your fruit – investigating the potential of queer memoir – was CoVid cancelled and is being revisioned as a film.
With 30 professional years across theatre, television, film, radio, and education, Alex Bulmer is dedicated to inclusive collaborative art practice, fuelled by a curiosity of the improbable and deeply informed by her experience of becoming blind. She is activated by obstacles, well exposed to the absurd, and embraces the disciplines of generosity, listening, time, and uncertainty within her artistic and personal life. Alex is currently part-time Artistic Director of Common Boots Theatre, co-founder and artistic director of Cripping The Stage with The British Council, and the lead curator of Brave 2021 Festival: CoMotion, an international disability arts festival produced by Harbourfront Centre.
I am a mother, land caretaker and a Mexican/Canadian multidisciplinary artist (producer, director, choreographer, rigging designer, performer and visual artists) My work explores the relationships between ecology, body and performance art with a focus on process, decolonization and sustainability. I was born and raised in Mexico and hold a BFA from Emily Carr University. I have participated, exhibited, presented and performed my work in France, Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, USA and Canada. I work in collaboration with other artisans, knowledge keepers, sculpture artists, dancers and riggers. I am a member of Vanguardia Dance Projects, work for Circus Orange and also collaborate with Ana Prada, Alejandro Ronceria, Femme Du Feu, Flying Solo, Hercinia Arts, Fly with Me and Look up Theatre.
Natalie Fullerton is a classically trained dancer who also holds a BFA in dance from York University. After completing her degree she discovered the circus arts and has never looked back. In addition to co-directing her own fire and aerial company, Goodness Gracious…, she has also performed across Canada, the USA, Europe and Asia with various companies and choreographers. Most recently she has been working with Circus Orange, Femmes du Feu, Les Coquettes and Lady Luck Productions on selected events including, Airship with Femmes du Feu as part of the 2011 Rhubarb Festival, City of Toronto Wintercity Festival 2010, Femmes du Feuʼs production Head First, winner of Toronto Fringe Festival 2009 Best of Fringe award and Patronʼs Pick, The Calgary Stampede 2008 and Just For Laughs 2006 (Montreal), 2007 (Toronto) with Circus Orange, as well as an ongoing residency at Revival with Les Coquettes.
Tanis Sydney MacArthur has been an independent costumier for performing artists for more than 25 years. She is also an interpretive dance artist, choreographer, aerialist, stilt walker, prop maker and large scale inflatable sculpture artist. Clients of note include Femmes du Feu, Hamilton Aerial Group, Aeris Korper, Fly With Me Aerial Dance, Steel the Sky Aerial Arts, Team T&J, Mabel Moon, Learie McNicolls, Red Betty Theatre, Aoucheva Dance Studio, Defining Movement Dance Company, Hamilton Dance Company, MacDancers, Parahumans, the Acromaniacs and Artword Theatre. She executed wardrobe and creature design for the independent short film The Sail Tree by Radha Menon. She placed third nationally in the Smirnoff International Fashion Awards 1994 and regularly contributed original designs to Fashion Cares. She served as designer and key wardrobe for the film A Windigo Tale by Armand Garnet Ruffo. She designed and built The Arctic Fox and Inspired by Icebergs, outdoor installations of multiple 16′ tall inflated sculptures in collaboration with Cobalt Connects.
Sara Torrie is a Canadian artist exploring the regenerative potential and ingrained intelligence found in textiles and objects. She is currently organizing her fashion project, Sartoria, to make more space for costume and installation work. her involvement with Femmes du Feu has included a number of costuming contracts/invitations including the great privilege to be part of Circus Sessions, in May 2019.
Lara has been a dancer for over 25 years. Her formative training began with ballet with the Royal Academy of Dance. An insatiable appetite for dance has led to studies in modern, jazz, Indian dance, Afro-Caribbean, hip hop, Latin ballroom, tap, fire dance, stilts, and various aerial apparatus. Since graduating from the York University Dance Program in 2000, Lara has performed across North America in festivals such as the Toronto Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists, Dusk Dances, the Toronto, Ottawa, London, & Hamilton Fringe Festivals, the Yonge St. Festival, Just for Laughs (Montreal & Toronto), Cavalcade of Lights, the Calgary Stampede, Wintercity, the Rhubarb Festival, and the Second City Late Night Cabaret. Lara has had the opportunity to work with Toronto circus companies such as Circus Orange, Femmes du Feu, A2D2, and Suspended Animation, and is co-artistic director of her own small fire dance company, Goodness Gracious…
Originally from Winnipeg, Holly moved to Toronto in 1995 to study at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre.
Holly has been dancing since she could walk, and has been in circus for more than 16 years.
Holly is artistic director and co-founder of Femmes du Feu (founded in 2003), under which she produces several sector development projects including Circus Sessions (since 2014), Aer Times (since 2010) and teaches workshops.
Through Femmes du Feu, Holly has been performing and creating new contemporary circus works and presenting them across Canada and the USA. She is passionate about community and art, both as a creator and interpreter. She believes art can inspire, educate, build community and catalyse transformation. Holly is also an osteopath (DOMP), and a mother of two beautiful girls.
Lindsay Goodtimes has been entertaining audiences for the past two decades. After graduating from Toronto Dance Theatre in 1998 she spent many years performing and choreographing in the US, Canada and abroad. Her travels took her to South East Asia where Lindsay trained at the Thai fire school. It was there she was first introduced to the circus arts. Upon returning from her travels she was impassioned with a great desire to incorporate fire arts in dance, it was at that time that Lindsay co-founded Femmes Du Feu with Holly Treddenick as a vehicle to explore this fusion. Lindsay was honoured to be a part of the Circus Orange team for many years and participated in their trade mark spectacle performances at JFL Montreal, Winterlude Ottawa and Cavalcade Toronto to name a few. She began her aerial training with Sabrina Pringle in 2006 and is thrilled with the new direction that Sabrina and Holly have guided FDF into. A women of many interests, Lindsay has been a member of multiple bands over the years from Punk Rock to Kindie, Lindsay utilizes different types of performance mediums to explore human expression with the ultimate goal of entertainment.
With over 70,000 hours of experience working with clients such as Cirque du Soleil, The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre, Veld, Burton Cummings, and Rock of Ages.
Peter has extensive expertise in turning even the wildest dreams into highly-detailed reality.
Sabrina is a mover, creator, entrepreneur, and community maker. Her career has spanned performing, choreographing, rigging and teaching hundreds of students over the last 3 decades. Sabrina has worked with all sorts of people in hugely diverse scenarios. Choreographing within complex rigging, set, and site specific designs is an ongoing feature of her work. This range includes tall ships, tall buildings, sides of buildings, outdoor structures, circus tents, small winding intricate rooms…rarely a blank stage. Some highlighted past collaborators include The Caravan Stage Barge, Circus Orange, DNA Theatre, Company Blonde, and she was the co-artistic Director of Femmes Du Feu 2008-2012. Since 2013 Sabrina has spent much of her efforts on the creation of Circus In The Trees, a rural circus school in Southwestern Ontario.
Circus has taken on an ever-expanding role in Jackie’s life for over a decade now. She has grown from a student learning to navigate the silks in a small Toronto studio and is now a more accomplished student and performer of various apparatus, including silks, lyra, and hula hoop. Several years ago Jackie realized that she could utilize her journalism background as a means to amplify the Ontario circus community here and abroad. Since, she has written about circus and provided circus critique for The Circus Diaries (UK), Circus Talk (USA), My Entertainment World (Canada), and of course, Femmes du Feu Creations (Canada). What once seemed a dream, is now an integral part of her personal and professional development that she hopes to continue to build on as a part of the Femmes du Feu team.
Angola’s childhood was spent mostly upside down, dancing and doing gymnastics while growing up on her family farm in Grey County, Ontario. She has trained and performed in a multitude of movement disciplines including over fifteen years of capoeira, aerial circus and acrobatics. Her strength is creating new aerial equipment that make sense in a theatrical setting. Angola is an international performer. Some highlights include: Cirque Pacifica (Maui), Waiting for Calder (Art Gallery of Ontario), Planet Power (HarbourKids, Toronto), Maravilla (Second City, Toronto), Granmercy Theatre (NYC), Command Performance (Europe), and Zip Zap Circus (South Africa). Angola has graduated from the National Circus School in Montreal where she obtained the highest level of coaching certification for circus arts. She has taught all over the world offering social circus workshops and her unique master classes. Angola is thrilled and honoured to be part of the Femmes Du Feu team.
Sara Porter is a contemporary choreographer, multi-disciplinary dancer, performer, writer, mentor and teacher based in Toronto. Creator of over 30 works since 1990, her one-woman show Sara does a Solo – about returning to dancing after having 3 kids – premiered in 2014 and toured Canada and internationally. Her work is feminist, theatrical, quirky and engages a wide audience. Sara’s dance writing has been published in print and online in Canada and the UK for 30 years. She has taught contemporary dance theory and practice at colleges and universities in Canada and Scotland and is currently developing a practice melding memoir & movement that she teaches in-person and online internationally. Her one-woman show Getting to know your fruit – investigating the potential of queer memoir – was CoVid cancelled and is being revisioned as a film.
With 30 professional years across theatre, television, film, radio, and education, Alex Bulmer is dedicated to inclusive collaborative art practice, fuelled by a curiosity of the improbable and deeply informed by her experience of becoming blind. She is activated by obstacles, well exposed to the absurd, and embraces the disciplines of generosity, listening, time, and uncertainty within her artistic and personal life. Alex is currently part-time Artistic Director of Common Boots Theatre, co-founder and artistic director of Cripping The Stage with The British Council, and the lead curator of Brave 2021 Festival: CoMotion, an international disability arts festival produced by Harbourfront Centre.
I am a mother, land caretaker and a Mexican/Canadian multidisciplinary artist (producer, director, choreographer, rigging designer, performer and visual artists) My work explores the relationships between ecology, body and performance art with a focus on process, decolonization and sustainability. I was born and raised in Mexico and hold a BFA from Emily Carr University. I have participated, exhibited, presented and performed my work in France, Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, USA and Canada. I work in collaboration with other artisans, knowledge keepers, sculpture artists, dancers and riggers. I am a member of Vanguardia Dance Projects, work for Circus Orange and also collaborate with Ana Prada, Alejandro Ronceria, Femme Du Feu, Flying Solo, Hercinia Arts, Fly with Me and Look up Theatre.
Natalie Fullerton is a classically trained dancer who also holds a BFA in dance from York University. After completing her degree she discovered the circus arts and has never looked back. In addition to co-directing her own fire and aerial company, Goodness Gracious…, she has also performed across Canada, the USA, Europe and Asia with various companies and choreographers. Most recently she has been working with Circus Orange, Femmes du Feu, Les Coquettes and Lady Luck Productions on selected events including, Airship with Femmes du Feu as part of the 2011 Rhubarb Festival, City of Toronto Wintercity Festival 2010, Femmes du Feuʼs production Head First, winner of Toronto Fringe Festival 2009 Best of Fringe award and Patronʼs Pick, The Calgary Stampede 2008 and Just For Laughs 2006 (Montreal), 2007 (Toronto) with Circus Orange, as well as an ongoing residency at Revival with Les Coquettes.
Tanis Sydney MacArthur has been an independent costumier for performing artists for more than 25 years. She is also an interpretive dance artist, choreographer, aerialist, stilt walker, prop maker and large scale inflatable sculpture artist. Clients of note include Femmes du Feu, Hamilton Aerial Group, Aeris Korper, Fly With Me Aerial Dance, Steel the Sky Aerial Arts, Team T&J, Mabel Moon, Learie McNicolls, Red Betty Theatre, Aoucheva Dance Studio, Defining Movement Dance Company, Hamilton Dance Company, MacDancers, Parahumans, the Acromaniacs and Artword Theatre. She executed wardrobe and creature design for the independent short film The Sail Tree by Radha Menon. She placed third nationally in the Smirnoff International Fashion Awards 1994 and regularly contributed original designs to Fashion Cares. She served as designer and key wardrobe for the film A Windigo Tale by Armand Garnet Ruffo. She designed and built The Arctic Fox and Inspired by Icebergs, outdoor installations of multiple 16′ tall inflated sculptures in collaboration with Cobalt Connects.
Sara Torrie is a Canadian artist exploring the regenerative potential and ingrained intelligence found in textiles and objects. She is currently organizing her fashion project, Sartoria, to make more space for costume and installation work. her involvement with Femmes du Feu has included a number of costuming contracts/invitations including the great privilege to be part of Circus Sessions, in May 2019.
Lara has been a dancer for over 25 years. Her formative training began with ballet with the Royal Academy of Dance. An insatiable appetite for dance has led to studies in modern, jazz, Indian dance, Afro-Caribbean, hip hop, Latin ballroom, tap, fire dance, stilts, and various aerial apparatus. Since graduating from the York University Dance Program in 2000, Lara has performed across North America in festivals such as the Toronto Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists, Dusk Dances, the Toronto, Ottawa, London, & Hamilton Fringe Festivals, the Yonge St. Festival, Just for Laughs (Montreal & Toronto), Cavalcade of Lights, the Calgary Stampede, Wintercity, the Rhubarb Festival, and the Second City Late Night Cabaret. Lara has had the opportunity to work with Toronto circus companies such as Circus Orange, Femmes du Feu, A2D2, and Suspended Animation, and is co-artistic director of her own small fire dance company, Goodness Gracious…
Originally from Winnipeg, Holly moved to Toronto in 1995 to study at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre.
Holly has been dancing since she could walk, and has been in circus for more than 16 years.
Holly is artistic director and co-founder of Femmes du Feu (founded in 2003), under which she produces several sector development projects including Circus Sessions (since 2014), Aer Times (since 2010) and teaches workshops.
Through Femmes du Feu, Holly has been performing and creating new contemporary circus works and presenting them across Canada and the USA. She is passionate about community and art, both as a creator and interpreter. She believes art can inspire, educate, build community and catalyse transformation. Holly is also an osteopath (DOMP), and a mother of two beautiful girls.
Lindsay Goodtimes has been entertaining audiences for the past two decades. After graduating from Toronto Dance Theatre in 1998 she spent many years performing and choreographing in the US, Canada and abroad. Her travels took her to South East Asia where Lindsay trained at the Thai fire school. It was there she was first introduced to the circus arts. Upon returning from her travels she was impassioned with a great desire to incorporate fire arts in dance, it was at that time that Lindsay co-founded Femmes Du Feu with Holly Treddenick as a vehicle to explore this fusion. Lindsay was honoured to be a part of the Circus Orange team for many years and participated in their trade mark spectacle performances at JFL Montreal, Winterlude Ottawa and Cavalcade Toronto to name a few. She began her aerial training with Sabrina Pringle in 2006 and is thrilled with the new direction that Sabrina and Holly have guided FDF into. A women of many interests, Lindsay has been a member of multiple bands over the years from Punk Rock to Kindie, Lindsay utilizes different types of performance mediums to explore human expression with the ultimate goal of entertainment.
With over 70,000 hours of experience working with clients such as Cirque du Soleil, The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre, Veld, Burton Cummings, and Rock of Ages.
Peter has extensive expertise in turning even the wildest dreams into highly-detailed reality.
Sabrina is a mover, creator, entrepreneur, and community maker. Her career has spanned performing, choreographing, rigging and teaching hundreds of students over the last 3 decades. Sabrina has worked with all sorts of people in hugely diverse scenarios. Choreographing within complex rigging, set, and site specific designs is an ongoing feature of her work. This range includes tall ships, tall buildings, sides of buildings, outdoor structures, circus tents, small winding intricate rooms…rarely a blank stage. Some highlighted past collaborators include The Caravan Stage Barge, Circus Orange, DNA Theatre, Company Blonde, and she was the co-artistic Director of Femmes Du Feu 2008-2012. Since 2013 Sabrina has spent much of her efforts on the creation of Circus In The Trees, a rural circus school in Southwestern Ontario.
Circus has taken on an ever-expanding role in Jackie’s life for over a decade now. She has grown from a student learning to navigate the silks in a small Toronto studio and is now a more accomplished student and performer of various apparatus, including silks, lyra, and hula hoop. Several years ago Jackie realized that she could utilize her journalism background as a means to amplify the Ontario circus community here and abroad. Since, she has written about circus and provided circus critique for The Circus Diaries (UK), Circus Talk (USA), My Entertainment World (Canada), and of course, Femmes du Feu Creations (Canada). What once seemed a dream, is now an integral part of her personal and professional development that she hopes to continue to build on as a part of the Femmes du Feu team.
Angola’s childhood was spent mostly upside down, dancing and doing gymnastics while growing up on her family farm in Grey County, Ontario. She has trained and performed in a multitude of movement disciplines including over fifteen years of capoeira, aerial circus and acrobatics. Her strength is creating new aerial equipment that make sense in a theatrical setting. Angola is an international performer. Some highlights include: Cirque Pacifica (Maui), Waiting for Calder (Art Gallery of Ontario), Planet Power (HarbourKids, Toronto), Maravilla (Second City, Toronto), Granmercy Theatre (NYC), Command Performance (Europe), and Zip Zap Circus (South Africa). Angola has graduated from the National Circus School in Montreal where she obtained the highest level of coaching certification for circus arts. She has taught all over the world offering social circus workshops and her unique master classes. Angola is thrilled and honoured to be part of the Femmes Du Feu team.
Sara Porter is a contemporary choreographer, multi-disciplinary dancer, performer, writer, mentor and teacher based in Toronto. Creator of over 30 works since 1990, her one-woman show Sara does a Solo – about returning to dancing after having 3 kids – premiered in 2014 and toured Canada and internationally. Her work is feminist, theatrical, quirky and engages a wide audience. Sara’s dance writing has been published in print and online in Canada and the UK for 30 years. She has taught contemporary dance theory and practice at colleges and universities in Canada and Scotland and is currently developing a practice melding memoir & movement that she teaches in-person and online internationally. Her one-woman show Getting to know your fruit – investigating the potential of queer memoir – was CoVid cancelled and is being revisioned as a film.
With 30 professional years across theatre, television, film, radio, and education, Alex Bulmer is dedicated to inclusive collaborative art practice, fuelled by a curiosity of the improbable and deeply informed by her experience of becoming blind. She is activated by obstacles, well exposed to the absurd, and embraces the disciplines of generosity, listening, time, and uncertainty within her artistic and personal life. Alex is currently part-time Artistic Director of Common Boots Theatre, co-founder and artistic director of Cripping The Stage with The British Council, and the lead curator of Brave 2021 Festival: CoMotion, an international disability arts festival produced by Harbourfront Centre.
I am a mother, land caretaker and a Mexican/Canadian multidisciplinary artist (producer, director, choreographer, rigging designer, performer and visual artists) My work explores the relationships between ecology, body and performance art with a focus on process, decolonization and sustainability. I was born and raised in Mexico and hold a BFA from Emily Carr University. I have participated, exhibited, presented and performed my work in France, Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, USA and Canada. I work in collaboration with other artisans, knowledge keepers, sculpture artists, dancers and riggers. I am a member of Vanguardia Dance Projects, work for Circus Orange and also collaborate with Ana Prada, Alejandro Ronceria, Femme Du Feu, Flying Solo, Hercinia Arts, Fly with Me and Look up Theatre.
Natalie Fullerton is a classically trained dancer who also holds a BFA in dance from York University. After completing her degree she discovered the circus arts and has never looked back. In addition to co-directing her own fire and aerial company, Goodness Gracious…, she has also performed across Canada, the USA, Europe and Asia with various companies and choreographers. Most recently she has been working with Circus Orange, Femmes du Feu, Les Coquettes and Lady Luck Productions on selected events including, Airship with Femmes du Feu as part of the 2011 Rhubarb Festival, City of Toronto Wintercity Festival 2010, Femmes du Feuʼs production Head First, winner of Toronto Fringe Festival 2009 Best of Fringe award and Patronʼs Pick, The Calgary Stampede 2008 and Just For Laughs 2006 (Montreal), 2007 (Toronto) with Circus Orange, as well as an ongoing residency at Revival with Les Coquettes.
Tanis Sydney MacArthur has been an independent costumier for performing artists for more than 25 years. She is also an interpretive dance artist, choreographer, aerialist, stilt walker, prop maker and large scale inflatable sculpture artist. Clients of note include Femmes du Feu, Hamilton Aerial Group, Aeris Korper, Fly With Me Aerial Dance, Steel the Sky Aerial Arts, Team T&J, Mabel Moon, Learie McNicolls, Red Betty Theatre, Aoucheva Dance Studio, Defining Movement Dance Company, Hamilton Dance Company, MacDancers, Parahumans, the Acromaniacs and Artword Theatre. She executed wardrobe and creature design for the independent short film The Sail Tree by Radha Menon. She placed third nationally in the Smirnoff International Fashion Awards 1994 and regularly contributed original designs to Fashion Cares. She served as designer and key wardrobe for the film A Windigo Tale by Armand Garnet Ruffo. She designed and built The Arctic Fox and Inspired by Icebergs, outdoor installations of multiple 16′ tall inflated sculptures in collaboration with Cobalt Connects.
Sara Torrie is a Canadian artist exploring the regenerative potential and ingrained intelligence found in textiles and objects. She is currently organizing her fashion project, Sartoria, to make more space for costume and installation work. her involvement with Femmes du Feu has included a number of costuming contracts/invitations including the great privilege to be part of Circus Sessions, in May 2019.
Lara has been a dancer for over 25 years. Her formative training began with ballet with the Royal Academy of Dance. An insatiable appetite for dance has led to studies in modern, jazz, Indian dance, Afro-Caribbean, hip hop, Latin ballroom, tap, fire dance, stilts, and various aerial apparatus. Since graduating from the York University Dance Program in 2000, Lara has performed across North America in festivals such as the Toronto Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists, Dusk Dances, the Toronto, Ottawa, London, & Hamilton Fringe Festivals, the Yonge St. Festival, Just for Laughs (Montreal & Toronto), Cavalcade of Lights, the Calgary Stampede, Wintercity, the Rhubarb Festival, and the Second City Late Night Cabaret. Lara has had the opportunity to work with Toronto circus companies such as Circus Orange, Femmes du Feu, A2D2, and Suspended Animation, and is co-artistic director of her own small fire dance company, Goodness Gracious…