BECAUSE OF GRAVITY
BECAUSE OF GRAVITY
Teaching & Facilitation
Youth & Community Projects
Theatre / Film / Digital /Music
TEACHING & FACILITATION
TEACHING & FACILITATION
Performance & Research
WITH A 25-YEAR INTERNATIONAL PORTFOLIO CAREER, I AM A MULTIFACETED CHOREOGRAPHIC ARTIST WORKING IN DIRECTORIAL, COLLABORATIVE, PERFORMANCE, PRODUCING/CURATION, FACILITATION AND MENTORING ROLES.
I CREATE AND COLLABORATE ON DANCE, THEATRE, INTERDISCIPLINARY, MOVING-IMAGE, FILM, DIGITAL AND PARTICIPATORY WORKS.
I acknowledge the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. I pay my respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, and to Elders past and present.
PORTFOLIO
SELECTED DIRECTORIAL, CHOREOGRAPHIC & COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS
BELARUS FREE THEATRE
Choreographic, Movement and Rehearsal Director and International Researcher
Including on the New York Times listed 'Best Theatre of 2017' and 'Off West End' award winning production 'Burning Doors', 'Trustees' (Malthouse and Melbourne International Festival), 'Counting Sheep: Staging A Revolution (VAULT Festival London 2019 headline production), 'Trash Cuisine', 'Red Forest' and more touring the UK, Europe, North America and Australia.
'IRON BUTTERFLIES'
Choreographer and Performer
A hybrid documentary about the downing of flight MH17. World Premiere Sundance World Documentary Competition 2023, European Premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2023, and screening at festivals around the world.
PROJECT AUSKE
Co-Director and Co-Founder with longstanding collaborator Joseph Lau, www.projectauske.com
'THE BELL CURVES'
Movement Director and Director on research and development of a new play by writer Keisha Thompson.
'THE CORRESPONDENTS'
Co-created with Ukrainian Film Artist Roman Liubyi
A moving image research project, and produced by Babylon'13 and Project Auske. Supported by the European Union under the House of Europe.
'ON THE HOUR: DANCE KAHANYAN'
Co-Artistic Director with Wahab Shah, on a UK/Pakistan collaboration supported by The British Council 'New Perspectives' program.
'THEY GATHER'
Co-Creator, Co-Director, Co-Choreographer and Co-Producer
'They Gather' is independent multi-year, international, multi-modal interdisciplinary project reaching audiences in cultural, festival, public and digital spaces.
'BABY FEVER'
Working as Lead Artist, on a new work created by Contact Young Company and Theater DEGASTEN.
'SUFI IN THE CITY', collaborating as Associate Director, Curator, Maker, and Performer, on a contemporary interdisciplinary arts project gathering influence from Sufi artistic forms. Conceived and Directed by Sarah Sayeed.
COMMISSIONS
I have received commissions from: the EU consortium BeSpectACTive! (for the project 'YES Move. NO Move. (Moved?), Creative Europe funded), Illuminating York (for 'The Ice, the Land and the Sea', FISKE & CROFTS), moves - International Festival of Movement of Screen and the Watching Dance Project (for 'Red Rain'), Moving Dance Forward (Dance Manchester, MDI, Contact, The Lowry, University of Salford, Unity Theatre), University of Salford, TURN Prize (Dance Manchester, hAb, greenroom for The GEF House Experiment), and Dance Manchester and the Science Engineering Education Research and Innovation Hub (SEERIH) at the University of Manchester (to collaborate with leading British Astrophysicists).
FESTIVALS & VENUES
As a self-organising, collaborating and engaged artist, I have presented work at venues, initiatives and festivals that includes: The Lowry, 'Dance Sampled' (by The Movement - a Sadlers Wells, Birmingham Hippodrome and The Lowry partnership), The Future (a The Lowry and Rambert partnership), The Place and Chisenhale Dance, Rewire International Music Festival, Modern Body Laboratory, Supercell Festival of Contemporary Dance, Urban Moves International Dance Festival, Mintfest, Manchester Day, Teatro La Fenice, with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and more.
DEVELOPMENT, PRODUCING & CURATION
I have undertaken roles in advocacy, development, producing, curation, fundraising, project management, coordination and arts administration including with:
Contact, Phluxus2 Dance Collective, Manchester Dance Consortium (Manchester Choreoab 2017), North West Dance Artist Led for Artists Network, Vanhulle Dance Theatre (Trustee), Dance Manchester, Rio Rhythmics Latin Dance Academy, Director/Producer Cheryl Stock on 'Accented Body', and Ausdance QLD.
PERFORMANCE
As a performer and collaborator I have worked with: Buzz Dance Theatre (company dancer performing works by Paige Gordon, Carol Wellman Kelly and Felicity Bott), Joseph Lau (including in the TURN Prize winning work 'Abandoned Things), Cheryl Stock, Helen Sky and Sarah Rubidge on 'Accented Body (Brisbane International Festival), imitating the dog (touring cast to Cena Brasil Interncional), Louise Deleur, Tarcisio Teatini-Climaco, Kirsten Bell, Xanthe Beesely, Wendy Wallace, and Rosetta Cook.
FACILITATION & TEACHING
I also have an extensive portfolio in teaching and mentoring in community, education, prevocational training, and professional contexts, with e.g. Phluxus2, The Lowry Centre for Advanced Training, The Aboriginal Centre for Performing Arts, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Roehampton University, Queensland University of Technology, The Place Summer House, University of Salford, University of Central Lancashire, HWY Festival La Boite Theatre Company, Dancenorth Australia, Expressions Dance Company (now Australian Dance Collective), MAD Dance House, Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre and more.
PRACTICES
As an international artist, and via my dual identity as both an Australian and British citizen, I aim to make meaningful contributions to both countries. I also aim to contribute wider internationally via partnership building and collaborations with artists, communities, change-makers, producers, curators, advocates, and organisations.
My practices engage closely with people and organisations to generate strategies for empowerment and change-making that are specific and meaningful to the people, and the environment the work impacts.
NEWS
'Iron Butterflies' is a Ukrainian feature-length hybrid documentary about the downing of flight MH17, is part of the official selection at Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Documentary Competition 2023 (USA), Berlin International Film Festival Panorama program 2023 (DE), Thessaloniki Film Festival 2023 (GR), Movies That Matter 2023 (NL), Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival 2023 (CA), Melbourne International Film Festival (AUS), Doc Edge Film Festival (NZ), KVIFF (CZ), Docaviv (ISRL), Docudays (UA), Warsaw International Film Festival (PL), and DOK.Fest 2023 (DE).
*Winner RIGHTS NOW! Main Prize at Docudays 2023 (UA)
Director: Roman Luibyi
Producers: Babylon'13 and Trimafilm
Choreographer and Performer: Bridget Fiske
"Occasionally, the screen goes to black and white, and what seconds ago was simple footage is revealed as reenactment. And not even simply that, but...dance that probes the underlying themes - complicity, terror, loss. It is wordless exposition, simple and powerful..."
- Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle -
"On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down by Russian forces over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board. The reality of this attack, and its possible ramifications for the then-ongoing war in Donbas and the West’s relationship with Russia, was immediately questioned by the Russian government and media. As voluminous evidence — including physical artifacts like the butterfly-shaped shrapnel found in the bodies of the pilots — piled up, the lies denying reality only became more outlandish and incredible.
In a world where violence can only be defended by lies, and lies only maintained by violence, Iron Butterflies presents the truth of what happened to MH17, but also what was at stake by not confronting it. Director Roman Liubyi uses a wealth of visual material and individual testimonies to craft this artful yet evidence-driven examination of a turning point in recent world history. This act of mass murder not only destroyed so many people’s lives and the possible future that they could have built — it contained the seeds of the future we now live in."
Photographers whose work appears on this site: Ekua Bayunu, Maureen Billeau, Victor Isabel Bueno, Lisa Cullen, Costin Chesnoiu for Teatrul National Radu Stanca Sibiu, Bridget Fiske, Christine Fiske, Jessie Giraud, Joseph Lau, Nicolai Khalezin, Matt Kowalczuk, Stelios Manousakis, Nadia Milford, Stephanie Pan, Dorin Alexandru Părău, Point of View, Jana Sedláčková, Brian Slater, Cloe Sophia, Eamonn Sweeney - CreativeImageworx and Sammie Williams.
Website design: Bridget Fiske