BECAUSE OF GRAVITY
BECAUSE OF GRAVITY
Teaching & Facilitation
Youth & Community Projects
Theatre / Film / Digital /Music
TEACHING & FACILITATION
TEACHING & FACILITATION
Performance & Research
Bridget Fiske
Bridget Fiske
Independent Choreographer, Director, Writer, Performer and Producer
Bridget's 25-year portfolio of work spans stage and public space dance works; acclaimed theatrical productions; award-winning international documentary film; and immersive, participatory and interdisciplinary works across the UK, Australia, Europe and further internationally.
As a director, choreographer, producer and facilitator, Bridget works closely with people and organisations to create processes for creativity and empowerment that are specific and meaningful to the people, the communities, the context, and the environment the work impacts.
"The severity of the show's content... is counterpointed, by the grace, athleticism and skill of its eight performers..."
The Guardian on 'Trash Cuisine'
"...what seconds ago was simple footage is revealed (as)...dance that probes the underlying themes - complicity, terror, loss. It is wordless exposition, simple and powerful..."
Austin Chronicle on 'Iron Butterflies'
"It has the potential to encapsulate global politics and humanity's empathy...visually stunning and an important contribution to the canon of performance art."
Kate Usher on 'They Gather'
About Bridget
Direction. Choreography. Collaboration
From 2012 to 2019, Bridget worked with Belarus Free Theatre as Choreographic, Movement and Rehearsal Director on: the New York Times listed 'Best Theatre of 2017' and 'Off West End' award winning production 'Burning Doors' with Pussy Riot’s Maria Alokhyna, 'Trustees' (Malthouse and Melbourne International Festival), 'Counting Sheep: Staging A Revolution' (VAULT Festival London 2019 headline production), 'Trash Cuisine' (winner 'Total Impact Award' at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2013, assigned by the Italian Cultural Institute), 'Red Forest' (including as an International Researcher), and more.
In 2019 Bridget collaborated as Choreographer and Performer on/in, 'Iron Butterflies’, a Ukrainian hybrid documentary about the downing of flight MH17, Directed by Roman Liubyi and Produced by Babylon'13 and Trimafilm. 'Iron Butterflies' had its world premiere in the Sundance World Documentary Competition 2023, its European Premiere as part of the Berlin International Film Festival Panorama Program 2023, was the RIGHTS NOW! Main Prize Winner at Docudays 2023 (UA), and has been screened at festivals across the world.
Bridget is Co-Creator, Co-Director, Co-Choreographer and Co-Producer of 'They Gather', an ongoing independent multi-year, international, multi-modal interdisciplinary project reaching audiences in cultural, festival, public, and digital spaces, including programming by: Amare (NL), Lowry (UK), The Place & Chisenhale Dance (UK), Rewire International Music Festival (NL), Modern Body Laboratory (NL), Supercell Festival of Contemporary Dance (AUS), Kaatsbaan (USA), ATOM Choreographic Series (BG), Watch US Dance (University of Salford, UK), and Cinekid (NL).
Bridget is Associate Director, Curator, and Maker on ‘Sufi In The City’, an on-going contemporary interdisciplinary project gathering influence from Sufi artistic forms, led by Artistic Director Sarah Sayeed.
In 2022 Bridget collaborated as Co-Artistic Director on the UK/Pakistan collaboration project ‘On The Hour: Dance Kahanyan’, with Wahab Shah, supported through The British Council's ‘New Perspectives’ project. This project investigates, and celebrates, what dance is and means, for various individuals and communities in both urban and rural areas of Pakistan and the UK.
In 2021, with Ukrainian Film Artist Roman Liubyi, Bridget co-created 'The Correspondents', an online moving image research project, produced by Babylon'13 (UA), and Project Auske (UK), and supported by the European Union under the House of Europe.
1n 2021 Bridget worked as Director and Movement Director on the research and development of 'The Bell Curves', a new play by writer Keisha Thompson.
Bridget has also received commissions from: the EU consortium BeSpectACTive! for the project 'YES Move. NO Move. (Moved?)’ collaborating with refugee, asylum seeking, erased, and Roma individuals (Creative Europe funded); Illuminating York for 'The Ice, the Land and the Sea' (FISKE & CROFTS); moves - International Festival of Movement on Screen and the Watching Dance Project for 'Red Rain' (including presentation in Liverpool Biennial); Moving Dance Forward (Dance Manchester, MDI, Contact, The Lowry, University of Salford, Unity Theatre); University of Salford; and TURN Prize (Dance Manchester, hAb, greenroom for The GEF House Experiment).
As a self-organising, collaborating and engaged artist, Bridget has presented work at venues, initiatives, and festivals that includes: 'The Body of Us' for Dance Sampled (by The Movement - a Sadler’s Wells, Birmingham Hippodrome & Lowry partnership) and We Invented The Weekend; 'Because of Gravity' for The Future (a Lowry & Rambert partnership); Urban Moves International Dance Festival; Mintfest; Manchester Day; Queensland Art Gallery; Teatro La Fenice (IT); MediaCityUK and Bridgewater Hall with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and more.
Bridget is founding Co-Director of the creative house Project Auske.
Performance
As a performer, and collaborator, Bridget has worked with: Buzz Dance Theatre (company dancer performing works by Paige Gordon, Carol Wellman Kelly, and Felicity Bott); Amy Voris ('perch' adaptation); Joseph Lau (including in the TURN Prize winning work 'Abandoned Things'); Cheryl Stock, Hellen Sky, and Sarah Rubidge on 'Accented Body' (Brisbane International Festival); imitating the dog (touring cast to Cena Brasil Interncional); Louise Deleur; Tarcisio Teatini-Climaco (with Queensland Symphony Orchestra); Kristen Bell; Xanthe Beesely; Wendy Wallace; and Rosetta Cook.
Creative Projects With Community, Young People & In Education
Bridget has worked on a range of youth projects as both Choreographer and Lead Artist including: St Martins Youth Arts ‘The Word’ (AUS); ‘Stellarium’ commissioned by Dance Manchester and the Science Engineering Education Research and Innovation Hub (SEERIH) at the University of Manchester to collaborate with leading British Astrophysicists; ‘STRIDE’ a Greater Manchester young men’s dance project (Company Chameleon & Dance Manchester); Contact Youth Company ('Baby Fever’), ‘Before The Pass’ a large scale youth performance for Rugby League Cares as an Associate Artist of Company Chameleon; an intergenerational flashmob at Manchester Art Gallery for Manchester International Women's Festival; ‘Walking The Warp Manchester’ with textile artist Anne Wilson at Whitworth Art Gallery, and more.
Facilitation & Mentoring
Bridget has an extensive portfolio in teaching, and mentoring, in community, education, prevocational training, and professional contexts, with: Bangarra Dance Theatre; Dancenorth Australia; Expressions Dance Company (now Australian Dance Collective); Ludus Dance Company; Opera Queensland; Phluxus2; Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre; Manchester Camerata; The Place (Summer House, and Centre for Advanced Training); Ojas (training for Bharatanātyam teachers and dancers); HWY Festival - La Boite Theatre Company; The Aboriginal Centre for Performing Arts; Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (Edith Cowan University); Roehampton University; Queensland University of Technology; University of Salford; University of Central Lancashire; The Lowry Centre for Advanced Training; MAD Dance House; 2Ballerinas, and more.
As a Mentor Bridget has worked with Artists at varied stages in their journey via one to one work, and on development projects. This has included: a pathways project for emerging Hip Hop Dance and Theatre Makers during Face Festival (Elevate Young Minds); 'IndepenDANCE' (Phluxus2 Dance Collective); the Dance Consortia North West Mentoring Scheme, and others.
Producing. Curation. Arts Management
Bridget has undertaken roles in advocacy, arts development, producing, curation, fundraising, project management, coordination, and arts administration including with: Contact; Manchester Dance Consortium (Manchester Choreolab 2017); North West Dance Artist Led for Artists Network contributing to Dance Consortia North West; Vanhulle Dance Theatre (Board Member); Dance Manchester; Rio Rhythmics Latin Dance Academy; Director/Producer Cheryl Stock on 'Accented Body'; and Ausdance Queensland.
Development. Research
Throughout her career, Bridget’s professional development and creative research have been supported by Arts Council England; Dancenorth Australia A.R.T. Programme; Moving Dance Forward (Dance Manchester, MDI, Lowry, Contact, Unity, and University of Salford); Ian Potter Cultural Trust supporting training with master Classical Ballet teacher Janet Panetta; Creative Sparks (Brisbane City Council and Arts Queensland via the Queensland Government); and the Australia Council for the Arts ‘Foot in the Door’ Emerging Performers Initiative.
Background
Bridget was born and grew up in places that are now known as central and northern Victoria, Australia, on the Traditional Lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung, Bangerang, and Yorta Yorta peoples.
After training with Jacqueline Kornmann, and Susan Eacott, being given opportunities to take on creative and teaching leadership roles in her community, and many trips to Naarm (Melbourne) to extend her skills, Bridget boarded a Greyhound bus in early 1997 and travelled 24 hours to Meeanjin (Brisbane). Here Bridget completed a Bachelor of Arts (Dance) at Queensland University of Technology, with additional studies in Physical Theatre. In 2001 Bridget returned to full-time studies and completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) at Queensland University of Technology. During this Honours year, Bridget completed a research project, and thesis, focused on solo performance. Through this process, Bridget worked with Nik Hills on the solo ‘Holding The Baby’, Cath Childs on the solo ‘For Lease’, and created the solo ‘In Blood’.
Bridget has also undertaken professional development training in ‘Core Skills in Coaching for Advisors, Mentors, and Teachers’ with Guildhall, amongst other areas to support best practice.
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