BECAUSE OF GRAVITY
BECAUSE OF GRAVITY
Teaching & Facilitation
Youth & Community Projects
Theatre / Film / Digital /Music
TEACHING & FACILITATION
TEACHING & FACILITATION
Performance & Research
"...a slow burn of articulate fury and extraordinary ensemble physicality...."
Vulture, Sarah Holdren, The 10 Best Theatrical Productions of 2017, on 'Burning. Doors' by Belarus Free Theatre. Role: Choreographic & Rehearsal Director.
"It has the potential to encapsulate global politics and humanity's empathy...visually stunning and an important contribution to the cannon of performance art."
Kate Usher, Festival Director, Supercell Festival Of Contemporary Dance, on 'They Gather'. Role: Co-Creator, Co-Director, Co-Choreographer and Co-Producer.
"The show is steeped in impressive physical sequences ... Counting Sheep does a first-rate job of plunging its viewers into the war-torn world it depicts...It makes painful, gut-wrenching and frightening viewing, but prevails as a window onto the human stories beneath the strife of a nation..."
Culture Whisper, Holly O'Mahony, 2019, on 'Counting Sheep: Staging A Revolution. Role: Choreographic & Rehearsal Director.
"The severity of the show's content... is counterpointed, by the grace, athleticism and skill of its eight performers..."
The Guardian, Michael Billington, on 'Trash Cuisine' by Belarus Free Theatre. Role: Choreographic & Rehearsal Director.
NEWS
'Iron Butterflies' at Sundance Film Festival 2023 and Berlin International Film Festival 2023.
Bridget has worked on Choreography for, as well as Performs, in the new Ukrainian/German feature documentary 'Iron Butterflies'.
"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."
ABOUT
From an in-depth and rigorous foundation in Choreography, Dance, and Movement, my responsive practices and work expands to working in and with Theatre, Film, Digital Technologies, Writing, Visual Design, and Music.
As a multi-faceted Artist and Creative I work as a: Director, Choreographic Director, Movement Director, Performer, Collaborator, Curator and Producer, Facilitator and Teacher, Rehearsal Director, and Mentor.
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.
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 respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, and to Elders past and present.
BIOGRAPHY
Selected Portfolio
With more than 20 years of working as an Artist and Creative, I have a breadth of experience. The following captures some of these projects and engagements.
Please see, Portfolio and Projects, for more information on my work and creative history.
Creating and touring around the world, urgent and award-winning productions with Belarus Free Theatre and its Directors Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin as Choreographic, Movement, and Rehearsal Director. This includes 'Burning Doors' (listed in the New York Times 'Best Theatre of 2017' and Winner 'Best Ensemble' Off West End Awards), 'Trash Cuisine' (Winner 2013 Impacto Total Award), 'Red Forest', 'Counting Sheep: Staging A Revolution' (Vault Festival London 2019 headline production), 'London Eyes' (a Young Vic parallel production) and 'Trustees' (Melbourne International Festival and Malthouse).
Creating works for festivals and galleries. This has included works for national and international outdoor dance and street arts festivals, hundreds of community performers as part of major sports stadium performances, The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and The Queensland Orchestra, and projects such as 'Stellarium' a major youth performance project for Manchester European City of Science in collaboration with leading British female Astrophysicists.
Co-Creating and Co-Producing the participatory radio play 'An Absurdist Archive of Isolation: a full body workout radio play' as part of 'They Gather'. The various works in the multi-modal project 'They Gather' have been presented by The Lowry (UK), The Place and Chisenhale Dance's festival 'How Do We Tune Into Sensation'(UK), Rewire (NL), Modern Body Laboratory (NL), and Supercell Festival of Contemporary Dance (AUS).
Director and Movement Director on the research and development of UK writer Keisha Thompson’s new play ‘The Bell Curves' (September to November 2021). https://keishathompson.com/bio/
Creating moving-image and interactive digital works for the screen, online, and public spaces (e.g. Illuminating York). Recent projects include working and collaborating with Ukrainian Film Artist and Director Roman Liubyi on the hybrid documentary 'Iron Butterflies' (programmed in the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, World Cinema Documentary Competition and Berlin International Film Festival 2023) and the moving image project 'The Correspondents' (Produced by Babylon'13 and Project Auske. Supported by the European Union under the House of Europe). Also in 2022, I have been working in collaboration with Wahab Shah (Pakistan) as Co-Artistic Director of ‘On The Hour: Dance Kahanyan’ supported through The British Council’s ’New Perspectives’ project. ‘On The Hour: Dance Kahanyan’ explores dance in contemporary urban and rural contexts in Pakistan and the UK. The project explores culture, practice, and modes of co-creating new narratives with artists, young people, and women/girls. This is done through live dance, films and documentaries shared in live-streamed performances and online.
Curating and producing choreographic laboratories such as Manchester Choreolab 2017.
Supporting and facilitating ways for people to develop voice, embodied awareness, and creativity, including through the Be SpecACTive! EU commissioned project ‘YES Move. NO Move. (Moved?)’ collaborating with activists, people seeking asylum, people ‘erased’ during Slovenia’s independence, migrant workers and Roma artists and youth across multiple EU countries, and designing the facilitated performance 'The Body of Us' (presented to date at Dance: Sampled 2017 and 2018 at The Lowry, for The Movement a Sadlers Wells, Birmingham Hippodrome and The Lowry partnership, Supercell Festival of Contemporary Dance, UDance North West and University of Salford's 'Watch Us Dance').
Facilitating training, learning, and development through classes, workshops, masterclasses, and mentoring. This includes children and young people, tertiary education students (undergraduate and postgraduate), adults who move for recreation, health, connection, and expression, and emerging and established artists. Teaching and facilitation examples include; The Lowry Centre for Advanced Training, The Aboriginal Centre for Performing Arts, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Roehampton University, The Place Summer House, University of Salford, University of Central Lancashire, HWY Festival La Boite Theatre Company, Dancenorth Australia and more.
In addition to my independent work, I have a creative research and performance portfolio that includes working with/ for, Joseph Lau, imitating the dog, Buzz Dance Theatre (performing and touring works of Paige Gordon, Felicity Bott and Carol Wellman Kelly), 'Accented Body' in Brisbane International Festival (Choreographers Cheryl Stock, Helen Sky and Sarah Rubidge), Tarcisio Teatini-Climaco, Wendy Wallace, Louise Deleur and Rosetta Cook.
Background & Training
I was born and grew up on farms and in small towns in rural Northern, Victoria, Australia. Places that are on the ancestral lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung People and Yorta Yorta People.
After training with Jacqueline Kornmann and Susan Eacott, being given opportunities to take on creative and teaching leadership roles in my community and many trips to Melbourne (Naarm) to extend my skills, I boarded a Greyhound bus in early 1997 and traveled the 24 hours to Brisbane (Meeanjin).
Here I completed a Bachelor of Arts (Dance) at Queensland University of Technology. During my second year of studies I took on an additional unit in ‘Physical Theatre’, where I was introduced to Viewpoints (following the methods of Anne Bogart), the Suzuki Actor Training Method, and Butoh practices.
In 2001 I returned to full-time studies and completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours). During this post-graduate year, I completed the practice-as-research project and thesis ‘Going Solo At The Disco: one woman’s reflections on being the solo performer in varied choreographic processes’. Through this process, I worked with Nik Hills on the solo ‘Holding The Baby’, Cath Childs on the solo ‘For Lease’, and created the solo ‘In Blood’.
Across my career, I have also completed the following courses and qualifications:
Current: Core Skills in Coaching for Advisors, Mentors, and Teachers with Guildhall.
Arts Awards.: Explore, Bronze, and Silver Advisor
Various years: First Aid (one-day and three-day courses), Behaviour Management training, and Safeguarding training.
PROJECTS
current & recent
Photographers who's 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.
