Celia White – Director
Celia, currently the Artistic Director of Vulcana Women’s Circus, is a performer, devisor and director of new circus and contemporary physical theatre. She has a long history of work exploring the potential of meaning originating from the body and visual languages: from circus, dance, the visual arts, wrestling, magic, vaudeville and other inspirations. The creation of the work is collaborative, working with artists across art forms. The ideas are framed simultaneously within the theoretical, the visual, the musical and the physical. Since 1979 Celia has created and performed work with a variety of performance companies including the aerial company Legs on the Wall,  Club Swing and the Party Line, of which she is a founding member. She has directed and collaborated on site-specific and community theatre, new cabaret, emerging artists in contemporary theatre, circus theatre and contemporary vaudeville. With extensive training in aerials and acrobatics, between 2003-2006, Celia has directed for Vulcana Women’s Circus: Ghosts of the Goddess (aerial harness performance), Home Fictions, Physicalisms (a collection of short work) Viva Frida, Love Attack for Monster Blonde’s international tour, and most recently Outside the Safety Zone with the Crash Collective. In 2001 she mentored for Unbecoming, the 1st and 2nd season of new works by young performers, writers and directors for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival, Pact Youth Theatre and The Performance Space, Sydney. 2000 saw Celia direct an outdoor aerial performance for the Olympic Arts Festival and Guest direct Eccentric Arts for Sue Broadway and Co. In 1999, she co-directed Kin Tucka Tiddas with Ngoroe-kah indigenous women’s community theatre project, Newcastle and was guest show director for Circus Monoxide. Celia has also given workshops and tutored in aerial skills, contact improvisation, physical theatre, acrobatics and performance craft for many arts organisations and Universities including: NIDA, Wollongong University, Playworks, The Actor’s Conservatory, Victorian College of Arts, Women’s Circus Melbourne, and the Flying Fruit Flies Circus.

Russell Anderson - Designer
Russell’s experience in the public realm covers corporate commissions, state, local government commissions and community projects. Technically, his skills include sculptural forms, aluminium castings, pattern making, concrete, mosaic work, metal, timber and the incorporation of kinetics, electronics and solar technology in public works. Russell has worked on both indoor and outdoor placemaking projects scaling from single seat nodes to designing and overseeing the refurbishment of an entire street landscape including one-off furniture, pedestrian fixtures, decorative concrete finishes and community artwork. Russell’s own art practice is focussed on whimsical kinetic sculpture – small (tea bag jigglers) and large (bubble machine) and he has performed at, and installed temporary artworks for festivals including Livid and the Ideas Festival. Recent works include; Concept Design & Design Development, Water Park for Wynnum foreshore redevelopment with City Design Department – BCC; Design & Installation of Kenetic Pedal Powered Sculpture, Kids Ideas at the Ideas Festival 06; Fabrication & Installation of Public Art (Tin Town), Inner Northern Busway, Royal Brisbane Hospital Station QLD Transport Brisbane; Concept Design of Signature Bike Racks, Redcliffe City Council; Design & Fabrication of Seating Node Pine Rivers Shire; Set Design Vulcana Women’s Circus Theatre Production Home Fictions.

Kate Thomas – Sound Designer
Kate Thomas is a Brisbane-base artist with a background in sound. Her work incorporates musical composition, physical performance and electronic musical interface design. Current work investigates ideas of environment, and the way we experience space. This is being manifest through an honours project examining spatialised sound environments through an interactive sound performance. In the performance the audience is seated in a virtual vessel, which Kate captains, navigating surround soundscapes via a unique electronic interface, The Handycraft, designed and built as part of her composition process. Kate has also worked as a Tutor and Research Assistant on various other projects at QUT, the latest of which was the Morph Table project (video documentation viewable on YouTube), where she designed and built the physical interface and assisted in implementation and public presentation.

Helen Clifford – Performer/Rigging Design
Helen has worked as a performer, rigger and circus trainer since 1998. She is interested in developing new skills and apparatus to enhance aerial performance, exploring innovative methods for rigging for performance, using rigging as an integral part of theatre design, and strengthening circus arts in Brisbane for women by delivering a high level of expertise in training methods and skill development through her work with Vulcana Women’s Circus, where she is a trainer and head rigger. Helen has been rigger for Strut ‘n’ Fret, Circus Minimus, Frank Productions, Flipside Circus, Flaunt Circus, Brisbane Powerhouse, Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus, Skadada, Queensland Ballet, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe at QPAC and Top Chick Management. She recently rigged the Queens Baton for the Commonwealth Games from the tower of Brisbane City Hall, and Adelaide Fringe tent venues Umbrella Revolution and The Garden of Unearthly Delights. Most recently she rigged and performed in Vulcana’s Outside the Safety Zone by the Crash Collective, a site specific performance in the Stores Studio of the Brisbane Powerhouse, and rigged Vulcana’s Circus in a Tea Cup at the Visy Theatre. Helen performed in Vulcana’s shows I’d rather be a Cyborg than a Goddess (2000) and Aviatrix in (2001). In 2003 she performed at the Magdalena opening, and in One RailRoad Circus with Wise Fool in Santa Fe 2004. She was also part of the collaborative work between Wise Fool and Lava (New York) for the opening ceremony at the Michigan Women’s Festival 2005. In all of these ensembles Helen performed physical theatre, aerials and ground based work.

Michelle Grant-Iramu– performer
Michelle is a Brisbane based circus and physical theatre performer, with lengthy experience in the performance and teaching of acrobatics and aerials. She has performed at corporate events and festivals in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, including Goodwill Games, Woodford Folk Festival, Brisbane Festival, River Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival. She has also performed aerial shows in Japan and Europe. Michelle has worked as an aerial trainer, performer and community arts worker for Vulcana Women’s Circus, and as an aerial trainer for the National Circus Festival. In 2003 Michelle joined with Chae Lindeman to co-found Monster Blonde, a female circus performance company based in Brisbane. Over the past five years Monster Blonde has established a strong local profile and client base for performance work; including a successful European tour of the show Love Attack in 2004. In 2002 – 2003 Michelle worked as Artistic Director for Vulcana Women’s Circus, introducing an annual show case event, co-ordinating the artistic program and producing and co-directing the large scale contemporary circus production, Vulcana, performed at the International Magdalena Festival of Women in Contemporary Theatre (2003).

Anne Oertel – Performer
Anne is a professional circus performer and trainer, specialising in aerials,solo and duo Tissu acts, and adagio (duo acrobatics on stage or roving). Her roving performances are strongly character based. Anne has been training extensively throughout the last four years, at times with accomplished trainers Rudi Mineur, Lee Wilson, Vadim Krystlov and Azaria Universe. In 2004, together with Divo Sock, Anne formed Insync, an acrobatics duo, specializing in roving and stage performances. Her creative drive and overall enthusiasm for work and training has resulted in successful performances at prestigious festivals and events, locally and interstate, including the International Circus Festival, The Woodford Folk Festival, The River Feast, the Museum of Brisbane and the Ekka. Anne also successfully rehearsed and performed in ensembles, for example the Limelight Revue and Bulldust and Spangles, and lately in the work-in-progress project Outside the Safety Zone by the Crash Collective. She is strongly involved with Brisbane based Vulcana Women’s Circus as a trainer and performer.

Pheobe Manning – Performer
Pheobe has a long history of performance. She completed her Bachelor of Arts (Drama Major) at QUT in 1990 and then a Grad Dip of Education (Drama and English) in1993. Pheobe has also studied with Sydney Aerial Theatre Association. She has performed trapeze, double trapeze, chinese pole, clown, burlesque and stilts. She is an experienced ensemble performer who’s ensemble works include the 2006 Crash Collective showing of Outside the Safety Zone, appearances with Switch (with Divo Sock and Sofia Woods), 2005 group stilt shows Outskirts and Frida, Home Fictions 2004 also with Sofia Woods and directed by Celia White, Physicalisms (with Anne Oertel and Divo Sock) and the opening ceremony of Magdalena. She has also performed solo works at the Playspace in Sydney with The Group of Theatre Enthusiasts and for Angry Mime in Brisbane.

Chae Lindeman - Performer
Chae has been involved with Vulcana Women’s Circus since 1997 and holds the position of Workshop Coordinator and Trainer. Over the past 10 years she has established herself in the Brisbane performing arts arena especially with the inception of Monster Blonde Circus, the first professional performance company to emerge from Vulcana. Chae has studied drama at University of Queensland and her performance background includes butoh, acrobatics, aerials and physical theatre. She has performed in shows at La Boite Theatre, Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane Convention Centre and Jupiters Casino, as well as at numerous festivals and corporate events both in Australia and Europe. She recently performed aerial silks at a private performance for the King and Queen of Belgium.