The fELLOWS
Who they are
Georgina Cassels
UK/HU
she/her
Georgina is a British born/Hungary based circus artist, performer, instructor and visionary. Since moving to Budapest in 2018, Georgina has been part of a number of circus projects and collaborations and is part of a generation seeking to establish Hungary’s identity within the contemporary circus map. Having practised aerial dance for 15 years, Georgina is driven to building a stronger aerial network within Hungary and the Central/Eastern European region through founding and co-organising the Budapest Aerial Meeting and is a creator/artist in the Budapest based aerial collective One Thousand Faces.
Imogen Huzel
UK
SHE/HER
Imo is a British-born multidisciplinary artist based in Berlin. She’s a 2016 graduate of Stockholm University of the Arts, with a bachelor's in circus. As a freelance creator, company owner, performer and adventurer she’s toured over 30 countries with independently born projects. She believes in art, in its power to make us face ourselves, challenge the status quo and oppose mainstream concerns. Her work takes its form in circus, theatre, writing, dance and visual arts, and at its core, it’s playful, punk and peculiar. Imogen is a founding member of Fauna Circus and Right Way Down, she is currently touring a solo show directed by Ofir Yudilevitch and is a performer and co-director of the duo show Memoirs of Mud by Sisus Sirkus. Her newest mission lies within Germany, as she and Inka Pehkonen build their new interdisciplinary circus company with the intention of furthering the independent landscape of circus in Germany and beyond.
Majo Cázares
MX/BE
they/them
Majo is a freelance performer, production manager and educator, with experience in circus, dance, nightlife, burlesque, young audience, physical theatre, erotic performance and cabaret, as well as in event and show production, and dance, circus and pole dance teaching.
A passionate intellectual and aspiring independent scholar, their areas of interest and study include the dynamics and overlap between systems of power, particularly through the prism of intersectional feminist, anti-racist, sex worker rights, decolonial climate justice, worker rights, LGBTQIA+, class, anti-capitalist, immigrant and disability movements and activism, and their relationships to performing arts, performing arts and sports education, and media.
With one foot in mainstream and institutional performing arts, and another in grassroots and underground ones, they aim to take part in building bridges between hegemonic cultural actors and spaces, and radical, minority, dissident ones. They also hope to contribute to the systemic change needed for circus and performing arts to reach, reflect and engage with the complexities and nuances of our populations, on and off stage, and in amateur and professional education.
Jakob Jacobsson
SE/NL
HE/HIM
Jakob is a Swedish aerial rope artist and circus creator. He is one of the founders of contemporary circus companies The Nordic Council, and Revue Regret, and recently completed the artistic research program ICCAR. When not on stage or in the studio, he spends his time writing articles about circus, drinking copious amounts of coffee, or working as a rigger in festivals. He's in love with cicus for its joyous multidisciplinarity, and its ability to seamlessly include other artforms.
Hazel Lam
GB/BE
she/her
Hazel is a multidisciplinary artist trained in dance, circus, and music. She has a strong interest in collaboration and has created work and written publications with artists from various backgrounds and media. Her works span across theatre, outdoor performances, and screendance, and are grounded in her search for catharsis in aesthetic experiences. Her studies in philosophy have also provided a fundamental foundation for her exploration of the human condition in her works. She is dedicated to engaging in conversations and projects that focus on promoting equal representation of artists from diverse backgrounds. This commitment involves participating in discussions with artists and institutions within the performing arts community. Besides touring and teaching, Hazel regularly contributes as a columnist and commentator to major circus magazines and performing art festivals.
Hedda Liukkala
FI
All pronouns
Hedda loves being backstage as much as being on stage. Hedda graduated from École Supérieure des Arts du Cirque in Brussels in 2017 and has been very hands-on in all the productions she worked on ever since. Hedda loves volunteering and helping at events and festivals in multiple ways, and that eventually led her to start as a stage manager at the Berlin Circus Festival. Five years later Hedda has continued to work there as well as spread her sticky stage managing fingers all over other festivals and productions.
Hedda will suck out everything that she can from the NHLP-EU programme to become better at enabling healthy working environments and safer spaces. Hedda is all about intersectional feminism, body neutrality and reasonable working hours.
Armas Lintusaari
FI
He/THEY
Armas has been performing as long as he can remember and after lucky incidents he slid to the profession of a circus artist. After years of searching for his artistic medium, Armas fell in love with the physical and communal world of contemporary circus. Armas is a founding member of a Finnish circus collective, Arctic Ensemble. After some years of performing all over the world the company focused on developing the circus scene in Finland. Currently their aim is in making performing arts more accessible all over the country.
Armas is a social butterfly who dreams of a sustainable world where art and embodiment are amongst the highest priorities of life
Elise Missall
DE/IE
she/her
Elise Missall is a multimedia publisher operating at the intersection of movement training and the performing arts. In 2017, she co-founded Motion Impulse alongside two Circus Artists, focusing on producing comprehensive online courses for physical development. Elise also coordinates in-person training intensives and seminars, notably organizing biannual hand balance and flexibility training intensives in Turkey, as well as international flexibility seminars.
In 2020, Elise established the Handstand Press Magazine, a printed publication that delves into the art, research, and practice of handstands. Through this platform, she collaborates with numerous Circus Artists, assisting them in articulating their practice and amplifying their work to a wider audience within the Circus Community and beyond. Building on this, Elise recently co-founded Motion Chapel in 2023, a dedicated Circus residency space located in Ireland, specialising in providing support and fostering the growth of ground-based Circus and Street Arts throughout the country.
Gaia Vimercati
IT
she/her
Gaia is from Milan, where she decided to return after completing her MA in Comparative Literature at Trinity College Dublin. She is in the board of directors of Quattrox4, a contemporary circus centre based in Milan, where she is cultural project manager and independent researcher since 2016. She is theoretician by vocation but pragmatic at heart, so she chose contemporary circus as the main ground for her research. She takes part in international conferences and roundtables (CaiO 2021 & 2024, EASTAP 2020 & 2022, BIAC 2021, Semiotics of the Circus 2015). In 2021 she created the research project LA PAROLA AI CORPI, a collective residency programme for young circus artists aimed at disrupting the binary between theory and practice in circus. She is not a circus performer. In her spare time she does boxing.
Sophie Zoletnik
Hu
she/her
Sophie is a self educated circus performer and creator based in Budapest who is constantly striving towards developing the circus scene in Hungary. Lately she is planning to launch an experimental circus festival in collaboration with Trafó House and has established a new collective: One Two Many.
Originally educated as an architect, her love and passion for new circus and performance arts has led her to be a core member of the Firebird Productions and a co-founder of the Inspiral Circus Center. Being a generalist at heart, in addition to performing aerial- and partner acrobatics, vertical dance and object manipulation, she is always open to learn new disciplines or involve other genres that aid her expression
