Strong Lady Productions

A Circus Strong Lady: uplifting audiences internationally since 2002

I have been touring internationally as a circus Strong Lady for almost 20 years, primarily to outdoor arts festivals.  In 2021 I am touring a new outdoor work: STRONG ENOUGH – a celebration of the strength we find in unexpected places.  After years of touring the world performing feats of physical strength – this show is a celebration of emotional strength and the ways we can feel powerful, even in an uncertain world.

As a self-producing circus-theatre maker I have toured to festivals in 28 countries around the world with: my solo show STRONG LADY + duo acrobatic-comedy shows with Mario Queen of the Circus, Tutti Frutti and Reuben DotDotDot + work with ensembles including Mimbre (UK) and the GOP (Germany).

The work I am best known for is STRONG LADY.  It is an array of feats of strength performed with a playful mix of muscle, comedy and grace.  That show is hugely reliant on audience participation, so it is on the shelf until Covid restrictions are a thing of the past.  I hope to have STRONG LADY back on the street in 2022, alongside continuing touring for STRONG ENOUGH.

In recent years I have worked to expand my physical vocabulary, enhance my storytelling skill and develop a new style in my creative practice that has resulted in 2 new shows: POWER (for theatre touring) and STRONG ENOUGH (for outdoor arts festivals).  With support from Arts Council England, I have collaborated with mentors including Ockham’s Razor, Complicite, Spy Monkey, Turtle Key Arts and movement coaches Farid Herrera, Gabbie Cook, Arielle Lauzon and Connor Wild.

In 2020 I premiered POWER between lockdowns.  It is my first solo show for theatre touring and was commissioned by The Lowry, Lawrence Batley, Cambridge Junction and Creative Arts East with funding from Arts Council England and support from a number of partner venues.  Collaborators: Emma Bernard, Ockham’s Razor, Turtle Key Arts and Matt Eaton.

STRONG ENOUGH is an outdoor arts festival show commissioned by the Without Walls Consortium, Hat Fair and Just So Festival for touring from 2021.  This show draws on the physicality and stories developed for POWER to make an optimistic declaration that we are strong enough.  The physical strength of circus skills reveals the emotional strength of the stories in a work that is uplifting and very accessible. Collaborators: Ockham’s Razor and Matt Eaton.

In 2020 I also began developing Stories of Strength, a creative engagement project inspired by the process of collecting interviews for POWER and STRONG ENOUGH.  It’s a bespoke project where I support people in different communities to identify and celebrate their own experiences of being strong and powerful.  It is a potent practice of reframing times of struggle as moments of finding and building strength.

In addition to performing, I work as a teacher and facilitator, event speaker, and wellbeing practitioner.  In all my work as Strong Lady Productions, I strive to connect, uplift and empower people.