Jade England-Johns (they/she/he) is an award winning physical theatre, dance and circus artist who has been making thoughtful, playful and provocative work for nearly 20 years.
The Swing of the Axe will be an autobiographical journey of gender non-conformity, grief and parenthood told through dance-acrobatics, macabre stand up comedy and axe manipulation! Think lovingly held dead parent jokes and woodcutting in a ballgown…

“These stories are spilling out of me and I’m compelled to tell them. It brings me a very personal joy to begin this work and I’m stoked to have the chance to take this swing at it!”

Theatre and circus artists Natalie Reckert and Leela Tinelli have come together to create a site-specific performance blending singing, handbalancing, and natural elements—light, wind, and water. Designed to revive disused urban spaces, this performance aims to invite audiences to reconnect and see their environment anew. We want to create spaces to slow down, listen and inspire questions about how we want to live in our future cities and communities.

“I am delighted about this opportunity to push circus practice beyond traditional spaces, establishing contemporary circus as an important facilitator of communal experiences, where audiences can experience belonging and reflection.”

Jean-Daniel Broussé is a queer multidisciplinary artist whose work fuses circus, physical theatre, and storytelling. His new solo piece, [Insert Here], is a lecture-performance delving into the history, biology, and sociology of sodomy. Blending academic inquiry with clowning, physical risk, and sonic experimentation, the show is a bold, embodied exploration of what society represses—and what the body remembers.

“I’m thrilled to be selected for the New Authors commission. It’s an opportunity to deepen my research, work on a new circus discipline, and centre the expressive potential of the circus body.”