Aerialize - Sydney Aerial Theatre

Shelalagh McGovern

Shelalagh McGovern is the artistic director and co-founder of Aerialize - Sydney Aerial Theatre. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Languages at the University of NSW, a Graduate diploma in Arts Administration UTS 2003 and an advanced rigger’s ticket and Elevated Working Platform ticket in 2007. With a background in theatre and gymnastics, Shelalagh has trained in swinging trapeze, solo and double trapeze, silks and Spanish web with trainers from Circus Oz, Flying Fruit Fly Circus, Aerialize, Legs on the Wall and Circus Space London.
Shelalagh has performed aerials in Asia with the Flying Lotahs, across Australia with Aerialize and has worked with Erth, the Brophys and Tyler’s Circus. She performed in the Sydney Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, the National Circus Conference, with Les Comediens at the Sydney Opera House, Adelaide Fringe Festival, in Dance Trax and Global Beats at the Studio, and Jane Rutter at the Sydney Town Hall. Shelalagh was awarded a place in the Circomedia - Director of Circus course run by the Arts Council UK and created an aerial work called Windows with three British aerialists. She directed segments for the 2006 School Spectacular and 2007 Sydney Youth Olympics opening Ceremony. Over the past ten years, Shelalagh has taught aerials for Aerialize, ATYP, the Wiggles, Hi 5 and Enmore Tafe.

Catherine Daniel

Catherine has been a member of Aerialize –Sydney Aerial Theatre since its inception in 1999. She has trained in silks, trapeze and performance with Aerialize for the last 10 years and has taught as an aerial and circus instructor since 2001. Catherine has performed with Aerialize at the opening of the Sydney Olympic Games 2000, the Great Escape Festival, many council Festivals and corporate events. She has performed in most of the nine annual productions in Aerialize’s training centre in Marrickville. She has worked with Legs on the Wall, Rob Martin Productions, Quasar Circus Arts and The Lennon Bros Circus. Catherine has trained in London, Berlin, Paris and Hungary and performed at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival. In 2006 she completed a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science at the University of Sydney.

Jesse Jensen Kohl

Jesse has been a professional circus performer since he was 13, He has studied in Mime, Classic ballet, contemporary dance and completed a course in Advertising at Ultimo Tafe in 2007. Jesse has worked for many circus companies including being a core instructor at Cirkidz (Adelaide's premiere circus school), a tent hand and usher for Circus Oz and at 18 he was invited to audition for Cirque Du Soleil. Jesse has been working as a Flying Trapeze performer / instructor for 5 years. For the last year he has been teaching juggling and unicycle at Aerialize – Sydney Aerial Theatre.

Lil Tulloch

Lil has grown up in the entertainment industry. From a family of circus folk, she found a love for the high and daring, cracking whips and stilt-walking her way through adolescence. Performing professionally in aerial arts and roving entertainment, she has a focus on education as well as performance with an aim to bring circus and entertainment to a wider audience. She has been working for Aerialize for the past two years both teaching and performing in their annual productions. Other recent aerial performances have included the Opera Bar CD Launch at the The Opera House Studio, Candy Lips at Arq Nightclub and a film clip for The Wiggles. She continues to perform at a wide range of festivals including Good Vibrations, Hoopla, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and Parklife. Lil completed a Bachelor of Science with a minor in Performer studies at the University of Sydney.

Megan Bolton

Megan has been involved in gymnastics and acrobatics for eighteen years
She has competed at four world championships for sports acrobatics, two as a junior and two as a senior. She was national champion six times and achieved world rankings of 16th, 11th, 6th and 5th. She won the Hungarian open in 2000 with her partner. Megan has been teaching acrobatics for six years in total at MLC School, Gordon East Public School, Seaforth Public, Gladesville R.S.L., RG Dance Studio and Aerialize – Sydney Aerial Theatre. She is currently working as the administrator assistant in the Aerialize office, performers and teachers at the school.

Craig Hull

Craig began training in the circus industry nine years ago with Aerialize – Sydney Aerial Theatre and other organisations. He performed at the Sydney 2000 Olympics with Aerialize and he is a founding member of Aeralize. Craig has completed master classes for various circus skills and performs at special events, such as Sydney Gay Games, and various New Year's celebrations. He has completed dogging and rigging certificate at TAFE. Craig has a passion for sticky pole and originally learnt at Circus Oz in Melbourne and is now teaching at Aerialize.

Leanne Kelly

Leanne as been working as a professional aerialist for five years with Aerialize. With a background in artistic rollerskating, in which she has competed at a national level, Leanne now works as an instructor and an administrator for Aerialize. Leanne has completed a three year diploma course in dramatic arts at Three Stage Theatre School. She complemented this with Masterclass programs at Legs on the Wall and The Flying Fruit Fly Circus. Leanne has focused predominately on trapeze, doubles trapeze, tissu, lyra, hula hoops and acrobatics. She has performed extensively with Aerialize, including the Hoopla Festival, the Great Escape festival, the Blacktown Festival and many significant corporate functions. Leanne has recently returned from 3 months at the Beijing International Arts School, where she trained in swinging trapeze, handstands, tumbling and contortion. Throughout her career, Leanne has been involved with Theatresports, Circus Monoxide, the Short and Sweet Festival, Peats Ridge Festival, Play-Ground Weekender, aerial club night Faust, performances at the Studio and with Red Handed Theatre for the inaugural Gang Festival.

Tanya Richards

Tanya has been in circus arts industry for 11 years and as a professional freelance performer for 8. She has trained with groups such as ATYP, the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, Acrobat and Aerialize. Tanya has performed and tutored for Out of the Blue, ERTH, ATYP, Circo-Bluto, Upper Mountains Youth Circus, and is currently working for Aerialize. Tanya founded the Lower Blue Mountains youth circus ‘Zany Yare’ in 2000 and continues to run the performance troupe. Tanya Richards’ also works as a contemporary artist whose current practice revolves around video, performance and installation art. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours First Class at the University of Western Sydney and is currently undertaking a Doctorate in Creative Arts also at UWS. She has widely exhibited her work and won numerous awards, including the HIH Wintherthur Scholarship at ATYP for theatre design. Tanya currently teaches the Spanish Web class at Aerialize and performs in many Aerialize productions.

Elli Huber

Elli has had five years experience in Jazz and Tap dancing and has performed at the Star City Casino. Since the age of thirteen, Elli has been singing and performing in various shows and soiree's. Before Aerialize, Elli trained at ATYP in Drama and Circus skills for two years. In 2005 she started training at Aerialize in aerial silks, trapeze, stilt walking and contortion and more recently she has become a performer, instructor and coach for Aerialize - Sydney Aerial Theatre. Over the past few years, Elli has performed with Aerialize at some of Sydney's leading venues such as the Hordern Pavilion for Sleaze Ball 2007, The Entertainment Centre for the Opening Ceremony of the Youth Olympics in 2007 and acrobatics at the Acer Arena. She has performed in three of Aerialize's annual productions. At the end of 2007 she trained in acrobatics, swinging trapeze, contortion and fire twirling at the Beijing International Arts School in China.

Annabel Lines

Annabel is a performance artist, dancer, circus practitioner, film maker and funny woman who has worked extensively throughout the world over the past twenty years, notable shaking it with the notorious Peaches. Annabel has entertained audiences Australia wide with Machine Gun Fellatio and has contorted with Rock and Roll Circus. Alongside her performance work, she currently teaches Hoops at Aerialize – Sydney Aerial Theatre.

Heidi Holmes

Heidi's passion for physical expression has led her to explore and train across the disciplines of aerial performance including silks, cloudswing, ropes and also ground tumbling and acrobatics. Along this journey she has trained with Ari Levanael at Aerialize, Acrobat, Circus Oz and NICA. Heidi brings with her a physical and sensual intelligence from previous experience in acting, as an elite athlete and coach in rock climbing, to a top performance artist and latin dance coach; which led to her being featured on SBS 'Women in sport' and ABC's 'Strictly Dancing'. This depth of experience has enabled her to create a unique hybrid in her aerial work which is always passionate, vibrant and fresh. Being a part of a small dance/aerial company 'La Bataola' in Sydney, she has also choreographed many shows that have blended the latin dancing with aerials, mainly for performance events, both corporate and private. Part of her performance goal is to create acts that evoke strong emotional responses.

Bel Macedone

Bel is a physical theatre performer and director with a Bachelor of Creative Arts and Master of Teaching (Theatre). She previously worked with Theatre Kantanka, Critical Mass Theatre, Aerialize Theatre Sydney and PVI Collective. Bel has trained in acting, dance, stilts, aerials (London & Sydney) and Commedia Dell’arte with Antonio Fava in Italy. At the Sydney based Australian Youth Theatre Bel directed performances that toured internationally. Bel is the Co-Founder/Director of Sydney based ‘Redhanded Projects’, fusing together physical and political theatre since 1998. In 2006, Bel was the Production Manager and a performer for the Sydney based Gang Festival, as documented in the film “Gangways”. Bel trains at Aerialize and for the last three years has been working as a trapeze teacher and performer with Aerialize, performing in various venues including the Enmore Theatre, Darling Harbour and the Sydney Opera House. She has worked as assistant director of the last three Aerialize annual productions. Bel also currently teaches Drama and Film at the Newtown High School of The Performing Arts.

Chris Mayhew

Chris coached and competed nationally in both Gymnastics and Sports Acrobatics while training with Master of Sports, Russian Circus Artists in Circus Acts - Adagio, Russian Bar, Perch, Teeterboard, and group Acts. From 1990 to 2000, he performed and toured in some of Australia's leading companies including Circus OZ, Salamanca Theater Co, Dark Swan Dance Company, and The Australian Opera. Page Gorden Performance Group, The Leaping Loonies and as a featured acrobat and stunt double in Baz Lurhman’s "Moulin Rouge." Chris has taught at many schools in Australia and USA/Canada, and worked as a trainer at The Flying Fruit Fly Circus School and The National Institute of Circus Arts. In the last 10 years Chris has specialized in Acrobatic Adagio Dance shows creating his own companies, Duo Arabesque and Equilibrio, partnering ex Olympic Rythmic Gymnasts as well as World Class Ballerinas and creating new works performing in India, Taiwan and the US, and in Sydney collaborating with the Wollongong Symphony Orchestra, and recently performing on the "Saga Ruby" which toured over 40 countries.

Kristi Wade - Assistant instructor

Kristi has been doing circus classes since she was 9 and has been performing since she was 10 yrs old. She first learnt circus skills as BDCA, Bankstown District Circus Academy where she trained and performed for 4 years. She joined Aerialize at the age of 14 and is still training trapeze, silks and contortion and performing with Aerialize. With Aerialize she performed at major events in festivals, on radio, television and corporate gigs including the Hilton, Western, AJC race coarse, shopping centers, Town Hall, Carriage Works, Darling Harbour and the Opera House just to mention a few. She recently trained in China with the Beijing international school of arts.


About Aerialize Classes + Training Acts for hire Team Building Gallery Annual production Shop Contact Us Home What we do Trainers Association Community Projects Catch up Jobs @ Aerialize Info and cost Class descriptions Term Dates Adult timetables + payment Kids & teen timetables + payment School Holiday Workshops Enrolment Form Terms and Conditions Location Aerial Acts Ground Acts Stilt Walkers Shows Images Promo Showreel Highlights Off the Rails 2007 High Time 2006 The Stilted Truth 2005 Experimento 2004 Sleepless City 2003 Big in Japan 2002 Cabaret 2001 Tales from the Dark 2000 Aerial Fantasy 1999

Shelalagh McGovern Shelalagh McGovern is the artistic director and co-founder of Aerialize - Sydney Aerial Theatre. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Languages at the University of NSW, a Graduate diploma in Arts Administration UTS 2003 and an advanced rigger’s ticket and Elevated Working Platform ticket in 2007. With a background in theatre and gymnastics, Shelalagh has trained in swinging trapeze, solo and double trapeze, silks and Spanish web with trainers from Circus Oz, Flying Fruit Fly Circus, Aerialize, Legs on the Wall and Circus Space London. Shelalagh has performed aerials in Asia with the Flying Lotahs, across Australia with Aerialize and has worked with Erth, the Brophys and Tyler’s Circus. She performed in the Sydney Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, the National Circus Conference, with Les Comediens at the Sydney Opera House, Adelaide Fringe Festival, in Dance Trax and Global Beats at the Studio, and Jane Rutter at the Sydney Town Hall. Shelalagh was awarded a place in the Circomedia - Director of Circus course run by the Arts Council UK and created an aerial work called Windows with three British aerialists. She directed segments for the 2006 School Spectacular and 2007 Sydney Youth Olympics opening Ceremony. Over the past ten years, Shelalagh has taught aerials for Aerialize, ATYP, the Wiggles, Hi 5 and Enmore Tafe. Catherine Daniel Catherine has been a member of Aerialize –Sydney Aerial Theatre since its inception in 1999. She has trained in silks, trapeze and performance with Aerialize for the last 10 years and has taught as an aerial and circus instructor since 2001. Catherine has performed with Aerialize at the opening of the Sydney Olympic Games 2000, the Great Escape Festival, many council Festivals and corporate events. She has performed in most of the nine annual productions in Aerialize’s training centre in Marrickville. She has worked with Legs on the Wall, Rob Martin Productions, Quasar Circus Arts and The Lennon Bros Circus. Catherine has trained in London, Berlin, Paris and Hungary and performed at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival. In 2006 she completed a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science at the University of Sydney. Jesse Jensen Kohl Jesse has been a professional circus performer since he was 13, He has studied in Mime, Classic ballet, contemporary dance and completed a course in Advertising at Ultimo Tafe in 2007. Jesse has worked for many circus companies including being a core instructor at Cirkidz (Adelaide's premiere circus school), a tent hand and usher for Circus Oz and at 18 he was invited to audition for Cirque Du Soleil. Jesse has been working as a Flying Trapeze performer / instructor for 5 years. For the last year he has been teaching juggling and unicycle at Aerialize – Sydney Aerial Theatre. Lil Tulloch Lil has grown up in the entertainment industry. From a family of circus folk, she found a love for the high and daring, cracking whips and stilt-walking her way through adolescence. Performing professionally in aerial arts and roving entertainment, she has a focus on education as well as performance with an aim to bring circus and entertainment to a wider audience. She has been working for Aerialize for the past two years both teaching and performing in their annual productions. Other recent aerial performances have included the Opera Bar CD Launch at the The Opera House Studio, Candy Lips at Arq Nightclub and a film clip for The Wiggles. She continues to perform at a wide range of festivals including Good Vibrations, Hoopla, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and Parklife. Lil completed a Bachelor of Science with a minor in Performer studies at the University of Sydney. Megan Bolton Megan has been involved in gymnastics and acrobatics for eighteen years She has competed at four world championships for sports acrobatics, two as a junior and two as a senior. She was national champion six times and achieved world rankings of 16th, 11th, 6th and 5th. She won the Hungarian open in 2000 with her partner. Megan has been teaching acrobatics for six years in total at MLC School, Gordon East Public School, Seaforth Public, Gladesville R.S.L., RG Dance Studio and Aerialize – Sydney Aerial Theatre. She is currently working as the administrator assistant in the Aerialize office, performers and teachers at the school. Craig Hull Craig began training in the circus industry nine years ago with Aerialize – Sydney Aerial Theatre and other organisations. He performed at the Sydney 2000 Olympics with Aerialize and he is a founding member of Aeralize. Craig has completed master classes for various circus skills and performs at special events, such as Sydney Gay Games, and various New Year's celebrations. He has completed dogging and rigging certificate at TAFE. Craig has a passion for sticky pole and originally learnt at Circus Oz in Melbourne and is now teaching at Aerialize. Leanne Kelly Leanne as been working as a professional aerialist for five years with Aerialize. With a background in artistic rollerskating, in which she has competed at a national level, Leanne now works as an instructor and an administrator for Aerialize. Leanne has completed a three year diploma course in dramatic arts at Three Stage Theatre School. She complemented this with Masterclass programs at Legs on the Wall and The Flying Fruit Fly Circus. Leanne has focused predominately on trapeze, doubles trapeze, tissu, lyra, hula hoops and acrobatics. She has performed extensively with Aerialize, including the Hoopla Festival, the Great Escape festival, the Blacktown Festival and many significant corporate functions. Leanne has recently returned from 3 months at the Beijing International Arts School, where she trained in swinging trapeze, handstands, tumbling and contortion. Throughout her career, Leanne has been involved with Theatresports, Circus Monoxide, the Short and Sweet Festival, Peats Ridge Festival, Play-Ground Weekender, aerial club night Faust, performances at the Studio and with Red Handed Theatre for the inaugural Gang Festival. Tanya Richards Tanya has been in circus arts industry for 11 years and as a professional freelance performer for 8. She has trained with groups such as ATYP, the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, Acrobat and Aerialize. Tanya has performed and tutored for Out of the Blue, ERTH, ATYP, Circo-Bluto, Upper Mountains Youth Circus, and is currently working for Aerialize. Tanya founded the Lower Blue Mountains youth circus ‘Zany Yare’ in 2000 and continues to run the performance troupe. Tanya Richards’ also works as a contemporary artist whose current practice revolves around video, performance and installation art. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours First Class at the University of Western Sydney and is currently undertaking a Doctorate in Creative Arts also at UWS. She has widely exhibited her work and won numerous awards, including the HIH Wintherthur Scholarship at ATYP for theatre design. Tanya currently teaches the Spanish Web class at Aerialize and performs in many Aerialize productions. Elli Huber Elli has had five years experience in Jazz and Tap dancing and has performed at the Star City Casino. Since the age of thirteen, Elli has been singing and performing in various shows and soiree's. Before Aerialize, Elli trained at ATYP in Drama and Circus skills for two years. In 2005 she started training at Aerialize in aerial silks, trapeze, stilt walking and contortion and more recently she has become a performer, instructor and coach for Aerialize - Sydney Aerial Theatre. Over the past few years, Elli has performed with Aerialize at some of Sydney's leading venues such as the Hordern Pavilion for Sleaze Ball 2007, The Entertainment Centre for the Opening Ceremony of the Youth Olympics in 2007 and acrobatics at the Acer Arena. She has performed in three of Aerialize's annual productions. At the end of 2007 she trained in acrobatics, swinging trapeze, contortion and fire twirling at the Beijing International Arts School in China. Annabel Lines Annabel is a performance artist, dancer, circus practitioner, film maker and funny woman who has worked extensively throughout the world over the past twenty years, notable shaking it with the notorious Peaches. Annabel has entertained audiences Australia wide with Machine Gun Fellatio and has contorted with Rock and Roll Circus. Alongside her performance work, she currently teaches Hoops at Aerialize – Sydney Aerial Theatre. Heidi Holmes Heidi's passion for physical expression has led her to explore and train across the disciplines of aerial performance including silks, cloudswing, ropes and also ground tumbling and acrobatics. Along this journey she has trained with Ari Levanael at Aerialize, Acrobat, Circus Oz and NICA. Heidi brings with her a physical and sensual intelligence from previous experience in acting, as an elite athlete and coach in rock climbing, to a top performance artist and latin dance coach; which led to her being featured on SBS 'Women in sport' and ABC's 'Strictly Dancing'. This depth of experience has enabled her to create a unique hybrid in her aerial work which is always passionate, vibrant and fresh. Being a part of a small dance/aerial company 'La Bataola' in Sydney, she has also choreographed many shows that have blended the latin dancing with aerials, mainly for performance events, both corporate and private. Part of her performance goal is to create acts that evoke strong emotional responses. Bel Macedone Bel is a physical theatre performer and director with a Bachelor of Creative Arts and Master of Teaching (Theatre). She previously worked with Theatre Kantanka, Critical Mass Theatre, Aerialize Theatre Sydney and PVI Collective. Bel has trained in acting, dance, stilts, aerials (London & Sydney) and Commedia Dell’arte with Antonio Fava in Italy. At the Sydney based Australian Youth Theatre Bel directed performances that toured internationally. Bel is the Co-Founder/Director of Sydney based ‘Redhanded Projects’, fusing together physical and political theatre since 1998. In 2006, Bel was the Production Manager and a performer for the Sydney based Gang Festival, as documented in the film “Gangways”. Bel trains at Aerialize and for the last three years has been working as a trapeze teacher and performer with Aerialize, performing in various venues including the Enmore Theatre, Darling Harbour and the Sydney Opera House. She has worked as assistant director of the last three Aerialize annual productions. Bel also currently teaches Drama and Film at the Newtown High School of The Performing Arts. Chris Mayhew Chris coached and competed nationally in both Gymnastics and Sports Acrobatics while training with Master of Sports, Russian Circus Artists in Circus Acts - Adagio, Russian Bar, Perch, Teeterboard, and group Acts. From 1990 to 2000, he performed and toured in some of Australia's leading companies including Circus OZ, Salamanca Theater Co, Dark Swan Dance Company, and The Australian Opera. Page Gorden Performance Group, The Leaping Loonies and as a featured acrobat and stunt double in Baz Lurhman’s "Moulin Rouge." Chris has taught at many schools in Australia and USA/Canada, and worked as a trainer at The Flying Fruit Fly Circus School and The National Institute of Circus Arts. In the last 10 years Chris has specialized in Acrobatic Adagio Dance shows creating his own companies, Duo Arabesque and Equilibrio, partnering ex Olympic Rythmic Gymnasts as well as World Class Ballerinas and creating new works performing in India, Taiwan and the US, and in Sydney collaborating with the Wollongong Symphony Orchestra, and recently performing on the "Saga Ruby" which toured over 40 countries. Kristi Wade - Assistant instructor Kristi has been doing circus classes since she was 9 and has been performing since she was 10 yrs old. She first learnt circus skills as BDCA, Bankstown District Circus Academy where she trained and performed for 4 years. She joined Aerialize at the age of 14 and is still training trapeze, silks and contortion and performing with Aerialize. With Aerialize she performed at major events in festivals, on radio, television and corporate gigs including the Hilton, Western, AJC race coarse, shopping centers, Town Hall, Carriage Works, Darling Harbour and the Opera House just to mention a few. She recently trained in China with the Beijing international school of arts.