Our Team
Vulcana Circus is made up of a group of talented, diverse and highly skilled people. Suspiciously normal on the outside and colourful on the inside, each integral to the organisation. The team is comprised of board members, office staff, coaches and performers — you can read a snapshot about them here. In addition, though not listed here, we have a vibrant collection of past coaches and performers that never really leave and still make regular appearances in our classes and shows.
Board Members
Bena Brown
Chair
Bena is an active member of Vulcana Circus, a mum to two boys, a speech pathologist and cancer researcher. She appreciates the long-standing role Vulcana has played in the lives of many – connecting with children, youth, the elderly, the disadvantaged, the under-represented. She values the diversity, strength, courage and voice of the Vulcana community.
She is excited to serve on the Vulcana Board to achieve its vision in the long-term, in providing a supportive space and opportunities for women, trans and non-binary genders, youth and children and communities to explore, create, develop and express transformation, to challenge societal norms, and to champion diversity through the physical creation of circus arts. She lives and breathes the feminist principles espoused by Vulcana, and dreams of a world that her sons will inherit where inclusion, equality, and celebration of difference is the rule, not the exception.
Ashleigh Jones
Secretary
Ashleigh first joined Vulcana when she moved to Brisbane in 2012. She was immediately drawn to Vulcana’s inclusive approach to physical movement, and the safe and supportive space it provides. She continues to be an active member of Vulcana Circus as she shares Vulcana’s values of inclusiveness, strength, and empowerment, and relishes the mental and physical challenges that circus provides.
In her professional life, Ashleigh is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and also holds a Master of Business Administration. She divides her time between clinical practice and work in the food industry. Ashleigh combines a decade of clinical experience with sound business acumen. She is an ethical decision maker as well as an advocate for health and equality and is thrilled to serve on the Vulcana Board to give back to this wonderful community.
Brooke Sinclair
Treasurer
A CPA qualified accountant with a background in taxation, financial accounting and the non-profit sector, Brooke has worked closely with artists and arts workers for over 16 years. Brooke is a committed professional with a keen interest in arts, especially local arts and culture, and a lifetime commitment to ethics in financial practices.
In addition to teaching accounting at TAFE and university, Brooke has served on committees for the arts, cultural programs, educational programs, and sport and recreation committees. She continues to build on her specialist expertise in information analysis and compliance, and is keenly interested to support and empower non-profit organisations to achieve stability and growth.
Denise Hookey
Member
Denise Hookey is a proud Waanyi woman raised on Mitakoodi and Kalkadoon country. Combining her culture with expertise in operations and risk management, Denise has made significant impact in the rail and health sectors.
Currently, Denise serves as the Operations Director at the Southern Qld Centre of Excellence, an Indigenous Primary Health Service. She is a strong advocate for equity in healthcare, ensuring quality care reaches all individuals.
Denise is excited to bring her operations and risk management experience to Vulcana. Her goal is to support and expand their operations, ensuring a successful future.
Beyond her professional achievements, Denise prioritizes family time, raising her sons with love, dedication and integrity.
Harlen Ferguson
Member
Born in Aotearoa to parents of Ngati Porou and Nga Puhi heritage, Harlen moved to Meanjin at a young age.
Relocating to Naarm to carve out a music career as a singer-songwriter-guitarist, she released two solo albums to critical acclaim “a significant contribution to Australia’s musical identity” – Time Off. She also won Best Female Artist at The Age EG awards, and Best Unsigned Artist at the Urban Music Awards. Harlen’s recent release ‘She’s Got Confidence Ft Karina Brown’ features on ABC documentary ‘A League Of Her Own’ available to stream on iView.
Harlen has previously been employed as Vulcana’s Operations Manager and is proud to continue to serve the organisation as a board member.
Staff
Allie Wilde
Artistic Director
With an accomplished career spanning decades, Allie Wilde (she/her) is a celebrated circus performer, director, and producer with a dedicated commitment to bold, inclusive, and community-centric projects.
Her practice has spanned a diverse range of creative engagements across Australia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East – from city streets to full-scale arenas.
Having worked with Vulcana as a board member, volunteer, trainer, and creative collaborator, she steps into her new role keen and committed to continuing the organisation’s 30-year legacy of care, connection, and creative ambition.
Deborah Cleland
Chief Executive Officer
Deb Cleland (she/her) has been passionately supporting vibrant communities across a variety of complex sectors for over twenty years.
Her lifelong commitment to community, social justice, inclusion and sustainability has been reflected in creative installation and performance projects; research, education and governance initiatives, and; community leadership roles in financial management, strategic planning and social advocacy.
Initially finding solace in circus in her thirties, Deb joins Vulcana as CEO with a keen awareness of the essential value of the organisation’s work as a safe space of inclusion and collective connection.
Angela Willock
Program Manager
Angela takes care of class, workshop, and project programming. Her background is in youth work and workshop facilitation so you may be unsure how she arrived in circus. The answer to this is simple. Whenever Angela sees an opportunity in life and she is unsure if it is the right one, she asks, what would 5-year-old Angela do?
Angela is also a performance poet and co-directs Ruckus Slam, a company that produces slam and live art events across Brisbane and Melbourne. And in case you are wondering, 5-year-old Angela thinks grown up Angela is pretty great. Angela is passionate about creating spaces for artistic expression and enacting social change through the arts.
MJ O’Neill
Marketing & Fundraising
MJ O’Neill is a musician, writer and strategist based in Maganjin. Her work has spanned interviews with Lady Gaga, international advisory roles with brands like Samsung and Resmed, and internationally acclaimed albums made entirely out of sirens.
At Vulcana Circus, MJ supports the wider Vulcana community with expertise, communications, and cross-sector collaboration. Disabled, neurodiverse, and transgender, MJ’s passion for community and connection has been shaped by her own lived experience of the manifold benefits cultural experiences can bring to people’s lives.
Tessa Milton
Venue Manager
As Venue Manager, Tessa handles all of the complexities of Vulcana’s HQ in Morningside and ensures everything continues running smoothly behind the scenes.
Tessa has a diverse background encompassing creative writing, event coordination, business communications, and operations management. She discovered her passion for circus after retiring from her career as an international weightlifter.
Along with her responsibilities of Venue Manager, Tessa continues to develop her circus skills and has already performed as part of Vulcana’s Agitate and Tipping Point cabarets.
Trainers & Performers
Celia White
Formerly Artistic Director Vulcana, Celia has worked for over 40 years as a performer, devisor and director. She is highly regarded for directing on site-specific productions, community theatre and contemporary circus performance.
She was co-founder and director of The Crash Collective, artistic director of Contact Inc, and director with companies such as Stalker Theatre Company and Circus Oz. She was co-founder and co-director of Circus Corridor, generating contemporary circus on the Gold Coast and producing The Rising for Commonwealth Games Festival 2018. She is director and member of award-winning company, GUSH, a feminist circus ensemble and works with independent artists across the country.
Her feminism informs all her work. She is passionate about getting people passionate about and involved in making performance that changes our view of the world or each other or the act of performance.
Emma Aitchison
With a strong background in classical ballet, Emma has a natural flare for choreography and style of movement with music. Emma began training circus skills in 1999, quickly choosing to specialise in the aerial disciplines. Her training in dance has given her a rare grace as an aerial artist. 2001 brought a chance to hone and perfect her skills during a fourteen-month contract as a solo aerialist in the Jupiter’s Casino production “Hidden Palace”. From 2002 until today, she has performed in an almost constant stream of corporate and charity events throughout Australia and Asia, creating different costumes, music and choreography to suit their large variety of themes and staging.
Emma is now sought after by many emerging and professional artists as an advanced aerial trainer and choreographer. Her skills have added that missing touch to countless aerial performances.
Regan Henry
Regan is an artist, circus performer, & teacher. She was the co-host and co-producer of monthly scratch night Fast & Loose, and was director and performer in the award-winning show ‘Hold My Beer’ presented at Anywhere Theatre Festival 2019. During this festival, she also performed in Dwell, by performance company Collectivist, which enjoyed a sell-out season. She was an ensemble member with Vulcana to create Inertia that was presented at Vulcana Studios, Brisbane Powerhouse and Mullumbimby Circus Festival, 2018.
She has performed at festivals such as Woodford folk Festival, RuckusFest, MELT Queer Festival and Wonderland Festival at Brisbane Powerhouse, Backbone Festival, and Anywhere Theatre Festival, and is a dynamic and gifted circus artist interested in combining text, narrative and physical theatre.
Phoebe Manning
Phoebe Manning has a long history in the arts. She completed her Bachelor of Arts (Drama Major) at QUT in 1990 and then a Graduate Diploma of Education (Drama and English) in 1993. Phoebe has also studied with Sydney Aerial Theatre Association. She has performed trapeze, double trapeze, chinese pole, clown, burlesque and stilts. Her works include the 2006 Crash Collective showing of ‘Outside the Safety Zone’, group stilt shows ‘Outskirts and Frida’, ‘Home Fictions’, ‘Physicalisms’ and the opening ceremony of Magdalena.
Phoebe has trained in Social Circus and worked on a wide variety of Social Circus projects with diverse communities including disabled, Deaf, Indigenous, young people, and refugees. She is the creator of endearing clown characters who are looking for love and other distractions, and failing hilariously.
Sophie Whitecross
Sophie fell in love with circus after taking her first Acro class in 2017 and has taken every opportunity to be upside down since then. She specialises in hand balancing, contortion, and creative tumbling but has tried just about everything along the way.
Sophie is studying a Bachelor of Physiotherapy and loves combining her knowledge of circus skills and techniques and her knowledge of anatomy. She aims to teach classes that are challenging, push her students’ strength and flexibility, and most importantly that are fun!
Chloë Callistemon
Chloë Callistemon started aerials in 2014 and has spent as much time in the air as possible since. She has been part of various Vulcana showcases, cabarets and community shows including Rear Vision (2020) and Circus in a Tea Cup (2021), and conceived and performed in Cirquetry (2019) fusing circus and poetry. She is a writer and multidisciplinary artist interested in collaborative performance and combining disciplines in unusual ways.
Chloë is most often found on a teardrop (aka sling/hammock) or cloud, spinning and dropping (intentionally – for fun). She has been teaching since 2019, still remembers how hard it is to invert the first time, and loves to help people do things they never thought they could.
Chloë is a professional photographer who also makes images for Vulcana when she can.
Mayu Muto
Mayu is a Circus artist and performer and has Bachelor of Applied Science (Human Movement studies) minoring in Dance at QUT. Her training institutions include Suzuki Classic Ballet Academy in Japan, Royal Antwerp dance school in Belgium and Frankfurt University in Germany. Creating, moving and performing have been big parts of her life since childhood. Mayu first discovered the joy of and the exciting possibilities of circus at Vulcana. Mayu teaches circus and dance to children and adults for many companies. She incorporates her knowledge of exercise science and dance in teaching circus and is passionate about encouraging people to explore their own styles.
Mayu is a company member of Casus Circus, touring nationally and internationally, is a member of GUSH circus, and has co-created and toured her solo show Mutating Roots.
Zoe
At 15, Zoe moved to Melbourne to pursue her passion further, completing a certificate in Circus Arts at the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA). Upon returning to the Gold Coast, she trained Aerials full-time at Aerial Angels Cirque Central and joined Circa Contemporary Circus (Circa) Youth Ensemble.
Having successfully graduated from her youth circus pursuits, Zoe went on to found Collective Circus, a dynamic group of independent artists dedicated to creating innovative works and making their mark in the circus world. Zoe’s commitment to her craft extends beyond her performances; she loves to share her passion as a trainer, contributing to the growth of aspiring artists.
With a profound love for the arts, Zoe looks forward to continuing her journey, following her passion for the arts into the future. As a recent graduate with a Bachelor of Creative Industries, majoring in entertainment from the Queensland University of Technology, Zoe is ready to make meaningful contributions to the dynamic world of circus and entertainment.
Rosie Albina
Rosie is a young emerging artist and passionate member of the circus world who is drawn to Vulcana’s socially conscious ethos. Ever since beginning classes at age 6, she has been mesmerised by circus as a unique art form, motivating her decision to train consistently from 2019. Rosie works with lyra, hula hoops and ground movement, with physical theatre and Butoh training adding new perspectives to her practice.
She has performed as a part of Circa Zoo in Leviathan at QPAC’s Playhouse during the Brisbane Festival and Return to Earth at Home of the Arts (HOTA). Rosie has been a recipient of Sounds Across Oceans’ Creative Residency Fellowship for BrisAsia Festival and Zen Zen Zo’s youth scholarship for their renowned Actor’s Dojo.
Rosie draws on her mixed cultural background and her fascination with history to inform her understanding of artistic expression. She continues to be excited by circus as form of versatile and inclusive storytelling.
Aline Chapet-Batlle
A Line In The Air is a French Australian Circus artist based in Meanjin (Brisbane).
She mainly works in aerial arts, and also performs on the unique ground-based structure Tetra she created, as well as with giant bubbles.
She graduated from the Académie Fratellini in Paris in 2012 and has since performed around the world with prestigious circus companies and directors before creating her own company CAJ Entertainment to showcase emerging and established talent around Australia.
When not performing, Aline shares her knowledge of the aerial arts in circus schools and festivals all around Australia. Her teaching revolves on the idea that each body is unique and focusses on highlighting the strength in each student to complement their individuality. She also teaches workshops based on improvised work and musicality with live musician Eric Roeting.