Chantal McCormick

Chantal trained at the London School of Contemporary Dance and became interested in aerial circus after graduating. She toured with established dance and circus companies in the UK touring to Trinidad, Europe and Australia from 1999-2008 including Scarabeus Theatre with whom she learnt vertical dance skills, . Chantal loves working on the ground using dance, contact and theatre and enjoys finding ways to bring them into the air, using anything to climb or fly on.

In 1998 Chantal co founded and became artistic director of FIDGET FEET Aerial Dance Theatre, Ireland’s leading aerial dance company with whom she directs, choreographs and performs. Since 2004 she has directed many shows including, ‘I Cant Handle me’, ‘Remember Her’, ‘Wired and Free’, ‘Fairies Tale’, ‘Raw’, ‘Hang on’, ‘Catch me’, ‘Fire Birds’, ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’, ‘Cinder & Ella’s’, ‘Dreams under my Feet’, ‘Sky Dance’ and Co- choreographed FF’s first early years show ‘Strange feathers’ with Icelandic partner Bird & Bat while also choreographing ‘The Second Coming’, with Mikel Murfi as director mixing Irish dancing with aerial. At present FF is creating 4 new shows ‘Bingo Wings’ collaborating with Jo Mangan from Performance Cor-operaton, a new immersive site specific show for regional Irish theatres, ‘Hip H’Opera’ a new middle scale outdoor aerial show with direction from Kevin Finnain from MotionHouse, ‘Hatch’ another early years production with Shortworks network of 4 venues in Ireland a Nashville Children theatre in USA and ‘Spirals’ an aerial dance piece with three dancers aimed for unusual spaces. Chantal’s personal love is creating work for young audiences, Chantal receives a children’s bursary from the Arts Council allowing her to develop her skills and interest in making aerial circus work for early years and young audiences.

Chantal still manages to find time to perform in many of the Fidget Feet productions continuing to tour Hang On and will be one of the dancers in ‘Spirals’ and ‘Bingo Wings’.

In addition to creating work, Chantal has been teaching since she was 16 years old. Fidget Feet provides creative opportunities to both professional performers and the public by offering educational workshops and residencies, or one off classes. Chantal is also a strong advocate for the development of aerial work in Ireland. Running the IADF for the last 9 years and opening the new IACC in Limerick now in its fourth year, we have secured a capital grant to build a new centre in the city the first large capital government grant for Circus in Ireland, Aim to open in 2020 The Irish National Centre for Aerial Arts.

Chantal was also co-founder, chairwoman of the ISACS network (Irish Street Arts, Circus and Spectacle) for 5 years. Continuing to support the growth of the sector in Ireland.