Theresa was born in September 1998 in Germany, where she discovered circus arts as a child in a recreational school.
This discovery—and the fascination that followed—led her, at the age of 16, to move to Bristol, England, for three years at Circomedia – Centre for contemporary circus and physical theatre, a school emphasizing physical theatre within circus practices.
Since then, she has developed her work on and under the rope, eventually joining the 33rd class of the Centre national des arts du cirque.
Technically, the slack rope easily creates, almost instantly, a circus space anywhere. Artistically, it offers remarkable properties such as plasticity and mobility. It allows her to work in a three-dimensional space while also giving her the possibility of becoming one with it, by merging with the shape of her body.
At CNAC, Theresa works with great determination on this horizontal “space” that is not the ground, and that implies different rules and bodily and spatial references. Guided by Nelson Mandela’s motto: “Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again,” she has recently begun experimenting with different materials, including fishing line and tights.
When she is not on a rope, Theresa sings—at the conservatory and at home. She also plays the accordion and the concertina.
During her three years of study in France, she worked with Pierre Rigal, Christophe Haleb, and Gilles Cailleau, with whom her cohort revived the show Fournaise at CNAC and at CIRCa in 2020.
After her studies, Theresa wishes to enrich herself through performance work before creating both solo and collective projects. She is already part of the project “When circus is not itself anymore” by Squarehead Productions under the direction of Darragh McLoughlin. The project focuses on performance and mental and physical endurance (4 to 6 hours) and will be presented as an exhibition in museums or festivals. For this reason, Theresa trains herself to remain still on the rope for several hours at a time.
Centre National des Arts du Cirque