MEET THE F**LS
We are Gracefool Collective. We make "post-intellectual-pseudo-spiritual-feminist-comedy-dance" for rebel Grannies and bored punks (and everyone in between.)
We make work collaboratively. We perform collaboratively. And we provoke, imagine, re-imagine, resist, defy, debate, create, fail, laugh and play collaboratively.
Gracefool Collective was formed in 2013 by a group of five friends, co-collaborators and co-conspirators - Kate Cox, Sarah Maria Cook, Sofia Edstrand, Rachel Fullegar and Rebecca Holmberg. We met at Northern School of Contemporary Dance and joined forces through a shared desire to make the work we wanted to see, a shared resistance to traditional contemporary dance aesthetics, a shared love of comedy, and a short lived (somewhat incongruous) fascination with David Hasselhoff.
We wanted to find a model of collaboration which did not rely on one person to drive the collective vision, which would also support and champion any member of the collective to follow their own path.
So the company has been through many iterations over the years. First we were five, then for many years there were four, then three and currently there are two lead artists - Kate Cox and Rachel Fullegar - and many more friends and collaborators without whom Gracefool Collective would not exist.
MEET KATE
Kate trained at Northern School of Contemporary Dance, graduating in 2013 with a first class BPA (Hons). As an independent artist Kate has worked extensively as a performer, choreographer, movement director and teacher across multiple settings nationally and internationally; in conservatoires, universities, schools and community groups as well as with companies such as Made By Katie Green and Company of Others.
More recently Kate worked as a performer and singer for a site specific contemporary opera by performance artist and musician Trulee Hall, commissioned by the Zabludowicz Collection in London. She is a regular collaborator with Liverpool based Art-Pop Band Stealing Sheep, and has choreographed three live shows for them; Luma Disco (for Manchester International Festival), Suffragette Tribute (for Liverpool Sound City and various UK festivals) and WOW Machine (for Hexagon Experiment in Newcastle, the Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool).
Kate is currently a lead artist for Yorkshire Dance’s ‘Company of People’, an intergenerational performance company of people from across Leeds aged 8 - 90. She is also the choreographer for Streetwise Opera’s Re:Sound Manchester project, working with adults with lived experience of homelessness.
MEET RACHEL
Rachel graduated from NSCD in 2013 with a 1st class BPA(Hons), the Undergraduate Achievement Award and Kathleen Tattersall Leadership Award. Her love for making immersive, interactive, interdisciplinary work for intergenerational audiences has led to long-term collaborations as a performer/deviser with companies such as Same Difference, Yorkshire Life Aquatic, Qdos Creates and Rusticus Arts. In 2019 Rachel worked with Filskit Theatre on Stella, a children’s show about a star technician, which undertook two UK tours, culminating at London’s Southbank Centre. In 2021, she toured nationwide in Filskit’s colourful light and performance show for 6-18 month olds, Kaleidoscope, stepped into their new show The Artist in 2022 and is currently a creative facilitator for their Wonder Gigs. Most recently, she was the choreographer and Team Lead on The Nutcracker 2021 and Snow Queen 2022 Christmas experiences at Blenheim Palace for Rusticus.
Rachel also works as a Movement Director, most recently for Drag ‘N’ Drop! (Ri Baroche), on the film Nettle Day (Elevator Productions), Rosy Maple Moth (Julie Burrow), Theatre State’s new musical Say Yes To Tess at Leeds Playhouse and, for both Blackout and Black Roses with Bunbury Banter Theatre Company, Scotland, where she is Associate Artist and a mentor for their youth theatre programmes.
Rachel also has a keen interest in sector development, sitting on Yorkshire Dance’s Artist Advisory Board for 4 years and spending 2 years as Independent Board Member for the Leeds Dance Partnership. She’s worked as a Lecturer in Dance at NSCD since 2015 and has taught extensively across the north of England as a community practitioner for Qdos Creates and Yorkshire Dance, where she was co-artistic lead for integrated company Raised between 2016-19.
Photo by Drazen Priganica
Photo by Maria Alzamora
Photo by Drazen Priganica
Photo by Lidia Crisafulli
Photo by Gracefool Collective
Photo by Gracefool Collective
Photo by Gracefool Collective
Photo by Gracefool Collective
Photo by Gracefool Collective
Photo by Gracefool Collective
Photo by Gracefool Collective
Photo by Drazen Priganica
Photo by Maria Alzamora
‘Gracefool craft their arguments neatly, offensively, powerfully… It’s liberating to feel as though you’re in dialogue, rather than be talked at… Gracefool Collective are, for whatever my salt is worth, a company worth watching.’ Alex Wood, Theatre Bubble
We believe in humour as a powerful tool to transform ideas and undermine social convention. We believe in collective action as a radical tool for social and political change.
We believe in collective joy as resistance.
We believe in embracing failure.
We believe art should be made everywhere, by everyone, for everyone.
Our work is about serious stuff, without taking itself too seriously. No to bullshit. No to pretentiousness. Yes to slapstick.
Stockholm Fringe Grand Prix Award for Excellence in Performance Art (2018)
Underbelly Untapped Award for Innovative New Writing (2017)
COMMISSIONS
Strike a Pose (Yorkshire Dance, 2022)
BA1 Student Showcase (Northern School of Contemporary Dance, 2021)
CertHE Student Showcase (Northern School of Contemporary Dance, 2020)
Anima (New Education for Contemporary Dance, 2017)
Carmina Burana (Avesta-Grytnäs & By-Folkärna Pastorat, 2017)
Reveal Festival (Bolton Octagon, 2017)
Northern Connections (NSCD, 2017; 2015)
NSCD Foundation & BPA1 Student Showcase (NSCD, 2014 & 2015)
Arrivals and Departures festival (NSCD/Yorkshire Dance 2013)
Furnace/ Transform (West Yorkshire Playhouse, 2013)
ARTIST SUPPORT & INVESTMENT
For Arts Sake, Yorkshire Dance (2019-2022)
Aural/Oral Dramaturgies, Battersea Arts Centre & Central School of Speech and Drama (2020)
Bridging the Gap & REACH touring programmes (2019)
Choreodrome (2017; 2018)
Dance Partner Project, Yorkshire Dance (2017/18)
CARP artists, Barnsley Civic (2016)
CATAPULT artists (2014/15)
“Through humour and compelling physicality Gracefool’s blend of dance-theatre entertains whilst tackling thorny, current-day subjects. Thus their work is that magic combination of being both accessible and meaningful, funny whilst you want to cry. They stand out in the rigour of their investigation and research, both inside and outside of the studio. Their pursuit of dramaturgical detail, comic timing and physicality puts their work firmly in a national and international context and has allowed them to build a loyal audience.”
Wieke Eringa, CEO and Artistic Director of Yorkshire Dance
FRIENDS & SPONSORS
