Commissions
In partnership with Start Thurrock, we are extremely excited to be working with the following artists on our Freshly Baked Commissioning Programme 2026. All shows will be performed outdoors at Start Thurrock’s summer programme over July and August 2026. They are created to be flexible to tour outdoor and community spaces.
Kat Ball and Danielle Summers
Hype Sister! - 11th of August at Start Thurrock Big Lunch, Corringham
Photograph is from Look Mum, No Hands! By Mimbre and Daryl & Co
Photograph by Oxford Atelier at Offbeat
Danielle and Kat are an experienced acrobatic duo who have worked collaboratively to create wheelchair based acrobatic tricks. "Beautifully, hilariously and poignantly shows what can be achieved physically together" - Audience quote from Mimbre and Daryl & Co show pictured; Look Mum, No Hands!They are developing a new show; Hype Sister! A pink pop 90s nostalgia outdoor acrobatic show about friendship, envy, and the beauty of difference; made to be performed outside, built to stop people in their tracks. Disability isn’t the focus, but is their foundation, and brings an additional spark. Two friends. One spectacular fashion statement. A falling-out, a repair, and a reunion told through wheelchair-based acrobatics, direct audience connection, and a soundtrack soaked in 90s pop nostalgia. This show is a disabled-led, queer-informed outdoor performance for families and anyone who has ever fallen out with someone they love. The tone is celebratory, bold, and unapologetically pink.Phoebe Knight
Edges - 23rd of July at Start Thurrock Big Lunch, East Tilbury
Photograph from Lavrak Circus’s Windy Van Hooten tent at Shambala Festival
Phoebe is an experienced performer, touring nationally and internationally to outdoor festivals, big tops, and traditional theatre spaces. ‘Phoebe Knight gave an incredible performance of a well rounded and resilient character and was an overwhelmingly magnetising watch on stage.’ - Quays Life review of Sadiq Ali’s Tell Me.She is creating a solo Chinese Pole show that uses the audience as ballast for the pole. She will collaborate with the audience, and rely on their physical support to pull off incredible and beautiful tricks 5m in the air. This commission and phase of development forms part of a bigger project. The project ‘Edges’ is a duet that uses Chinese Pole and dance, to explore the unique and abundant space created at the edge of 2 ecosystems. It looks at the edge between:
- natural/urban landscapes
- Communities
- How our personal edges shape us/ those around us
- Audience/performer
- Chinese pole/dance.Inviktus Skate Collective
A Place Between Mass & Echoes - 13th of August at Start Thurrock Picnic in the Park, Tilbury
Inviktus is a rollerskating collective founded in 2024 by director and Guinness World Record-holding circus artist Symoné. Made up of experienced skaters from the global street skate community, the group combines choreographed routines with freestyle skating, drawing on influences from rollerskate jams, club style dances, and circus. They are redeveloping their show A Place Between Mass & Echoes, for community contexts. It’s a 20 minute outdoor show combining rollerskating, circus, and dance. The piece is a love letter to skate communities and the spaces we gather in, exploring what’s left behind as spaces disappear and the vitality of social dance communities everywhere.
As director of Inviktus, Symoné leads the development of interdisciplinary productions that explore power, the body, community, and spectatorship through live art and outdoor and indoor theatre. Indoor and outdoor productions include The Body Is Obsolete (2026), Nullspace Motel (2025), UTOPIAN (t&c’s apply) (2022), and Euphorica (2022). Across these works, Symoné combines non-linear storytelling with sensorial emotional environments and movement-based performance to examine how communities gather, celebrate and imagine new futures. Symoné is currently a board trustee with The Posh Club by Duckie and co-curator for Queering the Arts Outdoors with 101 Outdoor Art.Ruby, LK and Jen
Don’t Drop Me - 28th of July at Start Thurrock Big Lunch, South Ockenden
Ruby, LK and Jen are close friends and collaborators, which feeds into their shared physical language and sense of humour. They are acrobats, dancers, aerialists, clowns, riggers, lighting designers, access producers... there isn't very much in the circus sector these women can't do and haven't done!They are redeveloping Don't Drop Me; a family-friendly, high-stakes circus theatre show, where 3 women tie themselves in knots navigating their relationships, challenging their self doubts and testing their limits on and off the trapeze. They invite you into their world; revealing the intricacies of rigging, their combined circus disciplines, and the trust in each other and the structure they’ve built. Using collaborative acrobatics, dynamic aerial and clown-based counterweighting, this trio mixes playful silliness and candid storytelling. Expect near misses, head banging interludes and daring stunts in this celebration of agency, teamwork and empowerment. ‘In an era of young people feeling pressure to present as homogenous, perfect versions of themselves online, we take pride in revealing ourselves to be authentic, flawed, complex, eccentric individuals. We want to empower people by defying gender stereotypes and showing the importance of collaboration.’- Ruby, LK and Jen.