Who We Are

Helen Averley and Steve Cousins are the two full-time company partners, and work in association with Joe May. Working in partnership with commissioning organizations, we engage a team of delivery practitioners as suited to the project brief. Our artists, technicians and teachers are sourced from the international industry and are leaders in their speciality fields.

Helen Averley (MA)

Helen’s diverse creative skills have seen her take on roles as varied as jungle expedition artist, portrait painter and muralist to circus aerialist. Having taught and performed circus for 15 years, Helen has been a driving force behind many major projects and circus companies in this time. Her current projects include the development of a building-based circus hub in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Steve Cousins (BSc)

A committed exponent for circus participation, Steve is a driving force behind the community circus scene in the North East of England. His focus is bringing people together to engage in new experiences and to spread the universal language of laughter. He has an active career as a solo street entertainer, having worked professionally on four continents and is currently a director of the Circus Development Agency, the UK’s advocacy body for circus.

Rob Thorburn (MSc)

Rob is a lead tutor and highly skilled manipulation specialist. He has 10 year of experience in community circus and has worked as a community events and circus project manager in that time. He teaches regularly in the Netherlands and he is leading on our techniques for teaching youth circus project.

Joe May (BA, MA, PGCE)

Trained at the famous Lecoq school for physical theatre in Paris, Joe has notched up 25 years of performance experience, from clowning to mask to physical theatre to tragedy. He has worked in 10 different countries around the globe. As a fully qualified teacher and HMI acclaimed teacher trainer his work focuses on active learning and providing safe frameworks for the learner to take risks and become empowered, motivated and inspired through tasting real success.