Femmes du Feu's mandate is to develop, explore and promote aerial dance in Ontario and to new audiences. Femmes du Feu creates work that blurs the edge between circus and contemporary dance. Founded by dance artists Holly Treddenick and Lindsay Goodtimes in 2003, Femmes du Feu was joined by co-artistic director Sabrina Pringle in 2006.

Aerial dance is an approach to space using props or apparatuses such as silks, low-flying trapezes, hoops, bungee, harnesses, window frames, chairs, or anything thing else suspended that can be danced with to create an exiting visual effect or convey an image. What puts it in the category of modern dance rather than traditional circus is the aesthetic, process, transitions and intentions. As a branch of contemporary circus pioneered by Cirque du Soliel, aerial dance has become a distinctly Canadian art form, that is still new to Ontario audiences. Now small companies such as Femmes du Feu are carving out an identity in the global arts scene.

Femmes du Feu have presented their aerial dance works at various corporate events, weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, holiday parties and for other companies such as Zero Gravity Circus and Circus Orange, as well as festivals such as The Wrecking Ball (2007), The International Circus Festival (2008), and Hysteria Festival (2009).

In 1999 Femmes du Feu created and produced their first full-length aerial dance show, Head First, for the London, Toronto and Hamilton Fringe Festivals, winning Patron’s Pick and Best of Fringe in Toronto. In 2010 Femmes du Feu created and produced their second full-length production, The Plank for the London, Toronto, and Winnipeg Fringe Festivals to sold out houses. The Plank was extremly well received, with 5 star reviews, and again winning Patron’s Pick in Toronto.

Femmes du Feu are currently in creation for their newest show, Airship. Performers include Natalie Fullerton, Lara Ebata, James Fisher, as well as Sabrina Pringle and Holly Treddenick.

Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Holly moved to Toronto in 1995 to study at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, where she graduated from the professional training program in 1998. Holly has since studied fire performance, Pochinko clown with Sue Morrison, and aerial dance including silks, rope, hoop, harness, bungee, static and dance trapeze. Holly began her aerial training with Sabrina Pringle in 2005 and has never looked back! Holly has also trained with various teachers across Canada, California and at The Aerial Dance Festival in Boulder, Colorado.

Holly has worked with various companies such as Free Flow Dance, Ballet Creole, Tweenies, Sally Morgan Dance Projects, Sarah Anne Johnson, Barbara Lindenberg, Tanglewood Family Entertainment, Dusk Dances, FFIDA, Goodness Gracious, Company Blonde, Zero Gravity Circus and Circus Orange as dancer, circus artist and administrator. In 2003 Holly co-founded Femmes du Feu with Lindsay Goodtimes, which was later joined by Sabrina Pringle. Holly and Sabrina have been working together on and off since 1998. Holly toured across Canada five years between 1999-2010 with the Fringe Festivals with Free Flow Dance and Femmes du Feu.

Holly is also a certified yoga instructor (2001) and a graduate from The Canadian College of Osteopathy (2008).

Sabrina joined Femmes du Feu as co-artistic director in 2006. She has choreographed and performed in many venues across Toronto over the last four years. Sabrina is currently being seen in film festivals across Canada and on the Olympic website as a solo aerialist/dancer in Elif Isikozlu's film "Let Go". Beginning in 2002 she toured several different productions extensively in the United Stated and Europe as choreographer and performer with the Caravan Stage Barge. She was also co-founder, performer and choreographer with the dance company D.I.X from 1999-2001; producing two full-length shows in Toronto and touring to Portugal. As an aerialist, dancer, fire and stunt performer she has also worked with companies such as Circus Orange, Zero Gravity Circus, A2D2, DNA Theatre, and Company Blonde.

Sabrina began as a ballet, jazz and modern dancer and went on to graduate from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre in 1999. Eight years ago, she began to focus on training in the circus arts with many different coaches throughout North America and completed the International Stunt School by the United Stuntmen's Association in Seattle. Her aerial training includes silks, single and double pick harness, bungee, trapeze, dance trapeze, hoop and invented apparatuses. Sabrina is High Angle Rescue and Fall Arrest certified with experience rigging in theatres, conference halls, tall ships, high buildings (Toronto's City Hall) and steep rock faces. Sabrina also performs with fire, spinning, manipulating, and even eating it, using a vast array of props and techniques. She can also do a full body fire burn, and is a licensed pyrotechnician. In 2005 Sabrina began running her own aerial silks school and now proudly has many students performing as professionals in the community.

Lara has been a dancer for over 25 years. Her formative training began with ballet with the Royal Academy of Dance. An insatiable appetite for dance has led to studies in modern, jazz, Indian dance, Afro-Caribbean, hip hop, Latin ballroom, tap, fire dance, stilts, and various aerial apparatus. Since graduating from the York University Dance Program in 2000, Lara has performed across North America in festivals such as the Toronto Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists, Dusk Dances, the Toronto, Ottawa, London, & Hamilton Fringe Festivals, the Yonge St. Festival, Just for Laughs (Montreal & Toronto), Cavalcade of Lights, the Calgary Stampede, Wintercity, the Rhubarb Festival, and the Second City Late Night Cabaret. Lara has had the opportunity to work with Toronto circus companies such as Circus Orange, Femmes du Feu, A2D2, and Suspended Animation, and is co-artistic director of her own small fire dance company, Goodness Gracious...

James Zirco Fisher is the Movement-Music Composer & the Blue-Prints Illustrator of the AIR SHIP. Zirco has a detailed history illustrating for numerous projects including the popular skeleton comic "Disifigures of Speech" featured monthly in Rue Morgue Magazine this past 7 years. Zirco completed the macabre soundtrack to his first feature film earlier this year called "Kenneyville". Zirco is also the spearhead of the circus electro music project Squid Lid. This project combines his artistic and musical skills seamlessly along with a live stage spectacle that features glowing creatures. To hear and see more of James Zirco Fisher visit zircocircus.com.

Natalie Fullerton is a classically trained dancer who also holds a BFA in dance from York University. After completing her degree she discovered the circus arts and has never looked back. In addition to co-directing her own fire and aerial company, Goodness Gracious..., she has also performed across Canada, the USA, Europe and Asia with various companies and choreographers. Most recently she has been working with Circus Orange, Femmes du Feu, Les Coquettes and Lady Luck Productions on selected events including, Airship with Femmes du Feu as part of the 2011 Rhubarb Festival, City of Toronto Wintercity Festival 2010, Femmes du Feuʼs production Head First, winner of Toronto Fringe Festival 2009 Best of Fringe award and Patronʼs Pick, The Calgary Stampede 2008 and Just For Laughs 2006 (Montreal), 2007 (Toronto) with Circus Orange, as well as an ongoing residency at Revival with Les Coquettes.

Marc Richard is a multi-disciplinary artist. He is a graduate of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, where he had the pleasure of working with many of this country’s finest choreographers. He worked for a time as an independent dancer and was seen in Bill James’ Big Pictures with Arraymusic. As an actor Marc has appeared in theatre productions across Canada including the World Stage Premiere of Anne Marie MacDonald’s Anything That Moves and Dorothy Dittrich’s When We Were Singing (Buddies, Belfry, National Art Centre). As a director and choreographer he has worked on over sixty professional productions across Canada including Evita (Persephone) Funny Business – The Musical (Toronto Fringe, Diesel Playhouse) The Last Resort, Nunsense, Jasper Station, I Love You, You’re Perfect (Drayton Entertainment) Plank (Toronto, London, Winnipeg Fringe) and Excuse me, would you like to buy a bar? (Toronto Fringe). As a writer he has written several full length scripts including Toad:The Anna Russell Story (Rhubarb Festival, Theatre Aquarius Stagewrite Series) Marc has taught in the Dance Department at York University and is currently a faculty member at Sheridan College in the Music Theatre Professional Training Program where he teaches, directs and choreographs (West Side Story, Berlin to Broadway, Company, Pippin). He holds a Master of Arts in Dance from York University with a specialization in dance education in elementary schools and is currently a PhD candidate in York’s Faculty of Education.