Helen Sharp is Artistic Director of the Body Voice Centre established in 1994. Along with exhibiting exceptional skills in demolition and studio building Helen has led a wide range of workshops and research performance projects at the Centre. Other work as a director includes new Australian plays at La Mama, multilingual community theatre productions, large scale street theatre events and mask/stilt work. She received the 1999 Eva Czajor memorial award for female directors.  Helen is a member of In the Company of Others and currently director of the performance and research project Visceral Philosophy. She has taught in Performance Studies at Victoria University, VCA Drama School, Sunbury and Ballarat Tafe, Murdoch University WA and the Women’s Circus. Helen is a qualified Middendorf breathwork practitioner and a current PhD candidate at Victoria University – in 2007 she received the Vice Chancellors scholarship to undertake post doctoral research in performance. Her research project has two working titles: “Breathing Philosophy: embodiment, encounter, ethics” and “Breathing Performance: breath, sensation, presence” and is due for examination in 2012. The thesis encompasses perceptual breath practices and performance making in dialogue with philosophical texts. It is an continuation and elaboration of her Honours project, “Encounters with the Breath: Nine introductions” (2006). There is a pdf of this available on the website of In the Company of Others. Click here for link. She has also contributed a chapter entitled “Breath as Methodology” to a forthcoming book to be published by QUT on arts led research practice.

In October 2009 Helen was involved in a collaboration with Margaret Cameron, creating a performance event (see artists’ statement) in response to French philosopher Luce Irigaray’s book The Way of Love, as part of  Falling behind: politics of body states a series of performance events curated by Elizabeth Dempster and Sally Gardner (Writings on Dance Inc) funded by Arts Victoria.

Photo by Julie Joy Clarke