Our Staff
SA Circus Centre, the Home of Cirkidz is governed by a Board of Directors and managed by its General Manager and Artistic Director and supported by 6 core staff members.
Joshua Hoare: Artistic Director
Josh graduated from National Institute of Circus Arts (Swinburne University) University of Sydney and University of New England. His work spans circus and physical theatre, opera and event direction and facilitation. He has been an Australia council for the arts future leader, and Japanese government ship for world youth delegate. As an artistic director and trained linguist, Josh is committed to creative solutions for reclaiming sleeping languages. Josh has always been fascinated by the truths that bodies have access to, unavailable in verbal communication. His greatest work of art is his family with Andrea, and sons Arno and Oskar.
Nick Skibinski: General Manager
Nick has enjoyed a successful career in the Arts. He has specialised in providing business process, strategy, HR and general management advice and support for not-for-profit organisations. He is former Executive Director of Australian Dance Theatre, and Programing Executive for the Adelaide Festival Centre. In the nearly 10 years that Nick spent at the Adelaide Festival Centre he developed, presented and produced over 170 individual events and productions. From small scale industry developments programs, community cultural celebrations, mainstage performing arts and musicals through to the creation of the inaugural OzAsia festival as its first Executive Producer. He holds a BA in Arts Politics from Flinders University, and MBA from Adelaide University Business School. Nick is also an Associate Member of the Institute of Community Directors Australia.
His daughter joined the Cirkidz Tiddlerz program in 2012 and she is nurturing a keen interest in hula hoop and aerial silks.
Meredith Kitchen: Associate Director
Meredith Kitchen has had over 30 years of experience as a performer, choreographer, teacher and more recently as a director across different performing art forms including, dance, physical theatre, puppetry and circus.
She trained as a dancer from an early age and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance. She went on to perform with Australian Dance Theatre, Dance North, Chrissie Parrot Dance Collective and The One Extra Company, before leaving dance behind and joining Compagnie Phillipe Genty in Paris, France where she remained for over 12 years. She collaborated with Compagnie Genty in roles of performer, rehearsal assistant, tour rehearsal director, choreographer in 5 different productions touring the world including the world expo 1998.
On leaving the company she created a full length solo work “Disappearing Acts” which toured Portugal and Spain. On returning to Australia in 2010 she took up the position of Head of Movement Studies at The National Institute of Circus Arts. She was in charge of designing, implementing and teaching the movement studies course over all year levels. She also worked the performance program on many NICA productions in both choreographer and director roles and more recently became Acting Head of Performance Studies.
Marina Gellmann: Artist Development Coordinator
Marina has been involved with the circus for over 21 years as a student, artist, coach and set and props builder. She first started circus classes at age 5 in the Tackerz classes at Cirkidz, before entering the Artist Development Program in 2010 and going on to graduate as a circus professional in 2014. In addition to being a lead coach at the South Australian Circus Centre, Marina's role as Artist Development Program Coordinator lets her assist the physical and developmental journey of emerging artists and young performers in the program. Marina’s also has experience in props design and building, and her broad array of ‘handy person’ skills including metal work and carpentry are often utilized as a tool to heighten or assist circus performance. Recent highlights include props building for the web series ‘Tackerz TV’, building performance venues for ‘The Garden of Unearthly Delights’, and most recently Direction of the SACC’s Troupe performance, METTLE as part of Adelaide Fringe 2023.
Bronny Underwood: Accounts Manager
Bron’s career in Financial and Management Accounting Sectors have given her specialised experience and skills in working in an accounting environment with customer-based platforms. Her previous roles in Management Accounting and as Financial Systems Accountant in large and medium corporate environments has brought an invaluable source of expertise to SACC in designing and implementing internal system controls and embedding coherent financial systems within the framework of SACC’s online customer-based platforms and with SACC’s many and varied funded projects. Budgeting, data analysis, project costing, cash flow, internal system protocols and program performance reporting are part of Bronny’s skills and experience, and now are all integral parts of her role at SACC. Bronny has a Diploma in Accounting and has also managed her own Bookkeeping and BAS Agency for many years. She started working for Cirkidz in 2008 part time and is now SACC’s Financial and Accounts Manager. She loves working for such a creative company.
