Emily Nicholl

Emily Nicholl (she/they) is an Edinburgh born interdisciplinary artist, photographer and producer interested in creating in the places between. With a background in environmental education, activism and circus arts, she hopes to collaborate in ways which consider our varying sensory and political relationships with the outdoors and the overlapping roles of artist, neighbour, citizen, friend. She has worked internationally on award winning projects ranging from community based work to the intimate theatrical, as performer, acrobat, aerialist, rigger, dancer, stage manager, producer, assistant, photographer. She lives with chronic health conditions, and aims to declutter ableism from a wildly fluctuating relationship with her own body, As a dancer/circus artist she hopes to center honest physicality, improvisation, and trust, and works in ensembles and duets both in the air and on the ground.

Emily co-devised and performed internationally with Ockham's Razor's award winning Tipping Point - winner of the Total Theatre Award for Best Circus 2016 - and was on the creative team for their new intergenerational show This Time. Other credits include work with: all women and non-binary circus company Mimbre, Dior, Ockham's Razor, NoFitState Circus, Nathan Johnston, Laura Fisher, Ellen Renton, Roberto Magro, Greta MacMillan, Emergency Exit Arts, the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal Lyceum Theatre and Peut Etre Theatre.

Most recently, Emily finished a Jerwood Fellowship with Imaginate, learning about making work for young disabled audiences with additional support needs. Part of this included working in collaboration with Ellen Renton on an immersive live experience for blind and visually impaired children. She was recently a recipient of the Creative Fund from Puppet Animation Scotland which funded research including a residency at The Work Room in Spring 2022 and considerations around the 'how' of practice and ways of 'producing'.

As producer she has worked with critically acclaimed multi awarding winning venue The #Pianodrome and is a recipient of a Jerwood Arts Bursary. She facilitated community engagement for gardens and community spaces around Scotland for Alice Mary Cooper's award winning carbon light touring show The Bush in 2022. She was project coordinator for SCALP's activist legal support work during COP26 in 2021. Her background in circus emphasises for her the need to celebrate all roles involved in making work, and the need to reflect that celebration back out in what we want to advocate for and create in wider society.

Her new photography practice is based around conversation, improvisation and the camera as a tool for mindfulness, recovery and support. She has been exploring the notion of the embodied observer in collaboration with dancer Laura Fisher, a collaboration between audio description and image making with Joe Rizzo Naudi, and has had photographs selected for Shutterhubâs Poetry book and Postcards from Europe exhibition. She also makes photographs of rehearsals, dance, and performance.

Do get in touch if you'd like to collaborate.