Corpo Imago

Imago is a “visually stunning, emotionally resonant” (Ed Fest Mag) contemporary aerial dance duet.

Winner of a Best Production award at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the work explores the liminal space between holding on and letting go of another.Critics have praised it as “an incredibly impressive feat of acrobatics, staging, and sound design” (Fest), “a beautifully executed and contemplative experience” (Edinburgh Festival for Kids), and “a thoughtful and beautiful take on circus and aerial skills” (Voice Mag).“Imago carries you with it, skyward… somewhere beyond words.” — Three Weeks.

Direction and Choreography: Gabrielle Martin + Jeremiah Hughes
At the crossroads of circus, dance, and visual theatre, Corpo Imago confronts the myth of individual destiny, revealing instead a vast ecology where humans are fragile, complicit, and entangled with more-than-human forces. It emerged from years of backstage movement research between Gabrielle Martin and Jeremiah Hughes, while they were performing as principal characters with Cirque du Soleil’s TORUK, and has become a space to pursue circus’ dramaturgical possibilities alongside the cathartic potential of dance.

Gabrielle Martin is a choreographer, performer, and artistic director creating interdisciplinary works at the intersection of contemporary dance, aerial arts, and visual theatre. Her practice investigates the tension between will and fate, centering the body in its struggle for agency. Drawing on over 1,400 international performances with Cirque du Soleil and Cavalia, her work calls toward an embodied defiance—where risk, suspension, dependence, and resistance become choreographic languages through which to examine vulnerability, interdependence, and the contemporary tragic. She holds degrees from Concordia University, the Centre National des Arts du Cirque, and Rome Business School, and is the co-founder of Corpo Imago.

Jeremiah Hughes is a choreographer, performer, and co-founder of Corpo Imago whose interdisciplinary practice bridges contemporary dance, acrobatics, and physical theatre. Originally trained in competitive dance at the Canadian Dance Company and later at Randolph College for the Performing Arts, he has performed internationally with artists including Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars, and in major productions by Cirque du Soleil and Franco Dragone Entertainment Group. Driven by a passion for visual composition and theatrical storytelling, he approaches the stage as a sacred site of collective encounter—building visceral performance worlds where movement, image, and emotional intensity operate beyond language.

Aerial and Dance Artists: Jeremiah Hughes + Brenna Metzmeier

Brenna Metzmeier is a 28 year old multidisciplinary artist living in Vancouver BC. She is originally from Terrace BC, but completed her formal training at the Victoria Academy of Ballet, receiving a diploma in 2016. She has had the opportunity to work with Sawdust Collective, Pi Theatre, The Banff Dance Company, Inverso Productions, Vision Impure, Opera Box, State of Underdress, Little Chamber Music, Corporeal Imago, Wen Wei Dance, Edmonton Opera, Action at a Distance, Belle Spirale and is a founding member of the dance company CAMP. In CAMP she has co-created and produced several full length dance shows and been selected for multiple choreographic commissions. She has also been developing her own interdisciplinary solo work, and has performed the first iterations of her solo, I'I, at the Irish Aerial Creation Centre, The Dance Centre, through their 12 Minute Max programming, and at The Dance Deck.

Composer: Nicolas Bernier
Nicolas Bernier is a composer, sound artist, producer, and professor of sonic arts at the Université de Montréal. His work has earned more than twenty international distinctions, including the prestigious Golden Nica at Ars Electronica in 2013 for frequencies (a). Over the past two decades, he has composed for theatre, dance, visual arts, animation, and interdisciplinary performance. Bernier has released nearly fifty albums on labels across North America, Europe, and Japan, with his debut solo album receiving the Prix Opus for Album of the Year in 2010. His performances and installations have been presented internationally at festivals and institutions including Sónar, Mutek, and ZKM | Center for Art and Media. His practice explores the performativity of electronic sound through composition, research-creation, installation, and collaborative interdisciplinary work.

Lighting Designer: Sophie Tang
Sophie Tang is an award-winning lighting and set designer working in Theatre, Opera and Dance. She has worked with companies including Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, Electric Company Theatre, Vancouver Opera, Pacific Opera, Theatre Calgary, Artsclub Theatre, Bard on the Beach, Citadel Theatre, Canadian Stage, Theatre Replacement and so on. Selected credits: The Lehman Trilogy (Theatre Calgary); Rez Sisters (Stratford Festival); The Apple Cart (Shaw Festival); Jersey Boys, Legend of Georgia McBride, 12 dates of Christmas, The Orchard (Artsclub Theatre); Three Musketeers (Citadel Theatre x Artsclub Theatre); 9 to 5 (Citadel Theatre); Twelfth Night, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, Harlem Duet (Bard on the Beach); Michel(le), S’effondrent Les Videoclubs (Théâtre la Seizième); Undeveloped Sound (Electric Company Theatre); Choir Boy (Canadian stage and Artsclub); The Pearl Fishers , A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Vancouver Opera). Awards: Two-time Jessie Award Winner, three times Jessie Award Nominee, one time Sterling Award Nominee.