Kathrin Bigler
Kathrin is one of Bottlefed's artistic directors. She is responsible for writing, devising and directing our performances and leading the physical theatre/drama aspects of the Bottlefed workshop and training programmes.

She was born and grew up in Berne, Switzerland, where she started to work as a writer/director in dance and theatre. In June 2003 she gained a first class honours degree in Performing Arts (Community Arts Drama) at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. She has worked as a writer/director in theatre, dance and film all over the UK, in New York, Switzerland, Germany and Norway.

Directing credits 
Bottlefed Conceptual Improvisations 08 (Southwark Playhouse Secrets, Shunt Vault ‘Brussels Meets Brighton’, Bloomsbury Festival – all London // Verftet Bergen, ‘Operation Powervlott’, Norway)
Return to Reason (various London venues and Edinburgh Fringe 07)
Retour a la Raison (BAC, Stratford Circus, Siobhan Davies Dance Studios)
Camille (The Space, Lion & Unicorn Theatre, The Place ‘Resolution!06’, LOST Theatre Festival)
Eleggua (Unity Theatre Liverpool)
PURE (Anglican Cathedral Liverpool)
The Office (King's Head Theatre, London)
Adirondack Theatre Festival, New York (artistic associate)
The Curse (Valley Community Theatre, Liverpool)

Writing Credits
Performance: Return to Reason, Camille, Eleggua, PURE (all Bottlefed) – The Joker (BMC, CH)
Short films: ICH, L’Oeil en Face, co-writer (Lomotion Ltd, CH)
Lyrics: Feitaboogie, co-writer (KillerFernandez, UK/Norway)

Workshops
Kathrin has facilitated workshops and performance projects for children, young people and adults in diverse communities and contexts such as schools, universities, theatres and prisons. Her work covers the areas of creative writing, physical theatre, improvisation, storytelling and directing. She has worked as a devisor/director and workshop facilitator for Eastside Educational Trust (London), Company of Angels (UK), Schaubühne Berlin (DE), Rumbalante (CH), Wise Moves Ltd (UK), Theatre Royal Bath (UK), Amabadelo (Liverpool), Merseyside Young People's Theatre (Liverpool) and London University of the Arts (UK) as associate lecturer. Additionally to that, she ran the Drama Workhouse youth theatre (London) for five years and co-directed 'Creative Skills 4 Life', an OCN accredited performance project for vulnerable adults run by the Drama Workhouse and St Giles Trust in Camberwell. She has run the same course at the juvenile unit at HMP Downview and HMP Hunterscombe in 07/08.

Rebeca Fernandez Lopez

Rebeca, the other half of the artistic directors' team, is responsible for the choreography and movement work of Bottlefed's productions and workshop programmes. She is also part of the ensemble and has performed all of Bottlefed's work across the UK, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in Norway.

Raised in Zurich, Switzerland, she began her dance career early both as a performer and choreographer. She moved to the UK to study dance at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts from where she graduated in 2003. Rebeca works as a choreographer, performer and workshop facilitator in dance, theatre and film.

Choreography credits
Conceptual Improvs 08, Return to Reason, Retour a la Raison, Camille, Eleggua, PURE (Bottlefed)
Planet Steps08/09 (Wisemoves Dance)
Dance Synergy (Chisenhale Dance Space)
Seussical the Musical & Return&Discover (Royal&Derngate Theatres, Northampton)
A Star for a Night 2005-2008 (The Harlequin Theatre, Redhill)
 A Clockwork Orange & The Rules of War (Farrer Theatre, Eton College)
West Side Story (Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society).

Performance credits
Conceptual improvisations 08 (Southwark Playhouse, Shunt Lounge, The Space, Verftet-Norway)
Planet Steps08/09 (Wisemoves Dance UK venues)
 Return to Reason (The Space, BAC and Edinburgh Fringe Festival)
Retour a la Raison (BAC, Stratford Circus, London)
Camille (LOST Theatre Festival, Lion&Unicorn Theatre and The Place, London)
 PURE (Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool)
 The Office (King's Head Theatre, London)
A Strange Visit  (Onatti Theatre Company, UK tour)

Workshops
Rebeca's work as facilitator has taken her across the UK and Europe. She runs workshops in creative dance improvisation, choreography skills, contact improvisation and dance technique in contemporary dance, jazz dance, musical theatre, streetdance, as well as stage fighting and filmmaking.

Companies she runs regular projects for include Eastside Educational Trust (London), Wise Moves Dance Company (UK) and The Engine Room (London). In the past, Rebeca has worked for Dance United (UK), The Drama Workhouse (London) and Big Fish Theatre Company (London) to name but a few. Most recently, and alongside leading Bottlefed workshops in the UK and abroad, she ran the award winning project Translingual Express in Madrid (Spain), and ran dance workshops in Askøy and Bergen (Norway). She is currently working with The Cultural Ambassadors in Hackney, London, on a long term filmmaking project, and has been invited back to continue her work as associate lecturer for London University of Arts.

Catherine grew up in Kent and Montreal (Canada) where her interest for physical theatre was ignited. She came back to London to train at Central School of Speech and Drama on their 3 year acting course and since graduating has been working primarily in theatre and film. Recent credits include: Theatre: 'Failed States' (Baron's Court, transferred to The Pleasance, Main House, Islington), 'Camille' (Lost Theatre, King's Cross and The Space, London), 'Flowers of Red' (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Educating Rita (Brussels). Film: Ugly/Beautiful (Greenacre Films), Pocket (Sean Cameron, Short). Catherine first joined Bottlefed to work and perform as part of the 'Camille' ensemble. Following that experience, she continued working with Bottlefed devising 'Return to Reason' and performing it at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Enterprise07 Festival (The Space, London). She is currently working on our latest research and development both as a member of the ensemble and as our voice coach.

Astor was born and raised in Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland.  After being introduced to devised theatre through his work as an amateur theatre performer, he joined the European Theatre Arts course at Rose Bruford College, from which he graduated with a first degree in September 2007.  Bottlefeds current project is Astor's first production as a professional performer.

Born in England and brought up in Colombia, Agnes Brekke studied European Theatre Arts graduating from Rose Bruford College in 2003. Her strength as a performer lies in Physical Theatre and her experience in the arts range from naturalistic acting to contemporary dance and voice work. Bilingual in Spanish and English and with a multicultural background, Agnes has a strong interest in the practical and theoretical research of actor training focusing on the interaction between voice and physical action whilst searching to enhance the actor’s individuality and culture.

Shu-Yi Chin is a performer from Taiwan who recently achieved her MA degree in Performing from Central School of Speech and Drama. In order to become a professional theatre practitioner, she finished another MA course in Applied Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London, in 2006. Before coming to the UK in 2005, she was a secondary school English teacher and a freelance performer. She has been involved in commercials, films and theatre of all kinds since graduating in June, 2007. Shu-Yi joined the ensemble in 2008 to work on our latest research into music-, drama- and dance-improvisation.

Thomas trained in Acting at Bretton Hall where he established his skills in creating and developing new theatre. He furthered his training at Central School of Speech and Drama on the MA Performance course.
Thomas’ theatre credits include: the premiere of the five star show ‘Almost There’ at C Central, Edinburgh Fringe, ‘The Tempest’ at the Brockley Jack Theatre and ‘Merchants’ at Theatre 503. Thomas is currently working on a project in connection with the BAC and is working with Bottlefed as part of the ensemble on our current research project.

Vala Omarsdottir is an actor and theatre maker from Reykjavik (Iceland) where she began exploring theatre. Before gaining her MA degree in Advanced Theatre Practice-Performing Strand at Central School of Speech and Drama in London she studied Acting, Performance and Voice in New York City for 3 years.  Since graduating from Central in 2006 she has performed in Camden People’s Theatre, Theatre 503, The Space and The Oxford House in London with Maddid Theatre Company and Footprint Project, including her One Woman Show “What Now, Maddid?” and “Exile” as well as working in a few film projects.  Alongside performing, she is experienced in theatre workshop leading and movement teaching, and assisted with the organising of the Enterprise Festival 2008 (The Space, London). Vala joined the Bottlefed ensemble in 2008.

Irène’s artistic ambitions carried her from one of the smallest places in Switzerland (Asp) to Geneva, where she joined the pré-professional dance course at the Conservatoire de Genève. Villager by birth, cosmopolitan at heart, she moved to London to study Dance and Drama at London Studio Centre, gaining a Dip HE with Distinction in Contemporary Dance. Combining commercial with independent work her credits include: Stage: ‘Tunnel Vision’ (Zoo Venues, Edinburgh), ‘Erreur Fatal’ (Agent Provocateur, London), ‘Seven Days of Falling’ (OpenCompany, Switzerland), ‘Esther’ (TurbulanceDance, Robin Howard Dance Theatre) INTOTO DANCE (UK Tour, Peacock Theatre) Film: ‘Lord of the Flies’ (TworedshoesCompany), ‘The Girls’ (Calvin Harris, Columbia Records) and ‘All my life…’ (Oriana Fox). Irène is excited to be part of Bottlefed’s latest research into music-, drama- and dance-improvisation.

Kobayashi is a collective of London musicians playing both improvised and written music. The group consists of Sarah Anderson (viola), Lawrence Williams (saxophones) and Philipp M Moll (double bass). They draw from a wide variety of musical influences, with elements from Minimalism and Free Improvisation forming the core of their material. Kobayashi explore the links and possible common ground between the art forms of contemporary music – both improvised and written – and contemporary theatre and dance practices. The trio is currently an integral part of Bottlefed’s research & development project which aims to develop a model of working as an ensemble consisting of musicians and physical theatre performers. For more information on Kobayashi visit their Myspace page.

Philipp is a graduate of Bass School Munich (Diploma), LIPA (BA Hons) and the Royal Northern College Of Music (MMus). The Austrian born freelance musician lives in London, where he joyfully jumps back and forth between his occupation as bassist-in-demand and producer for his electronic project KillerFernandez. Philipp has been collaborating with Bottlefed since 2003 when he wrote and performed the score to ‘Eleggua’. Together with fellow musician & producer Adam Skinner, he co-wrote the soundtrack to ‘Camille’ and contributed was responsible for the music of 'Return to Reason'. He is currently working with Bottlefed as part of Kobayashi (see above).

Nadja works for CandoCo Dance Company as their marketing manager and assists/consults Bottlefed in company management, marketing and fundraising matters.

Freelance dance administrator/manager Joe, innitially joined Bottlefed in 2004 as a performer to work on 'Camille'. He temporarily took on the role of Bottlefed's education administrator being responsible for booking and management of Bottlefed workshops. He currently works for Bottlefed as a freelance production manager, having worked on 'Camille' at the LOST Theatre festival and at The Space.

Micha has been designing for Bottlefed since 2002 and is responsible for the graphic design of all of Bottlefed's marketing material and corporate design guidelines. For more information about Micha's work please visit www.rootside.com

Luke designed the set and costumes for Camille. He has designed plays at the Soho Theatre (London), Library Theatre (Birmingham) and at the Royal Exchange (Manchester). In 2001, Luke was awarded the Linbury Prize for Stage Design Commission with the Soho Theatre Company on Jump Mr Malinoff, Jump.

Mattia is an Italian photographer who has been responsible for taking pictures of us, both for 'Return to Reason' as well as for company promotion. Mattia studied photography at the Design European Institute in Milan. After two years experience at Fabrica (the research centre of communication of the Benetton group) he moved to London, where he still lives, in 2003. His work has been published in: Rolling Stone, Photo, Tank, GQ, El País Semanal, XL and Specchio to name but a few. www.mattia-z.com

Causing trouble since 1981, Robin is a Swiss-born writer, artist and filmmaker based in East London. He collaborated with us through our process of 'Retour a la Raison' and 'Return to Reason', filming rehearsals, performances and company portraits for our promotional material. For more information on Robin's work, visit www.bhattacharya.co.uk