Exploring humanity’s entanglement with more-than-human forces.
About Us
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.
Founded by circus and dance artists and Co-Artistic Directors Gabrielle Martin and Jeremiah Hughes, Corpo Imago emerged from their collaboration while performing as principal characters in Cirque du Soleil’s TORUK – The First Flight. CI became a space to pursue circus’s dramaturgical possibilities—where physical risk operates as a metaphor for humanity’s ancient negotiations with fate, divinity, and death—alongside the cathartic potential of contemporary dance to investigate the tensions shaping the human condition.
CI’s works have been presented across Canada, Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, including at Montréal Complètement Cirque and La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines, Assembly Festival at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (UK), Gluttony at the Adelaide Fringe Festival (AUS), The Dance Centre (Vancouver), Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, Bass Coast, San Francisco Aerial Arts Festival, and dance Immersion (Toronto). CI has been Artist in Residence at The Dance Centre (2021–22; 2024–25), received The Dance Centre’s Isadora Award for Excellence in Choreography (2022), and won the IC Best Production Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2025). CI’s latest work, Drift, premiered at The Dance Centre in May 2026.
Beyond performance, Corpo Imago advances artist training and discipline development through subsidized aerial and acrobatic dance classes, workshops, and mentorship opportunities that expand access to interdisciplinary practice. See our Training page for more information.
Gabrielle Martin
Executive and Co-Artistic Director
Gabrielle Martin is a choreographer and 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 (TORUK) and Cavalia as an aerialist and dance artist, her work calls toward an embodied defiance—where risk, suspension, and resistance become choreographic languages through which to examine vulnerability, interdependence, and the contemporary tragic. She holds a BFA in Contemporary Dance from Concordia University, a Certificate in Dramaturgy from the Centre National des Arts du Cirque (France), an MA in Arts and Cultural Management from Rome Business School, and is the co-founder of Corpo Imago.
Parallel to her artistic practice, Gabrielle has been teaching aerial technique and body mind practices for over 20 years. She studied Kinesiology at Langara college, is an ACE Certified personal trainer, a fully certified STOTT Pilates instructor, and a Yoga Trapeze certified instructor with aerial conditioning expertise and a Gyrokinesis practice.
Jeremiah Hughes
Co-Artistic Director
Jeremiah Hughes is a choreographer, director, performer, and co-founder of Corpo Imago whose interdisciplinary practice bridges contemporary dance, acrobatics, and physical theatre. Having trained in dance at the Canadian Dance Company, Randolph College for the Performing Arts, and Broadway Dance Center in NYC, Jeremiah launched his career on So You Think You Can Dance. He has since had the honour of performing internationally with artists including Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars, and in major productions such as PEEPSHOW, JUBILEE!, Britain’s Got Talent, Franco Dragone’s LE REVE, as well as Cirque du Soleil’s Viva ELVIS and TORUK. From 2015-2019, he toured as the lead male role of Ralu in Cirque Du Soleil’s TORUK - The First Flight, where he served as the show’s original Dance Captain. 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.
Photo Richie Lubaton
Our work is made possible by the contribution of all our collaborating artists, as well as our Board of Directors:
Nicole Rose Bond, Marcus Youssef, Davi Rodrigues, Vanessa Goodman and Mark Douglas.
