Performer/Choreographer

Katharine Arnold trained in ballet and classical music from an early age and graduated with a first class degree in Performing Arts from Middlesex University in 2001. After working in theatre, pop videos and on fashion shoots, and training at The National Centre for Circus Arts and in Berlin, she began her career as an aerial artist with the Flying Dudes Rock’n'Roll Circus performing flying and doubles trapeze and rope, and playing keyboards. Since then she has performed internationally as an aerialist, on rope, silks, Cage, hoop and trapeze, and has also taught extensively across the UK.

Katharine performed as a Mary Poppins in Danny Boyle’s Olympics Opening Ceremony, and was the aerial choreographer (and also a performer) for the Paralympics Closing Ceremony, working with 20 aerialists to create the Fireflies routine. She has recently consulted and choreographed for Children’s BBC show ‘Turbo Boost’, and worked as a consultant and trainer for TV pilot ‘The Dare’. She is currently  Creative Director at Circus London, creating new act concepts regularly.

Katharine has just finished performing in hit show La Soiree for their third consecutive season at the Sydney Opera House. She also performed in the show on the South Bank for their Christmas season 2010/11 and at the Roundhouse in 2011/12 with her aerial partner Hugo Desmarais in unique structure ‘The Cage’.

Last summer she played the character of Ariel in Boom Boom Club’s show Prospero’s Tavern at the London Wonderground on the Southbank. She has worked with 7 Fingers, a contemporary circus company from Montreal, on their critically acclaimed show Traces at the Sadlers Wells’ Peacock Theatre. She performed at last year’s MTV Europe awards, has toured with the X Factor Live tour, and also with Take That on their 2009 UK ‘The Circus – Live’ stadium tour as an aerialist and dancer, and previously in ‘Take That Comes To Town’, a 2008 ITV special. 

Also for ITV, she has recently performed aerial hoop on Text Santa 2013, several times for The X Factor, in a harness for ‘Red or Black’ and on doubles trapeze for the opening show for Dancing On Ice. For the same series, she trained Torvill and Dean for their flying silks Bolero routine. Other prestigious clients include Canon, Sony, Harvey Nichols, GHD, Mont Blanc, Mercedes and Toyota with London venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Roundhouse, Tate Modern, Olympia, Wembley Arena and Stadium, Shakespeare’s Globe, Sketch, Old Billingsgate and the Natural History Museum. Internationally she has worked in countries from Dubai, India and Oman, to Portugal, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Turkey and many more. She performed in the Cage for a season in the cabaret at the famous Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco, and also regularly performs in London at Circus in Covent Garden, The Box in Soho, The Hippodrome Leicester Square and at cabaret show The Black Cat at the Café de Paris.

Other performances include a featured role as a trapeze artist in ‘Sherlock Holmes II’ directed by Guy Ritchie, Pixie Lott’s ‘Gravity’ and Madonna’s ’4 Minutes’ pop videos, the X-box launch filmed by MTV, the Diana memorial concert at Wembley, Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates launch, the ARK charity gala for three consecutive years and many other motor shows, trade shows, awards ceremonies, launches and private parties.

Fashion shoots include Dazed and Confused magazine , The Face, ID and PIG magazines, a live show for Agent Provocateur, an aerial hoop performance for Ashish’s A/W catwalk show, and the book cover for John Hole’s ‘A Kiss for the Catcher’

Theatrically, Katharine spent a year performing in Berlin’s Friedrichstadtpalast, Europe’s biggest revue theatre, and has been part of many research and development projects to experiment with the integration of circus and theatre.

Katharine recently finished a 7 x month project working on Disney's live action version of Dumbo (starring Colin Farrell, Danny DeVito, Eva Green & Michael Keaton).