Abalino Dance Theatre was set up in 2004 by choreographer Alice Cade and Puppet-maker Mike Helmy. The basis of the company’s practise being explorations into the combination of dance and puppetry, discovering an original visual and physical language through ideas of illusion and play.

The company presented its work at Resolution!2005 to rave reviews, and after receiving a funding award from the Arts Council, they returned the next year to sell-out audiences with a new work.

In 2005, the company was the winner of a Creative Leicestershire Bursary Award, and in 2006 it won the "Best of the Fest Award" at the Buxton Fringe Festival. Choreographer Alice Cade has been awarded a Puppet Centre Bursary 2007/8 to further pursue her work in this new field, and Abalino Dance Theatre has recently been touring its latest work, "Is that what you see?" to venues in the East and East Midlands over 2006 and 2007.

Abalino Dance Theatre has received support and funding from: Arts Council England, Creative Leicestershire, Lincolnshire Dance, Awards for All, Rutland County Council, and Next plc.

Artistic Director / Choreographer, Designer / Performer
Alice graduated with BA(Hons) in Dance Theatre from Laban (2004). After setting up Abalino, her work won Best of the Fest Award at Buxton Fringe Festival, a Creative Leicestershire Bursary Award, and more recently a Puppet Centre Trust Bursary Award.

As a performer, Alice has worked with such choreographers as Tom Roden and Pete Shenton, Enrique Cabrera, Helene Blackburn, Frauke Requardt, Wendy Houstoun, and Hanna Gilgren. She has performed in many styles: dance theatre, Commedia, street performance, and dance film. Her choreographic work includes movement direction/choreography for theatre, The Four Zoas, performed at Wadham Theatre, Oxford.

Puppet maker, Designer / Collaborator
Mike trained in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College. As a figurative painter he has exhibited at The Mall Galleries and Stamford Arts Centre among others. He has been experimenting with puppet-making for a number of years.

Performer / Collaborator
After reading English at Cambridge, Katie graduated from London Contemporary Dance School in 2006, winning the Pyramid Award for Contemporary Dance. She formed green bean dance with the support of this award and now works in London and the East Midlands.

Katie performs regularly (with Abalino Dance Theatre and Cilgwyn Theatre Company), teaches in learning environments from primary school to professional level and continues to choreograph for theatres and site-specific projects. She will be an Associate Artist at Dance4 from 2007-2009. Her choreography was nominated for the New Trends prize at the Burgos International Choreography Competition (2007).

Performer / Collaborator
Sara was born in Sweden where she received her dance training at Stockholms Estetiska Gymnasium and continued her studies at Laban where she graduated with a BA (Hons) in Dance Theatre in 2005. She’s been working as a dancer and performer in many contexts working with artists such as A2 Company, and most recently in Lundahl&Seitl’s work "Explode and (Anything)" as part of punchdrunk’s commission space for "The Masque Of The Red Death".

Sara is a founder members of MIKS, a dance theatre collective with whom she co-directed "Only On Mondays", and performed throughout London, as well as several research projects through Chisenhale Dance Space (2005 & 2007/2008), Casina Settarte in Italy, and Danswerhuys in Belgium, working towards MIKS new production “n+1” with premiere in beginning of November 2007.

Performer / Collaborator
Jasmiina is a Finnish-born dance artist. She completed her BA in Dance Theatre at Laban in 2006 and has a versatile performing experience as a dancer, particularly in release, contact improvisation and physical theatre.

Other performers who have collaborated / performed with Abalino Dance Theatre include: Ingeborg Sanders, Annike Otswald, Catherine Casbon, Jessica Thirolle, Gry Lomvo, Line Strom, Alice Sunderland, Alice Tatge, Sarah Shead, Lucy Killingley, Lucy Colgan, Sara Christopherson, Beata Stanikowska.

Abalino Dance Theatre has collaborated with numerous live musicians on work for theatre and street performances: Eleanor Turner (harp), Nick Jones (Accordian), Pied-a-terre (French traditional music group), Dave Gutteridge (Gramophone DJ)