Richard is People and Culture Manager for Wide Open Agriculture, Australia’s leading ASX-listed regenerative food and agriculture company. Prior to this his career has been in the creative sector in Australia and internationally, beginning as a dancer with the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Richard was General Manager of Tasdance (TAS) and Executive Director of Co3 Contemporary Dance (WA). He has held multiple roles in the community and education sector at WA Ballet, Co3, and Dancenorth. In New Zealand, Richard consulted in Strategy and Investment. 

Joined the CircusWA board: October 2022

Jake is a physical and visual artist with experience in a range of disciplines and fields. Known for his unique acrobatic style of movement, that combines elements of dance, theatre and circus. Jake has toured with the internationally successful CIRCA, Casus Circus, Dislocate, Company 2, Circus OZ and Lingua Franca. Jake founded Poncho Circus in 2012, an independent circus company that toured circus shows throughout Canberra and the surrounding areas until 2017.

Jake is passionate about physical movement, acrobatics and circus in theatre, to tell stories and create settings that inspire audiences. With the aim to push acrobatics within his own training to utilise these skills in a variety of settings. Jake’s circus specialties include floor tumbling/acrobatic movement, group acrobatics and cyr wheel, but really, he calls himself a generalist and loves to do a little bit of everything.

Joined the CircusWA board: October 2023

Joined the CircusWA board: December 2024

Scott is a Perth-based marketing and communications manager with a decade of experience in a variety of industries including arts and culture, not-for-profit, education and land development. With expertise in advertising and digital content strategy, Scott is currently Senior Communications Consultant at the Department of Education and has previously spent five years leading West Australian Ballet’s public relations and digital content initiatives. 

As an advisor and consultant, Scott’s work has included brand and digital strategies for; Ausdance National, the West Australian International Stone Symposium’s inaugural festival and WA Premier Events concert series, and has further experience at The Brand Agency, Lotterywest and Yelp Perth. In 2021, Scott’s work received recognition as West Australian Ballet’s marketing team won Campaign Brief’s prestigious ‘Advertiser of the Year’. 

Specialty areas: PR and crisis communications, digital and content strategy, advertising, project management.

Joined the CircusWA board: October 2023

Joel is a father, poet, actor, community-focused arts programmer, teacher, and creative producer, and holds a Master’s of Education from Melbourne University. He’s been a Teaching Artist for Western Edge Youth Theatre and an Education Assistant at The Malthouse Theatre, as well as the Outreach Coordinator at Arts Centre Melbourne, where he worked on Access & Inclusion initiatives, Community Engagement projects, and coordinated a statewide education program. He was the first Senior Arts Programmer at Bunjil Place, a new arts centre in south-eastern Melbourne, experimenting with different types of collaborative community producing and co-design programming. At the City of Fremantle, Joel was the Community Programs Officer, he is currently the Program & Engagement Manager at The Blue Room Theatre. 

Joined the CircusWA Board: December 2024

Jo Smith is an Arts Manager with 20+ years of experience and has worked for CircusWA since 2017. Throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s she studied and worked in sociology and linguistics while developing a practice as a performance installation artist. As an arts leader she has produced and directed festivals, always maintaining a focus on community arts. In Australia she has worked in WA and the NT, and overseas in China and the UAE.

Jo joined the CircusWA board in 2017 before taking on the role of Artistic Director in the same year.

We are honoured to have Dr. Brad Pettitt MLC as our inaugural Patron of Circus and cherish the past support he has extended to us during his time as Mayor of Fremantle.