Dates

• Existence: Born 1967

Biography

Rebecca Truman (b.1967), became interested in circus as a child, after reading ‘The Circus is Coming’ by Noel Streatfield.

Rebecca is the founder of Skinning the Cat.

Rebecca, aka ‘The Grande Dame of Aerial’, studied art and fashion at Bradford College. This is where she first experienced performance on a trapeze. On her second year she persuaded the ‘Bradford Bouncing Back’ campaign to award her £2,000 to stage a fashion cabaret in a nightclub, showcasing designers. This was a great achievement for a student and already showed signs of Rebecca’s showmanship and business skills. For her graduation degree show, Rebecca choreographed and staged ‘Snakes and Ladders’, an aerial performance featuring four aerial trapeze artists and her own costume and sculpture designs at Carlton Bolling Theatre.

Rebecca graduated with BA (Hons) in Art & Design in 1988 and this same year she was commissioned to organise a fashion cabaret and perform a trapeze show by the Bradford Festival in the Wool Exchange. She joined Cathie Sprague to deliver this project, which became the basis of Skinning the Cat and marked Rebecca’s debut as a professional performer. Over the years, Rebecca trained as a professional performer in circus schools in London and Paris while Cathie, who had been teaching printmaking, puppetry and circus, in Bradford in the early 1980s, enrolled on the RA RA ZOO’s circus skills course in 1986, where she trained on the trapeze.

In 1993, Rebecca received a Prince’s Trust grant to invest in a van and a rig for the business, which enabled the company to tour around the UK for the next two years. This same year, she received the Prince’s Youth Business Trust’s ‘Young Achiever of the Year Award’, presented by Jasper Conran and she was featured in Martin Miller’s book ‘The Best of British Women’.

In 2002, Rebecca created a special show for the Millennium Dome and she was made artistic director of the Commonwealth Games Opening and Closing ceremonies in Manchester.

Despite dissolving Skinning the Cat in 2002, she has remained a prominent figure in aerial theatre and the visual arts. She has lectured at Bradford College, has specialised in special effects costumes, rig design, life casting, sculpting and mask-making, and helps to run a company making rope for aerial performers. Some of Becky Truman’s costumes are housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

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