Dynamic bodies moving in space, time, and spirit.
Infusion Physical Theatre combines contemporary dance, non-traditional partnering, mime, puppetry and circus with soulful touches of humour and poignance. They create work that is accessible to non-dance audiences, tackling contemporary issues with a hopeful message.
“A company with charm and some chutzpah.” Edfringe Review 2022
Founded in 2013 by Cambridge-based artists Daniel and Melanie Cossette, Infusion has made work for the National Trust’s site-specific Winter Lights, performed in Project Dance (London/Paris), Somebody’s Daughter (Eyes and Ears, Ely Cathedral), Sprung (Queens College, Cambridge), Soothe (Cambridge Festival) and launched their innovative new Dance & Mime Café (Cambridge).
Their community outreach arm seeks to engage locally with Cambridge and East Anglia. Offering community classes in fitness and dance, and hosting the Dance & Mime Café, the community movement arts initiative, Infusion seeks to forge ongoing community enrichment through the arts, and engage all levels of society offering inclusive, close-to-home feel, to the high form of physical theatre.
Photo credit: Duncan Grisby
Directors
Daniel J Cossette, Co-Director, Artistic Director
Daniel, with his wife, Melanie, have created site-specific shows for National Trust property Anglesey Abbey’s sell-out Winter Lights event 2013-2017. They’ve created work for open-air festival Project Dance Paris in response to the terror attacks of 2015. And the successful family circus fusion Scrooge’s Christmas 2016-2017. Daniel was design team for Sanskruti Dance’s East Asian children’s dance-and-shadow show Apple n’ Spice, which won Best Family Arts Activity award 2022.
His choreography in collaboration with Cambridge Centre of Applied Research Human Trafficking made the counter trafficking show Somebody’s Daughter, premiered 2017 resulting in invitations to Westminster Abbey for the Independent Anti-Slavery Commission’s 2018 Report, and performances for the Mayor of Cambridge at Ely Cathedral’s Eyes and Ears public safety initiative 2019.
Post-lockdown Infusion returned to action with Soothe, an award-winning exploration of emotional regulation, hailed an “Emotive interplay between art and science,” by Compassionate Mind Foundation’s Dr. Lisa Harrow, at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022. Partnering with University of Cambridge’s top biochemistry and psychology researchers Prof Fruk and Prof Belin, Soothe’s frontline lab images and evocative athleticism made a splash Cambridge Festival 2024, introduced by FRS Nicola Clayton, Scientist-in-Residence with Rambert Dance and advocate of dance and science collaboration. Soothe also appeared Cambridge Junction, and with Downs Syndrome dance group Dance 21, and will appear in Greenbelt 2025.
As a performer Daniel danced with Springs Dance Company (London), including at the Royal Albert Hall, Prom Praise 2024, and Spring Harvest. He has collaborated with E33 Dance Company (London) for Happy Streets, Battersea and Nine Elms 2024, Radiate, Wandsworth Fringe 2023, and Pursue Me, Resolutions Dance Festival 2015.
Before that Daniel danced with Ad Deum Dance Company, Houston, TX, mentored by Randall Flinn 2009-2013, performing in Dance Houston, Onesimo Gonzalez Contemporary Dance Festival, Guadalajara, Mexico and Bailando, Corpus Christi, TX. He’s performed in prelude to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Mark Morris Dance Company.
Daniel is a graduate of MIMEistry International, trained in the Marceau-style of French mime by Masters Todd and Marilyn Farley with noted “excellence in creativity and technique.” He toured with MIMEistry 2000-2002, teaching and performing. Always interested in combining artistic expressions as an early career freelancer, he founded Ambassador Arts, encompassing mime, dance, storytelling, ventriloquism, and fire spinning. He performed in First Night (Hartford, Westfield), Project Dance (New York, London, Houston, Paris), the Big E—Eastern States Exposition—and premiered the shows Say it Loud! and Christmivest. Daniel has taught mime, dance, and theatrical combat/fencing for the Houston Ballet Outreach Program, the Alley Theatre, Society for Performing Arts, Alvin Ailey Outreach Program, and Springs Dance Company.
Melanie Cossette, Co-founder, Co-Director
Melanie is a graduate of Mimeistry International, where she was mentored in classical Marceau-style French mime by Todd Farley. She is co-founder of Infusion Physical Theatre CIC, making family friendly shows and works focusing on contemporary and social justice issues, collaborating with movement artists with dance, mime and circus backgrounds. The current production ‘Soothe’ is an exploration of the human systems of emotional regulation, reflecting research by leading scientists Prof Fruk and Prof Belin at Cambridge University.
Previous performance work includes the counter-trafficking show Somebody’s Daughter, site-specific shadow theatre for the annual National Trust’s Winter Lights events, Scrooge’s Christmas at Mumford Theatre and ADC Theatre, The Library Presents rural touring scheme as well as appearing in Wandsworth Arts Fringe as part of E33 Dance Company.
Melanie is part of Sanskruti Dance’s original cast for the award-winning, multi-cultural family show Apple’n’Spice. Her choreography has been showcased at Weltenwechsel in Berlin, Queen’s College Cambridge and the Cambridge University Science Festival. She has also appeared as a guest artist for Project Dance London and Paris, the Creative Cabaret Cambridge, and led the mime tour M Imagination.
She has had the privilege of working with choreographer Randall Flinn, Ad Deum Dance Company, on the Sound of Silence, for various festivals and events. Collaborating with Innovo Physical Theatre, she has taught annual mime and dance workshops in Paris and serves as faculty for the Switzerland Summer Dance and Physical Theatre Intensive with Ad Deum Dance Company/JMEM Wiler.
Company
Rachel Riveros, Dancer, Director of E33Dance Company CIC, Rachel graduated from Northern Ballet School having danced with Manchester City Ballet Company. Coming to London she joined Re:birth Dance Company where she toured extensively – including to the USA. She played a lead in West End’s “Once Upon a Thames” at Leicester Square Theatre and danced with numerous Contemporary Companies, at various Resoutions at The Place, and other festivals. She’s worked in film- both music videos and dance films. As director of E33 Dance Company, she leads both a professional performing company and youth programs and community dance projects.
Holly Wilmot, Dancer, Holly Wilmot is a freelance contemporary dancer, choreographer and teacher. After graduating in 2012 with a dance degree from York St John University, she continued her training as a member of Springs Dance Company’s apprentice programme, Elevate. Since then, she has worked as a performer on a variety of projects for film, photography and site-specific productions. Dance credits include: Fresh: North East, ICON, Resolution, The Brighton Fringe Festival and Project Dance: Paris.
Alongside performing, Holly has taught dance extensively in schools and community settings for The Place, DanceWest, Artis Foundation and Springs Dance Company. Her ownchoreographic work has also been showcased as part of The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Wandsworth Arts Fringe.
Holly began working with Infusion Physical Theatre in 2019 as a dancer on the anti-trafficking production, Somebody’s Daughter. She returned to work with the company in 2022 for the R&D of Soothe and its premiere at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In February 2024, she rejoined the cast for the continued development of Soothe and its performances at The Cambridge Festival. Plus, represented the company as a speaker at Tedx King’s Parade Street event in August 2024, talking about dance, chemistry and the molecules that make us move.
Liezl de Wouters, Dancer, South African-born Liezl began her journey in Contemporary and Jazz at New York’s Broadway Dance Center and later refined her artistry with London’s Springs Dance Company’s apprentice programme, Elevate. In 2023 she earned a Level 4 Choreography Diploma with I-PATH, mentored by Rick Tjia of Cirque du Soleil.
In 2022, Liezl joined Infusion Physical Theatre as an understudy for Soothe at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and is now performing in the production as a company member. She also dances with E33 Dance Company and Alauda Dance, with performances spanning festivals such as Brighton Arts Fringe, Wandsworth Arts Fringe and Signdance Collective’s Next Generation Festival.
In 2022, Liezl founded Dew Dance, a Buckinghamshire-based contemporary dance company that has performed at events like Bucks Open Weekend, Wycombe Museum’s Chair Festival and had its dance film Grow featured at the 2023 Fisheye Film Festival.
Company Guest
Paul Hunt—Lighting Designer, is a free-lance lighting and sound engineer, and owner of Solitech Light and Sound Solutions. He has designed shows and toured around the UK for many years, including his work for Note for a Child, and also works as a resident technician and set designer for the Mumford Theatre, Anglia Ruskin University when his schedule allows.
Esteban Zúñiga Domínguez, Composer, graduated Mexico City’s National School of Music (UNAM), earning Artistic Excellence Grant to Conservatoire de Paris, achieving a Masters in recording art and science, Paris-est University. His music and films have been shown in festivals Emu Fest Rome, FIMME Mexico, Luigi Russolo Barcelona, Musique à reaction Paris, and earned prizes in Metion Rosana Maggia Italy, International Price Nuestra America, and the SACEM award to the best composer from the 2013 class, among others.
In Our Network
Springs Dance Company
Springs Dance Company tours the UK, internationally performing and teaching work that is dynamic, entertaining and challenging. They like to make high-quality dance enjoyable by everyone, including those new to dance.
Sanskruti Dance
Sanskruti is a performing arts organisation specialising in South Asian dance. they make engaging, interactive dance theatre introducing children to Indian culture and music, using storytelling, shadow puppetry and dance movement. They combine the Indian classical style of Bharatanatyam and Contemporary Dance
Ad Deum Dance Company
Ad Deum is a professional modern/contemporary dance company based in Houston, Texas, directed by founder Randall Flinn, established January 2000. Ad Deum creates and performs excellent and vital works of dance that serve to wash over the heart and soul of humanity with relevant meaning and redemptive hope.
Infusion Physical Theatre 