Osadia are Alex Rendon and Petra Rochau, a street animation company formed in Barcelona in 1996 whose performances are based on the innovative concept of ‘hair art’. The active participation of the audience is sought, as volunteers are invited to take a seat and put themselves into the artists’ capable hands, allowing them to create daring and original hair sculptures.
Using a trunkload of accessories, combs, sprays and other nifty gadgets, Osadia performances are carried out in the open over a period of around three hours... invariably the public gets caught up in the show either as an observer or a volunteer. The volunteers attract attention both during and after they take to the barber’s chair, becoming walking works of art.
Osadia have performed at the Barbican in London, the 1998 World Expo in Lisbon, the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, the Edinburgh Fringe and the Streets Ahead Festival in Manchester, and this month will be centerpieces of the outdoor programs for the Perth International Arts Festival, WOMADelaide and the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts.
Note – hair is never cut!
www.osadiaonline.com
1700-1930 Friday
1400-1630 and 1930-2200 Saturday
1500-1730 Sunday (see map)


Around 12 years ago, a passion for beautiful images and adventure gave birth to a unique artistic group with the rather magical name of la Compagnie Carabosse (which, loosely translated, means ‘the company of the wicked fairy’). Specialising in installations and ‘illuminations’, the spectacular Carabosse enthusiastically pursues a world of creation around the theme of fire. It has perfected the technique of ‘fire pots’, which allow them to light up an enormous range of sites in myriad wondrous ways.
The Carabosse fire installation teams (numbering anywhere between two and 40 artists, technicians, actors, musicians, metal construction workers, ‘hack workers’ and dreamers) vary according to each project but the team always remains focused on the collective spirit of ideas and desires.
Over the years, Carabosse has dabbled in theatre and music and also undertaken research into new relationships with space, architecture, symbols, the elements, the public and their emotions. Their shows have both a visual and a sensorial impact that transcend all borders.
Since 1997 Carabosse has travelled constantly throughout Europe and also performed in Russia. After making a series of fire installations for Perth’s AWESOME kids festival in 2000 and working with the Victoria-based company Bambuco overseas, the company has been eager to return to Australia. All going well, this year and next will see them perform in Canada, Greece, China and Japan.
www.compagniecarabosse.fr.st


Jodee Lenaine-Smith and Joanne Calvert started body painting together in 1994 when asked to team their styles for a Yothu Yindi film clip of the track Timeless Land. Since then their work has really taken flight – they painted the models used in the photographic shoot for the WOMADelaide 1995 poster, had artwork displayed in several Adelaide Fringe festivals - from photographic to live performances, and combined their artwork with fashion parades at several Adelaide nightclubs.
The duo has also done advertising campaigns and promotions, including live body paintings in shop front windows for jeweller Nicholas Pyke and fashion house Miss Gladys Sim Choon. Jodee and Joanne enjoy a close working relationship with numerous Adelaide photographers and have had their work published in the prestigious photographic magazine, Black & White. They have held a successful Body Painting Photographic Exhibition and both love the opportunity to express themselves through the beautiful and difficult art form of body painting.
www.megalomedia.com.au/jodee



The subtle yet spectacular impact of Angus Watt’s Japanese silk flags has made him one of the most sought after artists in the UK and Europe. Angus’s many major commissions have impressed hundreds of thousands of people with their elegance, beauty and simplicity. His talent lies in his ability to be flexible and original in transforming any outdoor area into a colourful and stylish space, sometimes overnight (did you know that the colours of the 150 flags at WOMADelaide are changed overnight!).
Angus grew up in an environment where art and beauty were appreciated and encouraged, and he acknowledges this as a great inspiration for his work. His father Tom Watt was a celebrated painter and his sister Shona is also a well-known visual artist. Angus has a fine arts degree from Newcastle University in the UK and is now based in Spain.
www.anguswatt.co.uk


Amanda King and Sue Davis are artists with considerable experience of massive community art projects. Here they are teaming up for the first time to create WOMADelaide’s inaugural parade. Over the course of the weekend, adults and children are encouraged to join the workshops to make an Indian themed ‘thing on a stick’ to carry in the parade, from stage to stage, along with several small bands of musicians on Sunday evening.
Sue Davis is a sculptor and designer who has worked with WOMADs around the world as well as for Oxfam, the Manchester Commonwealth Games, the National Theatre in the UK and for public arts commissions. She has a particular interest in carnivals and specialises in creating large sculptures for festivals with a collaborative element.
Amanda King is a Melbourne-based artist who makes artwork for festivals in many countries. Inspired by festivals across the world, her work re-interprets traditional rituals and celebrations for a contemporary audience.
www.chocolatestudio.com.au


Born in a Taxi (BIAT) is a highly-regarded physical theatre company based in Melbourne. They are an experienced ensemble with a 12-year history of performing in the indoor, street and corporate arenas. Comprising Nick Papas, Carolyn Hanna and Penny Baron, the members of BIAT blend diverse dance, mime, clown, character, music, bouffon and improvisational skills to create their highly visual, physical, interactive and humorous trademark style.
Nick Papas has an extensive theatre and performance background and is a founding member of Born in a Taxi. Carolyn Hanna’s training is based in mime, physical theatre and clowning – she joined Born in a Taxi in 1996. Penny Baron has trained in dance, improvisation and clown – she joined the group 1993. BIAT have performed at festivals in The Netherlands, France, Canada, Belgium, the UK, China, Japan and Colombia.
At WOMADelaide, BIAT will appear in two guises; as Madame Penelope and her Lizards and also as the Fallen Angels. Dressed to kill and everybody's friend, Madame P loves to show off her well-trained pets - if she can catch them! Her ever-curious and playful lizards are constantly exploring the territory and meeting the locals so Madame P has her work cut out for her trying to retrieve them from their adoring public. The Fallen Angels have fallen from grace and spend their time trying to regain their lost place in Nirvana. Their absurd attempts are beautifully innocent and tragically funny.
www.borninataxi.net
“Wildly imaginative, totally unpredictable ... absurdly comic“ dB magazine, Adelaide


Cocoloco is a performance company based in London run by Trevor Stuart and Helen Statman, both of whom have extensive training in drama, clowning and mime. They are experienced performers, writers, producers, choreographers and designers for theatre, film and television who “specialize in peripatetic performance but are prepared to climb every mountain etc.” Cocoloco tailor workshops for all kinds of people; the scared, the bold, the young, the old, the established performer or the under-confident businessman.
They believe in poetry, cinema, laughter, sex over lunch, lunch over sex, parties, dinners, red wine, sashimi ... lavatorial humour ... fondue ... crop rotation ... nudes descending staircases ... synchronicity, serendipity, sunrise, the specific and the general.
Look out for their kooky characters throughout the WOMADelaide weekend. And don’t be afraid.


Sink or Swim is Extra Bimbo’s special summer show. The three bathing beauties, wander with their paddling pools in search of water, stopping intermittently to perform flipper-clad tap dances, synchronised swimming, life saving hula hooping and eyelash fluttering acrobatics.
Members of Extra Bimbo, Fiona Britton, Devi Mallal and Averil Yeo have trained at the Moscow State School of Circus and performed with many different physical theatre companies and circuses including CirqueIdyllic (UK), Hula-la, Icarus, Legs On the Wall, Rainbow Circus and Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus. Extra Bimbo specialises in short works and has performed at Contemporary Performance Week at Sidetrack Theatre, Club Bent and Open Season at the Performance Space and various festivals throughout Australia and overseas including the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.


Since the early 90s Rudi Mineur and Mark Sands have performed and taught circus skills throughout Australia and overseas, both individually and as members of various circus companies. These two talented performers combined to form PopEyed in 1999 and have gone from strength to strength (no pun intended!). In 2002, PopEyed travelled overseas to compete in, and win, the 11th Annual Daidogei (Street Performance) World Cup in Shizuoka, Japan. They are a hand-balancing act with a seriously comic bent; the duo are masters of equilibrium who will have the audience seesawing between gasps of wonder and laughter. With immense strength and poise, PopEyed perform routines that range from comedy to roaming acrobatics and ‘golden statue’ slow motion acrobatics. Prepare to be amazed!



Madame Lark, aka Christine Johnston, is an eccentric, surreal and visually stunning character who doesn't speak, but who communicates vocally with audiences and her surrounds through amazingly accurate bird calls and saw playing. Christine Johnston defies description. With an uncanny ability to silence a crowd, she is an extraordinary vocal artist and musician who performs hilarious and startling vocal interpretations of the world around her. She is one of Australia’s most distinguished cabaret singers, has been the subject of an ABC TV’s Australian Story and is legendary for making the best bird noises in the country. As much known for her experimental use of voice as she is for her dramatic visual style and unique sense of humour, Christine has the ability to transform everyday objects, architecture, traffic and even opera into a phenomenal cabaret-esque soundscape. Her unique music/theatre production Decent Spinster, combining extraordinary vocal agility with the skills of a number of groundbreaking musicians, captivated audiences across Australia and was recently showcased at the Australia Council’s 6th Australian Performing Arts Market.


Belgium born and French speaking, Philippe Quoilin, now based in Adelaide, learned the art of juggling in 1983 whilst living in the UK. Since then he has taught juggling to well over 5,000 people, founding the Adelaide Juggling Club in 1987. Philippe’s shows are a journey into fantasy-land where magical moments and illusions are created. Using mime, subtle movement and immense skill, he makes single and multiple crystal and glow-in-the-dark balls mysteriously appear, creating mesmerising and ephemeral moments of surreal beauty. Philippe has performed at the 1st International Australian Juggling Festival (Denmark, WA, 1995), the 5th International New-Zealand Juggling Convention (Auckland 1997), and in Adelaide at many venues including the Lion Arts Centre, Heaven nightclub and Her Majesty’s Theatre where he supported Lenny Henry in 1995.