Our Founders

In 2021, Tony Rooke pulled us together to create Tony’s Imaginary Circus, our first show for Junction Arts Festival. Making this show we had such a great time together, and felt such warm celebration from our audiences and community that we decided to keep going. Our founders shape the culture of ROOKE and are consistently involved in decision making at all levels.

Tony Rooke - Co-Founder

Celebrating 50 years of sharing comedy around the globe, Tony is guaranteed to enliven with idiotic clowning, clever conjuring and uplifting audience involvement. Tony is a prize-winning graduate of NIDA, Sydney, was a dancer at Queensland Ballet Company, has spent 16 years acting, directing and producing in film and theatre and is the Founding Director of the Australian National Circus Festival (Tasmanian Circus Festival and Mullumbimby Circus Festival) as well as around in Member of ROOKE. Tony brings quirk and wonder to this group of much younger ‘serious acrobats’, keeping them honest to their circus roots.

Freyja Wild - Artistic Director and CEO

Freyja Wild is a life-long contemporary circus artist. She has toured the world with some of the biggest names in the business, subtly subverting gender roles and embodying feminine strength. You can still see echoes of her style and innovation in hula hooping and group acrobatics throughout the circus sector. She is a founding member, and the Artistic Director and CEO of ROOKE, Tasmania's leading contemporary circus company. She cares deeply about community and creating meaningful, stable work for circus artists as they move away from full-time touring to settle down. In 2024, Freyja received the honour of a Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship in recognition of her contributions to the circus sector.

Conor Wild - Co-Founder and REAP Coordinator

Conor is an acrobat, performer, maker and director. He has 14 years of professional performance experience and has lived and toured around the world with some of the biggest names in circus. A graduate of  the Circus Space, London (now the National Centre for Circus Arts), he has worked with Cirque Éloize, Cirque du Soleil, Circa, Circus Oz and The 7 Fingers, performing in numerous theatres and festivals in 29 countries across 6 continents. In 2021 he co-founded ROOKE, Tasmania’s leading contemporary circus company and is now both directing and performing for ROOKE. Conor has a keen interest in the intersection between circus, dance and theatre, and how the forms can blend and combine to bring us together and share the human experience.

Mieke Lizotte - Co-Founder

At age ten, after realising climbing trees probably wasn’t a career option, and accepting that she was too short for basketball, Mieke discovered her love for everything circus. She started out in a small youth circus in Tassie, training in an old church that they shared with the local elderly lawn bowls society.

At sixteen, Mieke moved on to train at the National Institute of Circus Arts, followed by the Beijing International Arts and Acrobatic School, where she trained intensively in hula hoops, hand-balancing, contortion and pain tolerance. After many years performing solo with her feet (and hands) firmly on the ground, Mieke toured with Australian company ‘Gravity and Other Myths’ as a flyer. Mieke loves that her job is all about what is possible with a group of people who have no issues with personal space. Mieke is currently busy raising two small humans.

Lewie West - Co-Founder

Lewie has had a strange and winding path through life. A love of circus and the arts started as a student at Warehouse Youth Circus in Canberra which led on to his first dream career - that of a travelling acrobat, working for some of Australia's biggest and most renowned circus companies, Circa and Gravity and Other Myths. He won a gold medal for his solo act in Paris at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain before moving on to a role teaching at various festivals and being co-program coordinator at Slipstream Circus in Ulverstone. 

The final cherry on top of his circus career was being a founding member of ROOKE and helping bring world-class circus to Tasmania.
Lewie has now moved on to a different path and is currently a firefighter at Devonport station, but he continues to love and advocate for the transformative power and beauty of performing art, especially circus.

Ryan Mahony - Co-Founder

Ryan is an audio engineer, production manager and technical director from Brisbane, currently based in Hobart. He has worked extensively in Australia and around the globe presenting works to over a million people across 22 countries in musical theatre, circus, drama theatre, live music and major sporting events. Ryan's focus for work is always on the viewer experience, firmly believing that the duty of production and technical is to support and enhance, not hinder or limit, the creative process. He also believes that the days of "whatever it takes to get the gig up" have ended and there is no situation that would sacrifice the crew's health and wellbeing that cannot be predicted and mitigated through better planning or more accurate budget forecasting.

Our Board

In 2022 we incorporated as a non-profit entity, a company limited by guarantee. We are building our board and currently seeking expressions of interest to join our board and help to solidify ROOKE for a successful and sustainable next 20 years.

For more information or to chat about joining our board contact either freyja@rooke.org.au or dwayne@rooke.org.au

Hannah Todd - Secretary

Hannah has been the Digital Content Coordinator at Terrapin since 2023. After working in the media industry for seven years with Southern Cross Austereo, Grant Broadcasters and the ABC, Hannah shifted her focus back to the arts in 2019. Since 2020 she’s worked for Ten Days on the Island, at two consecutive festivals, and Launceston’s Theatre North. Hannah is a photographer, graphic designer, audio producer and digital arts marketer with a passion for project delivery. 

Hannah serves on the board of ROOKE and actively volunteers at JCP Youth, supporting at-risk and vulnerable youth in Tasmania. During her time at Southern Cross Austereo, Hannah also helped lead the charity Give Me 5 For Kids, where the team raised almost one million dollars for the Royal Hobart Hospital children's ward over two consecutive years.

Jane Longhurst - Board Director

Jane Longhurst is an award-winning actor, theatre maker, producer, broadcaster, voice artist and popular presenter of events big and small based in nipaluna/Hobart. She has worked extensively in theatre, television and radio since graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts.

Recent theatre credits include Bingo! Stay on the ball ladies by Belinda Bradley for Blue Cow Theatre, the first two performances of her Black Bag Trilogy: Happy Days by Samuel Beckett, (Mona Foma 2021) and Request Programme by Franz Xaver Kroetz staged at Detached for Beaker Street Festival (2022) and the Earl Arts Centre in Launceston for Theatre North (2023). Jane was awarded the Best Professional Performance in a Leading Role at the 2023 Tasmanian Theatre Awards for Request Programme,

Jane has worked as Marketing Manager for Flying Fruit Fly Circus, served as the inaugural Executive Officer for Theatre Council of Tasmania and Co-Chair Tasmanian Creative Industries Council.

Adie Delaney - Board Director

Lover of heights, catalyst of parental panic, Adie left home at 18 to travel the world as a circus artist. Alongside her performing career, Adie constantly nurtured a passion for teaching and developed her pedagogical style by taking inspiration from many different physical disciplines, including her more recent work in trauma, social services and allied health.  Adie transitioned from performing in 2014, to work in community circus first the UK then in Tasmania where she founded The Circus Studio in 2015.  

Since 2017 Adie has been developing and delivering respectful relationship and consent education.  She has worked with professional settings, school communities, sports, theatre and medical industries.  Adie speaks regularly on sexual harm and child safety both nationwide and globally including her 2020 TED talk which has amassed over 1.5 million views online.

Adie self identifies as a multipotentialite and is still not sure what she wants to be when she grows up. 

Conor Wild - Board Director

Conor is one of ROOKE’s founding members. He has a wealth of experience in the industry, having spent the last fourteen years creating and performing with some of the biggest names in the business, all around the world. He understands life as an artist and a maker and cares deeply about vibe; about carving out a space where artists feel safe and secure - physically, emotionally and financially - so they can lean in and create world-class art. He believes ROOKE can lead by example, caring for its people so they can give back to the community, lifting everyone in the process. 

Lewie West - Board Director and Public Officer

Lewie has had a strange and winding path through life. A love of circus and the arts started as a student at Warehouse Youth Circus in Canberra which led on to his first dream career - that of a travelling acrobat, working for some of Australia's biggest and most renowned circus companies, Circa and Gravity and Other Myths. He won a gold medal for his solo act in Paris at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain before moving on to a role teaching at various festivals and being co-program coordinator at Slipstream Circus in Ulverstone. 

The final cherry on top of his circus career was being a founding member of ROOKE and helping bring world-class circus to Tasmania.
Lewie has now moved on to a different path and is currently a firefighter at Devonport station, but he continues to love and advocate for the transformative power and beauty of performing art, especially circus.