Career History

Rachel Fullegar graduated from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in 2013 with a first-class BPA(Hons) degree in Contemporary Dance, as well as the Undergraduate Achievement Award and Kathleen Tattersall Leadership Award.  

She is co-founder of Gracefool Collective, which make “post­-intellectual-­pseudo-­spiritual-feminist-comedy­-dance” for rebel Grannies and bored punks (and everyone in between.) Their performances “delicately balance skilfully crafted verse with impeccably executed physical theatre” – Edinburgh Fringe Festival review. Their first work This Really Is Too Much, a contemporary portrait of womanhood, first toured as double bill Convicts & Lunatics with Red Ladder. It’s since been performed nationally and internationally to critical acclaim including at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival gaining the Underbelly Untapped Award for ‘innovative new writing’ in 2017 and the Stockholm Fringe Grand Prix Award for Excellence in Performance Art in 2018. The company’s second work, THIS IS NOT A WEDDING, a surreal re-imagining of rite of passage ceremonies, was selected to open the prestigious national dance showcase Surf the Wave and was invited to be part of the BBC’s first Dance Passion day, celebrating the best of British dance. It was chosen as one of the top 9 moments of the day by the BBC and subsequently went on an 18-date tour in 2019.

Outside of Gracefool Collective, Rachel’s love for making immersive, interactive, interdisciplinary work for intergenerational audiences has led to long-term collaborations as a performer/deviser with companies such as Rusticus Arts, Same Difference, Yorkshire Life Aquatic and Qdos Creates. In 2019, Rachel worked with Filskit Theatre on Stella, a children’s show about a star technician, which undertook two UK tours, culminating in a performance at London’s Southbank Centre. In 2021, she toured nationwide in Filskit’s colourful light and performance show for 6 to 18-month-olds, Kaleidoscope. Most recently, she was the choreographer on The Nutcracker 2021 Christmas experience at Blenheim Palace for Rusticus.

Rachel also works as a Movement Director, most recently for Drag ‘N’ Drop! (Ri Baroche), on the film Nettle Day (Elevator Productions), Rosy Maple Moth (Julie Burrow), Theatre State’s new musical Say Yes To Tess at Leeds Playhouse and, for both Blackout and Black Roses with Bunbury Banter Theatre Company, Scotland, where she is Associate Artist and a mentor for their youth theatre programmes. She spent summer 2021 as The Spring’s Play Artist in Residence pushing the boundaries of her interdisciplinary practice through mounting exhibitions, creating photo series, writing poetry and facilitating a play gallery.

Rachel also has a keen interest in sector development, sitting on Yorkshire Dance’s Artist Advisory Board for 4 years and spending 2 years as Independent Board Member for the Leeds Dance Partnership. She’s worked as a Lecturer in Dance at NSCD since 2015 and has taught extensively across the north of England as a community practitioner for Qdos Creates and Yorkshire Dance, where she was co-artistic lead for integrated company Raised between 2016-19.

Research interests

Collaboration, Play, Physical Theatre, Text and Writing for Performance, Work for Children and Families