Hello,
I'm Claire Elizabeth Barratt – director of “Cilla Vee – Life Arts”.
As the offspring of a musical mother and a literary father, I was fortunate to be surrounded by the arts since I was an “egg”!
And my training in the good, solid British institutions of Royal Academy of Dance and Associated Board of Music examinations has given me the strong foundation of a springboard from which I now launch myself headlong into the experimental abyss!
The other aspect of my childhood that I treasure is the spiritual community I was raised in. From this community welled up an abundance of creativity known as the “Shalom Fellowship”.
By the age of eleven, I was part of a music, dance and theatre group run by my parents as a ministry of Shalom; performing in churches, community centers and out in the streets of England and Wales.
I received my professional training in London at the Laban Center For Movement And Dance and The London Studio Center For Performing Arts.
After which, I began my career in the USA in 1990.
This started with being hired as a dancer in “Unto These Hills”, an outdoor drama on the Cherokee Indian reservation in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.
From here, I was invited to Knoxville, Tennessee to join a fledgling dance company called Circle Modern Dance (now firmly established and still going strong!)
I became a co-director of the company and spent seven very fulfilling years in that position. As well as being resident choreographer for the Knoxville Opera Company.
From here, I spent some time in Asheville, North Carolina as a company member with Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre before moving to New York to establish my own Cilla Vee – Movement Projects in the up and coming arts district of Mott Haven in the South Bronx.
Since then, we have re-named as “Cilla Vee – Life Arts” to encompass all the arts and beyond.
Please visit the Cilla Vee – Life Arts website to see all that we have to offer.
www.cillavee.com
