Chloé Pisco is a debut director who is pivoting to feature filmmaking with over twenty years experience across live arts including dance, circus, immersive theatre and even short films. She blurs the lines between art and science in her research on the love hormone oxytocin, which she continues to explore with The Oxytocin Projects.
Pisco has been commissioned to create and produce work since 2001, in Australia, Ireland and the wider EU. Funders have included the Arts Council of Ireland, European Union’s Culture 2000, EU Media and Culture Funds and the European Capital of Culture, to name a few. Funded projects have included live performance, underwater filmmaking, dance film and 360 VR.
Her work with whales to date includes 8 weeks of underwater research on interspecies communication with wild whales in Australia and Tonga.
Before The Oxytocin Projects, Pisco ran three companies; Rebus Dance co. ( 2001-2004), No Frontiers Dance co. (2005 - 2012) and The Flying Dance co. (2006 - 2014.) She managed budgets of up to €1M for a single performance, directed work with up to six hundred performers, and performed for live audiences of up to a million.
Pisco is also very grateful to have worked extensively with First Nations People in remote Australia, collaborating to co create live performances and short film projects on local themes. She has begun learning the basics of Noongar, Yolngu and Alyawarr languages and is a lifelong student of Indigenous cultures.
She describes her current project Dances with Whales as the personal connection story of My Octopus Teacher meets the epic visuals and interspecies communication themes of Arrival, where she will combine her creative and scientific experiences to date in a cinematic love letter to the greatest creature on earth - the whale.
FILM EXPERIENCE
--> Films in development - Director:
- "DANCES WITH WHALES" – Director/ producer/ writer of this unique documentary Feature film now in pre production - (Completion Mid 2024.)
- "Why I dance with whales" – Director of the short in development 2023. A precursor sister film to Dances with whales. With director Kim Bartley ("Pure Grit") as a mentor and Katie McNeice ("Who we love"), as writer.
→ Directing credits Screened at a festival :
- 2022 "Tapping into Freedom" – Director short, selected for Swedish screendance festival - screening tour.
- 2017 "Cetacea Sensorium" – Director (short) Screened premiere at 2017 Ningalens film competition - Exmouth, Australia.
→ Other Directing credits:
- 2018 "Live strong, two ways" – Choreography and directing. Co-created and collaboratted on series of 6 shorts with First Nations people of – Arlparra, Ampilatwatja, and Alpurrulam land and the Yolgnu / Yurruwi cultures (Aus.)
→ Award winning films - Creative team credits
- 2019 "Blöd" –Dir. Kerstin Grunditz Brennan and Annika Bolholm – Dancer in Award winning feature. (SWE.)
- 2017 "Amèliorer" – Dir. John Carberry. Starred in Award winning dance film (Aus.)
- 2011 "The Sourdough Beat" – Dir. Dr Treasa O’Brien (London)
- 2009 "Varðeldur" by Sigur Rós - Dir. Calre Langan, award winning music video. Starred in dance (+ stunt falls / Trampoline) (Ire)
- 2008 "State of suspension" – Dir. Clare Langan - Starred in award winning short. (Ire)
- 2007 "Dance Story" AClique Films, Dir. Donal O'Shea. Starred in full Feature Film : (Incl. Stunt fighting, 3 mts training for stunts .)
FORMAL EDUCATION 3rd level:
1998-1999 - Diploma of Dance perf and education : Colaiste Stiofan Naofa, Ireland.
1999-2001 - Degree in dance at Alvin Ailey school as part of Fordham Uni. NYC.
2018-2020 - MFA Masters Fine Arts research - New contemporary Circus practices.
Fields of research: Circus, Dance, Neuroendocrinology and Marine Mammal Behaviour. At DOCH school for Stockholm university of the Arts.
FILM EDUCATION:
- 2023 Current courses as part of Sundance Institute programme - on Directing track
Long courses:
* Producing Core elements.
* Directing: Visual Storytelling.
* Directing: How to collaborate with your cinematographer.
* How to Schedule, Budget & Prepare Your Production for Financing.
Short Intensive Sundance Courses:
Documentary editing, Documentary Ethics, Preparing to shoot your first short film.
- 2022 to 2023 incl. - Mentorships with Katie Mc Neice on Film Production and writing, with editor and feminist film maker Kersti Grunditz Brennan (SWE) and film director Tess O'Brien (NZ.)
- 2022 - Mentorship one on one in film making with Dr Treasa O'Brien (IRE).
- 2020 - DANCE on FILM “DansFILM “Course Cyntia Botello – 7 weeks, Stockholm.
- 2019 - 360 degrees VR Dance film making course – Screen dance fest, Sweden.
Pisco has been commissioned to create and produce work since 2001, in Australia, Ireland and the wider EU. Funders have included the Arts Council of Ireland, European Union’s Culture 2000, EU Media and Culture Funds and the European Capital of Culture, to name a few. Funded projects have included live performance, underwater filmmaking, dance film and 360 VR.
Her work with whales to date includes 8 weeks of underwater research on interspecies communication with wild whales in Australia and Tonga.
Before The Oxytocin Projects, Pisco ran three companies; Rebus Dance co. ( 2001-2004), No Frontiers Dance co. (2005 - 2012) and The Flying Dance co. (2006 - 2014.) She managed budgets of up to €1M for a single performance, directed work with up to six hundred performers, and performed for live audiences of up to a million.
Pisco is also very grateful to have worked extensively with First Nations People in remote Australia, collaborating to co create live performances and short film projects on local themes. She has begun learning the basics of Noongar, Yolngu and Alyawarr languages and is a lifelong student of Indigenous cultures.
She describes her current project Dances with Whales as the personal connection story of My Octopus Teacher meets the epic visuals and interspecies communication themes of Arrival, where she will combine her creative and scientific experiences to date in a cinematic love letter to the greatest creature on earth - the whale.
FILM EXPERIENCE
--> Films in development - Director:
- "DANCES WITH WHALES" – Director/ producer/ writer of this unique documentary Feature film now in pre production - (Completion Mid 2024.)
- "Why I dance with whales" – Director of the short in development 2023. A precursor sister film to Dances with whales. With director Kim Bartley ("Pure Grit") as a mentor and Katie McNeice ("Who we love"), as writer.
→ Directing credits Screened at a festival :
- 2022 "Tapping into Freedom" – Director short, selected for Swedish screendance festival - screening tour.
- 2017 "Cetacea Sensorium" – Director (short) Screened premiere at 2017 Ningalens film competition - Exmouth, Australia.
→ Other Directing credits:
- 2018 "Live strong, two ways" – Choreography and directing. Co-created and collaboratted on series of 6 shorts with First Nations people of – Arlparra, Ampilatwatja, and Alpurrulam land and the Yolgnu / Yurruwi cultures (Aus.)
→ Award winning films - Creative team credits
- 2019 "Blöd" –Dir. Kerstin Grunditz Brennan and Annika Bolholm – Dancer in Award winning feature. (SWE.)
- 2017 "Amèliorer" – Dir. John Carberry. Starred in Award winning dance film (Aus.)
- 2011 "The Sourdough Beat" – Dir. Dr Treasa O’Brien (London)
- 2009 "Varðeldur" by Sigur Rós - Dir. Calre Langan, award winning music video. Starred in dance (+ stunt falls / Trampoline) (Ire)
- 2008 "State of suspension" – Dir. Clare Langan - Starred in award winning short. (Ire)
- 2007 "Dance Story" AClique Films, Dir. Donal O'Shea. Starred in full Feature Film : (Incl. Stunt fighting, 3 mts training for stunts .)
FORMAL EDUCATION 3rd level:
1998-1999 - Diploma of Dance perf and education : Colaiste Stiofan Naofa, Ireland.
1999-2001 - Degree in dance at Alvin Ailey school as part of Fordham Uni. NYC.
2018-2020 - MFA Masters Fine Arts research - New contemporary Circus practices.
Fields of research: Circus, Dance, Neuroendocrinology and Marine Mammal Behaviour. At DOCH school for Stockholm university of the Arts.
FILM EDUCATION:
- 2023 Current courses as part of Sundance Institute programme - on Directing track
Long courses:
* Producing Core elements.
* Directing: Visual Storytelling.
* Directing: How to collaborate with your cinematographer.
* How to Schedule, Budget & Prepare Your Production for Financing.
Short Intensive Sundance Courses:
Documentary editing, Documentary Ethics, Preparing to shoot your first short film.
- 2022 to 2023 incl. - Mentorships with Katie Mc Neice on Film Production and writing, with editor and feminist film maker Kersti Grunditz Brennan (SWE) and film director Tess O'Brien (NZ.)
- 2022 - Mentorship one on one in film making with Dr Treasa O'Brien (IRE).
- 2020 - DANCE on FILM “DansFILM “Course Cyntia Botello – 7 weeks, Stockholm.
- 2019 - 360 degrees VR Dance film making course – Screen dance fest, Sweden.
We wish to acknowledge the Butchulla people, the Yugambeh people, the clans that make up the Bundjalung Nations, the Turrbal and Yaggera people, as original custodians of the lands and seas where we often work.
Places where stories, culture and art have been made and shared for millennia. Recognising their ancestors, as well as past, current and future elders; whose sovereign country was never ceded.
Australia always was, and always will be, aboriginal land.
We wish to acknowledge the Butchulla people, the Yugambeh people, the clans that make up the Bundjalung Nations, the Turrbal and Yaggera people, as original custodians of the lands and seas where we often work.
Places where stories, culture and art have been made and shared for millennia. Recognising their ancestors, as well as past, current and future elders; whose sovereign country was never ceded.
Australia always was, and always will be, aboriginal land.