About Judith FLEX Helle

Judith grew up in Boston, MA and studied dance at the Walnut Hill School, Boston Center for the Arts, and the Alvin Ailey School of American Dance in NYC. She has a BFA in Film from the San Francisco Art Institute, where she made dance films of the experimental modern punk dance company, the Oblong Rondas. In 1981, she left the US to dance in Berlin, Germany, where she formed her first dance company, "FLEX", with dancers from the Deutsche Oper Berlin and other fine US and European ballet/modern companies.

Alongside her dance and choreography career, Judith became well known for her daring, exciting, tempermental, and emotional performances on the trapeze, allowing her to have a dual career as a dancer and a trapeze artist, prior to Cirque du Soleil's conquering the world. 

While in Berlin, she also appeared in movies, TV shows, theatricals of all kinds, cabaret, industrials, and experimental theater.

She moved to LA in 1988, where she taught dance at Idyllwild School of the Arts, performed in Los Angeles with various dance companies, and signed with dance agent Julie McDonald. After retiring from dance in 1996, she continued to have a very successful career performing as a single trapeze artist, surfing the wave of popularity via Cirque du Soleil. At this time she also became highly sought after as a private aerial dance coach, and her students are now stars of the international cirque world. 

She formed her ballet and aerial dance company, Luminario Ballet, in 2009. Judith has choreographed many ballet and aerial dance works for the company, as well as choreographed commissioned ballets and aerial dances for 5 symphony orchestras, including the LA Philharmonic. 

Judith represents the global conversation about dance from LA, and presents Luminario Ballet nationally and internationally.