Gypsy Snider (born 1970) is a Canadian–American director, choreographer, and former acrobat. She co-founded The 7 Fingers, an artist collective, and choreographed Pippin in 2013.
Snider's mother Peggy and stepfather Larry Pisoni co-founded the Pickle Family Circus, which her brother Lorenzo Pisoni also performed in as a clown and actor.[1] She made her Pickle Family Circus debut at the age of four as a circus performer.[2] Snider attended The Urban School of San Francisco with fellow acrobats Ayin and Miriam de Sela[3] and later the Scuola Teatro Dimitri physical-theater school in Switzerland.[2][4]
In 2002, Snider co-founded The 7 Fingers, an artist collective, with Shana Carroll, who apprenticed with her family's circus. Together with their husbands and three colleagues, The 7 Fingers first performed at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal.[5] She also co-directed and choreographed "Traces" with The 7 Fingers which earned an Outstanding Choreography, New York Drama Desk Award nomination.[6] The title was derived from the idea that every person leaves behind a legacy or "traces" in their wake.[7] The show was described by critics as "unpretentious entertainment by performers who get a kick out of showing off their mad skills."[8]
In 2008, Snider divorced her husband Patrick Léonard and was diagnosed with colon cancer. Once her cancer was in remission, she worked with Diane Paulus and Chet Walker to choreograph a revitalized Pippin on Broadway.[9] She also created, directed and choreographed Réversible with The 7 Fingers, which was described as “a riveting mix of theatre, circus, dance, music and acrobatics, dedicated to a generation who forged the world that we live in today.”[10]
