Dragon Knights, Inc. was founded by Lili Noden, the company’s creative director, builder, and lead trainer.
Born in southern France, Lili was immersed from an early age in the performing arts. She first trained as a theatre actor, developing a strong foundation in interpretation, stage presence, and dramaturgy. She later continued her path in Paris, where she expanded her training through multiple schools, workshops, and professional experiences, shaping an artistic language informed by diverse approaches.
After completing her studies, she performed in theatre productions, short films, and under the big top. Alongside her work as an actress, she became increasingly drawn to the technical and visual dimensions of live performance. She deepened her knowledge of woodworking within Parisian scenography workshops, discovering a discipline where gesture, material, and time are essential.
Following this immersion in fabrication and scenic construction, Lili returned to theatre, this time on stilts. There, she developed a specifi physical and theatrical practice and encountered masters of stilt performance and puppetry who would profoundly shape her artistic path.
Soon after, she met a builder who became a decisive figure in her journey. Working alongside this master cabinetmaker and visual artist, she learned in depth the art of puppet construction, the relationship to structure, mechanics, and material. This transmission anchored her practice of building and her vision of puppetry as a living sculptural form.
In the mid-1990s, Lili relocated to the United States following an invitation to present French street theatre at Walt Disney World. There, she co-created and built a series of large-scale stilt puppets known as the Cirikli birds, while training a new generation of American performers in stilts, puppetry, and itinerant performance. The Cirikli performed for several years at Epcot before joining Animal Kingdom at its opening.
At the same time, Lili collaborated with the same French creative team on a new production for Epcot entitled The Aviator. This intense period of creation and transmission marked the end of her Florida chapter and established a lasting transatlantic artistic lineage.
In 2000, based in California, Lili founded Dragon Knights, Inc., fully uniting her passions for performance, construction, costume design, and transmission. In 2001, Dragon Knights, Inc. presented the Cirikli at the San Diego Zoo. In 2002 and 2003, she designed and built new puppets for the San Diego Zoo, as well as a series of dragonflies for public visual performances. In 2007 and 2008, some of her puppets were presented at SeaWorld San Diego. In 2012, she created flamingos for Mad Tea Party, Disney California Adventure, which performed for several years until the end of the production
Under her direction, the company has performed at festivals, cultural events, and theme parks across the United States, Europe, Canada, and Asia. Continuing her research, Lili initiated a new phase of creation combining mobile sculpture and scenic mechanics. She designed a series of sculptural wheeled structures—boats and poetic machines—which became the foundation of the production Wander, Wonder World – Time Off!
In parallel, she introduced the practice of pneumatic stilts within the company, a rare and demanding discipline practiced today by only a few hundred performers worldwide. Collaborating with leading specialists, particularly from France, she developed advanced training and creation around this technique, integrating high-level acrobatic performance into her productions
The Covid period profoundly altered the landscape of live performance. Artists dispersed, touring paused, and roaming spectacle underwent a necessary reset.
In response, Lili partnered with Heather Noland to create Entertainment Café, a structure dedicated to supporting and guiding the journey of the puppets and related productions. This collaboration allowed Dragon Knights’ creations to continue evolving within a changing world.
Today, Lili dedicates her time to the core of her practice: designing and building new costumes and puppets, and transmitting the art of stilt theatre and puppetry. Through Dragon Knights, she continues to preserve and evolve a living tradition of handcrafted performance rooted in movement, presence, and imagination.