Vulcana Women's Circus 15 Years Strong, Brisbane Powerhouse, Nov 2010

Our 15th Birthday celebration was a concentration of Vulcanistas from one and a half decades. It was a conclave of talented and strong women who have contributed to making Vulcana the force that it is today.

Rachel Gibson performed a lyrical hoop act, Bianca Mckail stunned us with her solo Lyra, Olivia Porter juggled Slingbacks style, Tammy Dawson and Amanda Lynch blew everyone away with a doubles Lyra act, and the advanced tissu girls showed everyone how much fun it is to do aerials. Amanda Lyn Pearson was the icing on the cake keeping us all solidly entertained as our MC.

The celebrations also served as a fundraiser for Vulcana, and our fabulous community made their support clear. Huge thanks to all our volunteer performers, (including the amazing Opalesque), DJ rock 'n' roll master Ray Keepance, and the generous donors of super auction items.

It was a night to remember, and a fabulous start to another 15 years!
 

Aperture, Island Vibe Festival, Stradbroke Island, October 2009

Aperture was a wonderful series of acts created as part of a mentorship project for emerging performers to work with Directors Celia White and Penny Lowther and Rigger Helen Clifford, in the creation of theatrical circus acts. It was an opportunity for eight very diverse performers with a wide range of performance experiences and skills to be taken through the process of making a professional act.

Each performer was encouraged to push their work artistically, technically and politically to reflect their own personal styles and concerns. Themes of struggle, hidden secrets and desires emerged as a thread weaving the acts together. Nadia’s cloud routine reflected the intensely personal journey that women’s circus had provoked for her, what it is to struggle and succeed. Rae-Ming continued her beautiful exploration of artistic possibilities on her lyra / tissu rig. Katelyn’s hula hoop act experimented with different ways to push the conventions of the hoop, whilst Tiara’s provocative piece explored burlesque from a non white perspective, using its conventions of the ‘exotic other’, to question and unpack its implied racism. Marianna embraced comedy and clown techniques to create her quirky, absurd piece that delighted audiences as she was lifted high on her ladder into the roof of the big top and Shaz n Daz were in fine form as they wrestled their way into each other’s and the audiences hearts. Fiona’s poetry weaved in and around the acts pulling on threads that connected and unravelled throughout the show.

Aperture was successfully showcased at Island Vibe festival on Stradbroke Island in October 2009 to large audiences and rave reviews.

Check out the video.
 

Slingbacks, High Heels and Sensible Shoes, Brisbane Powerhouse Wall, November 2008

Twenty-one women worked from May until November to devise and rehearse this highly theatrical and visual production with live new music. The show was devised from stories and ideas they shared and researched about the relationships between women, nurses, and hospitals. Deaf women were represented in this project and supported by an Auslan interpreter and the consideration and previous experience of the artsworkers.

Set in an unnamed hospital the performers investigated the relationships between women in this place of extreme emotions, illness, recovery, pain, hope, birth and death, describing a combination of the raw and the fragile, the bloody and the beautiful, the broken and the mended, the passion and the frustration.

Slingbacks performed to full houses on 12–15 Nov on the outside wall of the Powerhouse which became not only a backdrop for the event but a performance surface when perspective was turned so the wall became the floor of the created hospital. At times poignant, at times humorous, at times surreal, Sling Backs, High Heels and Sensible Shoes used the full potential of the fabulous wall and forecourt of the Powerhouse to create a dramatic performance. The creative team collaborating on this project included Kellie Vella using her quirky style to design the set and props, Lil Bean using her fabulous style to design the costume, Deb Cavallaro who brought you the music for Topographies, Bec Jones as circus trainer and interpreter, Helen Clifford who created the rigging that allows for spectacular circus imagery and Celia White directing her last show as Artistic Director of Vulcana.
 

Uncharted, Judith Wright Centre & Logan Entertainment Centre, Dec 2007

Uncharted was an arts and cultural project that drew together a range of partners and diverse communities to created a dynamic and highly visual, physical and musical new work that was presented at the Judith Wright Centre (a major inner city theatre venue) followed by a free community performance event at the Logan Entertainment Centre. This new theatre work incorporated circus, capoeira, dance, multimedia animation and live music developed with participants from Logan and Brisbane’s refugee and migrant communities and emerging performers from Vulcana Women’s Circus’ Circus Paths emerging artists program. This stage of the project followed 10 weeks of workshops in skills development with members of the Central African refugee community in Logan. With the support of an experienced artistic team, theatre workers and cultural consultants, the Uncharted production was the culmination of these newly developed skills and a collectively developed performance by new and emerging performers from the range of participating communities.
 

Revolution, various festivals, June – Oct 2007

Vulcana Women’s Circus worked with members of the Vulcana community to create a short new performance work to be performed in outdoor settings using Group Bike, a Chinese circus skill that requires a high level of ensemble work and cooperation. The piece told the story of a group of Inventors who discovered that they could produce electrical energy from a bicycle wheel they happen to have in their wheelbarrow, to power a light globe. They deduced that there must be a way to create more energy with more bicycle parts until they had “invented” the idea of a bicycle made from bodies. To test their radical theory they brought in a team of Test Riders and their incredible machine and together they unravelled its secrets making their wildly eccentric structure of lights turn on, as well as recharging their own pedalling power at the same time. Together this group devised an exhilarating, humorous and visually striking piece of theatre with characterisations, costumes and design that audiences appreciated for its style, entertainment value as well as its circus skills.
 

Strange Creatures at the Judith Wright Centre, 12 – 16 Dec 2006

Strange Creatures was a 6-month journey from circus workshops with members of Brisbane’s Deaf community, to a creative development with these women and hearing women from the Vulcana community of new and emerging circus performers, to the rehearsals and creation of the new performance work. Not only was the process about researching and devising the material for the work, and uncovering the physical languages of the piece, but about the process of bringing two communities and language groups together to discover how we could find an ease with communication and an understanding of different perspectives. Set in a subterranean laundry/ laboratory 20 women investigated how the biotechnical age has opened the boundaries of the body and challenged ideas about who can parent. Infertility was examined, disabilities were de-constructed, mothers were made and washing machines become warehouses of human possibility. The body of the woman was exposed to surgery, science and the law as she attempted to gain information about, and access to, reproductive technologies. Strange Creatures combined the spectacle of circus with the performance skills of Auslan* speakers to produce a compelling piece of physical theatre for Deaf and hearing audiences.
*Australian Sign Language
 

Topographies in outdoor spaces at the Brisbane Powerhouse, 20 - 23 Sep 2006

Topographies provided the opportunity for 16 emerging and professional women circus performers to work with experienced physical theatre practitioners, a multi-media artist and musicians, to create site specific performance pieces in outdoor spaces around the Brisbane Powerhouse in September 2006. The combination of music, projected multi-media images and an eclectic array of performance pieces hiding in corners, brazenly dangling from great heights or emerging from shadows, made it an exciting and new performance experience for the sold out audiences who witnessed the event. The musicians, The Semi Circles, created an original sound score for the 11 individual works and transitions and led the audience on this performance journey through a highly evocative site.
 

Bungo the Money God at the Powerhouse Theatre, 30 Nov - 2 Dec 2005

Bungo the Money God was a unique fusion of circus, dance, storytelling and original music inspired by the urban dreaming story of the same name by Uncle Herb Wharton. This large scale production developed out of a year long Indigenous arts and cultural project with Inala’s Indigenous communities and collaborating organisations Inala Wangarra, Vulcana Women’s Circus, Kooemba Jdarra, Contact Inc. and Access Arts. The project involved workshops, devising and rehearsal of the final production. Showings of the developing work were presented at Stylin’ Up Festival and NAIDOC Week celebrations in Inala. Bungo the Money God included performances by children through to Elders as they wove together the story of Bungo through original music and the spectacular skills of circus, dance and physical theatre. The story of Bungo was narrated by Inala based hip hop crew Mild Tace, and performed through circus and dance by the young and emerging performers. Existing community performers from Inala – including the Yarning Place Singers (Elders choir), Wagga Wagga dancers (a traditional Indigenous dance troupe) and singer/performer Darren Brady - were also invited into the project to contribute to the final production. The project involved a range of community and arts organisations and provided skills and resources to the community. The story of Inala and its strengths as portrayed in the production presented a different narrative of Inala and Indigeneity to the broader community and brought immense pride to the Inala community and those in attendance.

Ghosts of a Goddess at the Judith Wright Centre, 10 Sep & 4 Nov 2005

Ghosts of a Goddess was an exhilarating vertical performance performed on the 4-storey high wall of the Judith Wright Centre for the opening of the Hands on Elvis and Marilyn Festival in Sep 2005. The performance, using abseiling and dancing in harnesses, explored the power and influence of the iconic figure of Marilyn Monroe. The ghosts of Marilyn, supported by a chorus of ground bound “men”, flew, swung, sailed and seduced the audience to reveal her status as a complex but alluring symbol of powerful, affirming femininity as well as tragic and constructed femininity. Ghosts of a Goddess was remounted for Vulcana’s 10th anniversary on the external wall of the Brisbane Powerhouse.
 

Circus in a Tea Cup at the Visy Theatre, 31 May 2005

Vulcana Women’s Circus in collaboration with Brisbane Domestic Violence Advocacy Service (BDVAS) and Qld Injecting Health Network (QuIHN) brought together women who have been affected by domestic or family violence to participate in skills workshops, and devise and produce their own performance. Circus in a Tea Cup allowed the participants to share their experiences of domestic and family violence in a creative and safe environment, build new relationships with each other and their support workers, learn new skills and explore an empowering physical language that builds self-esteem and confidence. Through the integration of video as a significant part of the performance, we were able to play between the heightened theatrical images of the circus, that represented a celebration of how far the performers had travelled, and the ability of video to portrait the participants as themselves and as an illustration of where they have come from. Circus in a Tea Cup provided Vulcana with a very strong new model for working with community participants to create small but theatrically rich and artistically supported pieces of physical theatre.
 

Home Fictions at the Powerhouse Theatre, 16 – 18 December 2004

Home Fictions was a 4-month journey of collaboration and creation for the ensemble of performers and theatre makers. Together they researched their own and others fictions about home, the stories of home/land, and the mythologies that surround these defining yet nebulous concepts. The work explored the underneath of “home” - from the literal and domestic perspective of being under the kitchen lino, to the larger, socio-political issue of whose home/land our comfort zones are built on. Home spaces were suspended in mid air to allowed the ensemble to physically delve into a subconscious world beneath the kitchen table, to peel back the layers of memory and history and to transform the realm of our daily, or nightly, habitation to reveal its poetry, its chaos, its dreaming and its dangers.

Viva Frida on the Powerhouse Forecourt, 6 & 10 July 2004

Viva Frida was a highly visual stilt performance drawing on the rich visual imagery of Frida Kahlo’s work (Mexican painter 1907-1954) as well as the passion and struggle in her life as a woman and a female artist. Workshop participants devised the piece and the costumes were developed and constructed with Vulcana community members.

Physicalisms at the Stores Studio, Brisbane Powerhouse, 4 – 6 June 2004

A range of women performers, from emerging to professional, participated in a mentorship project with the artistic director of Vulcana Women's Circus to develop new circus works. The aim was to encourage creative approaches to circus repertoire in the development of the performance pieces. The result was a diverse and eclectic range of daring, poignant, funny and highly physical works that together provided an exciting night of new works.

Young Women and Body Image Project, 2004

The project evolved in response to the gap in community cultural development programs that engage young women to effectively intervene in negative body imaging and eating issues. The project gave participants an opportunity to challenge negative self-perceptions, and build greater self-confidence. The project was delivered in collaboration with Brisbane Youth Service and ISIS Centre for Action on Eating Issues.

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Young Mums

Vulcana! Turbine Hall of the Brisbane Powerhouse as part of the Magdalena Women and Arts Festival, 2003

A large ensemble of community performers explored the potential of circus performance when the limitations of femininity are shrugged off. They took over the spaces inside the Powerhouse, descending the walls, flying from the roof, and balancing on balconies.

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Cravings at the Powerhouse Theatre Jan 2002

Cravings was set in the bedroom of a 16-year-old girl about to celebrate her birthday with friends. Through metaphor, narration and circus the piece explored the far-reaching consequences an obsession with the perfect body can have on young women. Using physical stunts and a bittersweet humour it investigated eating disorders and body image. This performance was the first fully professional performance for Vulcana.

Aviatrix at the Powerhouse Theatre, 4 – 8 Dec 2001

Aviatrix was an imaginative and spectacular romp through 100 years of women’s achievements in Australia using, circus and humour. Taking their cue from great women pilots in history, the performers embarked on a series of breathtaking aerial routines, exploring the domestic realm through the daring and the beautiful.

I'd Rather be a Goddess than a Cyborg at the Powerhouse Theatre, 8 – 11 November 2000

I'd Rather be a Cyborg than a Goddess posed the question, what does it mean to be a woman at the dawn of a new millennium? Set inside a computer game that pits cyborgs against goddesses the performers investigated the realm of cyberspace, as a place for women to reinvent themselves, or just another space where inequities and injustices of material space are remade? Through circus Vulcana celebrated the whole range of women’s abilities, from glamorous to gutsy, and everything in between.