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13.04.16, 22:57
(Top: Amelia Van Brunt’s performance of her piece In the Blue of the Evening, originally devised and performed in 2015 during her residency at Circus Center in San Francisco. Photo credit: Shoot That Klown. Second photo:Luminous performance at 2015 Melbourne Fringe FestivalOne of the most exciting things about being a professional circus artist is the increasing abundance of training and performance opportunities available to you at residencies and festivals. Of course, not all events are equal in stature and focus, yet each has something to offer the aspiring circus artist looking to break in to the network of global performers.
Still, the path to these opportunities is dimly lit to all but a few brave souls who seek the way. To be invited to perform, you must have a solid concept of your act, clear goals, know your company’s availability, and you must be highly organized. How do you know if your circus company is ready to move to the next level of performing and getting snapped up by circus programmers for tours? We spoke to festival artistic directors and residency directors around the world to see what they recommend to newbies on how to break in to this performance platform and we highlight festivals and residencies that are worth considering.
Residencies
With a residency you can secure a space to develop your work at a circus studio without the regular distractions of home and get valuable feedback from a new audience, collaborate with new artists and explore a new artistic environment.
Also, a residency can be the entrance ramp to a festival, explains Steve Smith, Creative director of Circus Center in San Francisco, California. They offer 6-8 week residencies to circus artists year round (excluding summer camp season). He explains what their residency is and how to know if you are ready for it. “Our residency is absolutely a good stepping stone to festivals. It provides exposure to artists and an audience (that are not friends and family) that will respond authentically. When artists apply to us they are looking to refine a piece of work and take it to the next level; so it’s an incubator. What we offer is space, equipment and time to work through it all. At the end of their program the artist or company offers a workshop as part of our outreach program and they do their show as a capper.”
If huge chunks of time and space to develop yourself or your company’s show seems too good to be true, rest assured there are some caveats, the main two being the need on your part for commitment and clarity of purpose, explains Steve “Residents have to be able to answer questions and articulate what they want. They must bring those intentions fully formed when they get here because this is not an exploration of their inner child or their psyche. It’s for people who are ready to take it to the next level, to start going to festivals with their work and start performing in whatever sense. It doesn’t really matter if it’s in a church basement or a school gymnasium or the finest theater, your audience is your audience.”
Steve says the types of works they see vary widely, as does the type of performer. They’ve worked with soloists and small companies. But what each recipient must have in common beyond a professional approach is a “sense of story, a context, empathy and compassion towards the world to tell their story. If the story is just about ego or personality, we are not interested.” Another more intangible but essential quality Circus Center seeks in their residents is “do they have a pragmatic understanding of what can be achieved in the time they’ll be here and do they understand and demonstrate the potential that lies in all of us to do these strange and wonderful things? We want them to be able to inspire audiences to follow their own dreams.”
Perhaps a good example of the type of resident they consider is Amelia Van Brunt. “Last year, she did a wonderful performance and she is now booking in to festivals. She created a clown character named Mona and the piece is really focusing on dementia, which may seem a bit odd for a clown but the empathy and compassion that she was able to generate takes a very funny look at what happens when we lose our cognitive ability. That was a hard balance to find. The residency was kind of a springboard for her. We were just so pleased that we were able to offer this opportunity for her to put the nuts and bolts together.”
Steve recommends getting an early start planning to apply for any residency. He suggests at least 6 months in advance at Circus Center but the more lead time the better because there is now a waiting list. Steve says that is because “the artists who come here are successful at their work and expanding upon it. Of course, the work may be quite different when they arrive after 6 months of development, because we all work better under a deadline. But the work will evolve as they prepare.”
Festivals
At a festival, your company will be exposed to a new market, and to programmers who will see how your work goes over in a
live venue. You will see how your contemporaries are performing, partake in and even lead workshops and gain professional development insights. The audiences are full of fellow artists and critics looking for trends to pass along and the social media marketing implications are endless. Add to that a fattened up resume with contemporary performances around the world, and you will have a much more intriguing profile to all prospective employers.(Photo: Marisol deSantis announcing the showcases of the Montreal Completement Cirque Festival at the MICC -International Contemporary Circus Market. Photo credit Marie Andree LeMire.)
Circus Festivals started with the International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo, which has been handing out gold and silver clown awards since 1975. Currently, there are dozens of circus festivals worldwide, both for contemporary and traditional circus performers, though some do not occur annually and not all of the festivals draw the same crowds. Nevertheless, they are growing in popularity along with festival culture in general. The popular fringe festivals which occur in major cities worldwide often have a big circus presence. Alan Gordon does marketing for the oldest and largest of the fringes, Edinburgh. He says that 4% of the program was made up of dance, physical theatre and circus last year, which would total well over one hundred shows. What circus festivals have that other festivals (even ones who welcome circus performances) don’t have is a solid fan base, a large turnout of industry attendees and a genuine insight in to circus trends.
Marisol de Santis is in her 5th year as the circus programming agent for Tohu (Montréal’s indoor circus venue in the Cité des arts du cirque) and for the popular annual festival MONTRÉAL COMPLÈTEMENT CiRQUE. This year the festival will host 9 to 10 indoor shows and 3 or 4 outdoor shows from July 7th until the 17th. Marisol says that the main attraction for performers at the festival is the programmers. “There are a lot of companies that want to come to our festival because there are a lot of programmers here. They come from big venues in Europe; Scandinavia, France, Spain, the UK & Germany. They come here to find performers to program one or two circus shows in their season. We have a lot of Americans and Canadians--even though there’s not a lot of circus festivals in America-- there are a lot of programmers from universities and festivals that don’t program only circus. For a circus company, it is really great. They know that if we are programming then it is good, there will be plenty of contacts and maybe a tour.”
This coming year, Marisol and her colleagues will travel around the world to arrange the festival because they don’t believe in hiring an act from video alone. “A company can send me a video and I will watch it, but we don’t program on video. We need to feel part of the audience to know the show-- and a show can change a lot. Sometimes we see a show twice.” They also scout the bigger festivals, like Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Circa festival in Toulouse, where they meet with agents in what Marisol admits is a tight knit community “When you work with agents--it’s a little international community. We know each other very fast.”
But what kind of circus artists are they looking for? Soloists, duos, small companies? Marisol says it all depends on the audience, but in any case, they have that covered too, “At Tohu we have a big venue, so we can have up to 1000 seats. But at other performance spaces in Montreal, we can set up a show at a little venue of 150 seats, or a medium venue 300-500 seats. So we are able to program companies with a lot numbers and artists and a lot of décor but also the little solo or duo that is more intimate for the audience and for what the artist wants to say. We can have a show that has just one discipline even. The word that we say all the time for the festival is ‘diversity’.”
The only constant is the high artistry of the performance, which Marisol admits is advanced, but there is more to it than that. “Our audience is really used to high caliber performance. But it also depends on the character and the story of the show. Contemporary circus now mixes a lot of mediums like theatre, music and dance.”
Although the bar is set very high for this festival, Marisol says the benefits for the artists are worthwhile. Beyond the intangibles like resumé building, MONTRÉAL COMPLÈTEMENT CiRQUE provides compensation for performance, a per diem, transportation, housing, and cargo transportation. A young company would start the process of applying by contacting Marisol at Tohu and inviting them to see the show. Marisol suggests sending a press kit, a recommendation and a video, along with upcoming performance dates up to a year in advance. Each year her team dwindles down 50 applicants to a working group of 20.
Fringe Festivals
Simon Abrahams is the Artistic director of Melbourne Fringe, an open access festival that hosts 400 shows during 2 and half weeks in September. The scope of the work is broad, covering theater, dance, comedy, performance art and of course circus. Although it is not as huge and renowned as the Edinburgh or nearby Adelaide Fringe, Simon explains that works in their favor “Its a 35-year-old festival so we get the whole range; emerging artists, novices and experienced top-of-the line performers who all sit side by side on the same program.”
Simon sees his work as a way to augment the audiences experience and create meaning, making each performance part of something much grander, a hidden benefit to working in a festival setting. “A festival creates a context. With our festival, we are very lucky to have a kind of risk taking audience that is interested in new, innovative and interesting work. So you have an audience that is out for almost anything and we spend a lot of time creating a context so that meaning is created not just within the different artworks but also between the different artworks. Then the festival experience is about navigating those moments of discovery. So when those artists are making their own works—the way they come together and the experience of the audience can often change the work itself by placing it in relation to other works in the festival.”
When explaining how newcomers can navigate an international festival, Simon is reassuring, describing how they assist with citywide marketing and venue selection. “We have a team of people whose job it is to help match artists and venues. In the case of circus, you might need rigging points and a space with a particular height. That may limit you to 5 venues and suddenly that makes the decision making a lot easier. Once they’ve chosen a venue, the venues will market the show on an individual basis but the artist also has a responsibility to market themselves…we provide advice, support, resources and contacts to help artists do that.”
Flo Fitzgerald works in marketing and production for Cirque Bijou, the circus company that has been running the popular Circus & Street Theatre stage at Bristol Harbour Festival since 2003. Her advice for getting your work in to their festival is simple, “Ensure you have a slick and impressive showreel that showcases your skills to send to festival programmers. Also word of mouth is key, if good things are said about you we will want to work with you.”
Steve Smith of Circus Center explained the benefit of residencies and festivals another way, “It’s also about networking and exposure. I’ve worked with Ringling and Big Apple Circus and it does sometimes come down to the old cliché; it’s who you know. People call producers and say ‘Keep an eye out for these people, they’re up-and-comers.’” So, if your circus company is ready to go beyond the occasional gig or short tour, consider preparing for a residency or applying for a festival as motivation to get your work out there.
Circus Festivals
Belgium
Canada
England
Netherlands
USA
Floor To Air Dance- Santa Barbara, California
Chicago Contemporary Circus Festival
Fringe Festivals with Circus
Australia
UK
England- Bristol Harbour Festival
Scotland-Edinburgh Fringe Festival
France
Residencies
Belgium
Brussels
Espace Catastrophe
Latitude 50°Canada
Tohu Research and Creation Residencies
USA
Circus Center, San Francisco, California
For a more thorough list of festivals, visit the Sideshow Blog or Circus Diaries. For a look at some of the residencies available, visit the Circus Now website.At Circus Promoters, we are committed to increasing your access to happenings and trends in the worldwide circus community. We also aim to provide access to exclusive interviews with inspiring people in the industry.
If you are not a member of Circus Promoters yet, registration is free and all levels of performer are welcome. Visit circuspromoters.com to create your profile and learn about employment opportunities.
Bio & links:
Kim Campbell is a circus and theatre critic and writer. She has written for Spectacle magazine, Circus Now, Circus Talk and was a resident for Circus Stories, Le Cirque Vu Par with En Piste in 2015 at the Montreal Completement Cirque Festival. She is the editor of American Circus Educators magazine, as well as a staff writer for the web publication Third Coast Review, where she writes about arts and culture. You can follow her frequent musings on circus via Twitter, Instagram or at Kimzyn Chronicles .
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Circus Promoters and Kim Campbell with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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25.01.16, 09:08
National Institute of Circus Arts
Historically, circus has been a hot commodity in Australia since 1847. In the past, it was horses and exotic foreign acts that brought the crowds out. Nowadays, it is innovation, a contemporary merging of other arts with traditional circus skills, and narrative—the welcome addition of story or themes to unify the action— which is keeping audiences hooked. While traditional circuses such as Circus Royale are touring in big tops around the continent, audiences in the big cities are embracing a variety of options, from Flying Fruit Fly Circus (a polished children’s circus), to Circus Oz, Australia’s long running and wildly popular circus with a mission. Australia is also home to one of the world’s better known circus schools, the National Institute of Circus Arts in Melbourne. With so much circus education and history, it is no wonder that Australia is prone to turn out cutting edge modern circus.
I met with Emma Serjeant, a living example of how the circus climate in Australia keeps growing diverse artists and entrepreneurs, like a many headed hydra. She is just about to launch her new company ESP (Emma Serjeant Productions), after a long stint as executive director of Casus Circus, which she co-founded. Casus is the perfect illustration of how modern circus companies are adapting to the times. These new, mid-sized circus companies; Casus, as well as other international companies; Cirkus Cirkör (Sweden), 7 Fingers (Montreal) and Circa (Brisbane) are wowing audiences worldwide with their new take on circus in a theatrical setting. These companies are smaller and streamlined, with a troupe of typically 3 to 8 performers, all who have often developed the shows (and sometimes the companies) together. They are the start-ups of the circus world, and they are succeeding based not simply on their innovative artistic and technical techniques (which are considerable) but also on their lower production budgets, and the relative simplicity (compared to moving a tent and animals) of travel. Casus Circus is still touring their premiere work, Knee Deep for its 4th year. Other productions include Finding the Silence, Jerk (Emma’s award winning solo show about exploring the edge of ourselves) and Tolu.
Like her country, Emma Serjeant is a powerhouse with a story to tell, but sitting before me dressed in a green wool jumper on the hottest day of the summer, she looked tiny. It was her energy that was big, and if you’ve seen her perform hand balancing and acrobatics, you are aware of her exquisite sense of balance, strength and poise which she seems to carry with her in her every day dealings. She was talking about using a choreographic language to tell a story and beating the structure of circus by cross-pollinating the arts. I was hooked. She had just hopped off of a flight from Thailand, where she went to get inspired for her newest projects, she explained. And now we sat on the patio at Tusk, a café in Melbourne’s hip Prahan neighborhood, just up the road from the National Institute of Circus Arts. The circus school is known by the students, including graduate Emma and my daughter Fiona (who we were in town to visit) as NICA. Besides being a performer and director, Emma is also a choreographer and producer, because working with a small company means you get to wear many hats. Settling in for a long talk, we all ordered smoothies to combat the pre-Christmas heatwave.
Afterwards, we strolled over to the airy structure of the National Circus Center, home to NICA, but they were closed for a staff Christmas party, so Emma snuck us in with her key for a tour. After a year of imagining what my daughter’s school was like, I was there at last, but rather than the bustling environment I’d imagined with aerialists hovering above coveted floor space, there was a slight echo as our words floated up to the impossibly high ceilings of the sunlit rooms.
So Emma brought me up to date on the place, down to describing what it is like when full of the 100 plus students all competing for floor space. The modern cube-like marvel known as National Circus Center was a $10 million venture that was completed in 2005. Before that, students had to train in an old warehouse. But now, thanks to the support of the Australian Government, the Australian Roundtable for Arts Training Excellence and Swinburne University, the students at NICA enjoy a state of the art facility and top notch instructors from around the world. As an American, ‘arts funding’ seems like a magical gift bestowed upon people in other nations by rare forward thinking governments. But when the budget belt has to be tightened, it turns out that the arts get cut in Australia too. The Federal Arts funding will be cut by $100 million in the next 4 years, a prospect which concerns all Australian artists. Emma is grateful that her projects have been a recipients of the grant process but wonders how heavily the cuts will affect her sector.
Though she graduated in 2006, Emma isn’t done with NICA. Since her return to Melbourne, from Brisbane (where she was based with Casus Circus and Circa before that) Emma has been brought on to co-direct the student showcase with director Hayden Spencer. She reeled off some of her projects as we crammed ourselves in to her car full of belongings. “I might relocate here and rent an apartment. Melbourne is wide open for circus. The environment is so perfect. But I may not rent, because I travel so much,” Emma explained. She is producing Kaput, a solo show in Hong Kong starring Tom Flanagan, and co-directing Love, Lost and Lattes (which will head the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2016). In February in Liverpool, and at the Brighton Fringe in spring, she will be directing an all-woman show called R.E.D. She’s got residencies booked in between shows, and is slated to collaborate with the director of her solo show Jerk to develop it further. There’s even a collaborative cross-continental project in the works for 2016/2017 between her and Winifred Haun & Dancers, an American dance company.
Still, while starting her production business, Emma isn’t sure if she will create another performance company. She might stay focused on directing and producing for a while after a difficult transition away from Casus Circus. Emma and Casus parted due largely to creative differences, but she worked so closely with them for so many years that there is a hole in her that she can’t picture filling back up just yet. She concedes she will miss the creativity that can arise from a close community of friends like the one she crafted with Casus co-founders Natano Faanana, Lachlan McAulay and Jesse Scott. I asked her if she missed performing. Since she has recently gotten the go ahead to start training after recovering from shoulder surgery she says is ready to delve back in to her training regimen and performing as well.
Circus Oz
When we pulled in to the back lot at Circus Oz, a huge mural by Keith Harring on a neighboring building caught my eye. It showed tumbling, flipping, and falling bodies that looked like they were being ejected from a giant millipede. I found it appropriate for a building that had a whole circus tucked behind it. The mural had been painted 30 years ago but was recently restored. Emma apologized as I dragged her over to observe the mural, “I just pass by that all the time and forgot it was even there.” She told us how the building, formerly a technical school, was scheduled to be demolished, but recently the city decided to turn it in to the Collingswood Contemporary Arts Precinct, making it a perfect fit for a growing compound of creative exchange.
Another fascinating building on the lot is the Melba Speigel tent, a sturdy, intricate structure of mirrors, canvas and wood. It is a popular venue for circus shows and residencies. We tried the doors but they were locked too. All of the circus world had rolled up their carpets and gone surfing. So we scooted over to the modern facility next door, the new headquarters of Circus Oz.
“You just missed our ensemble! They had to leave yesterday to go to Sydney,” explained Antonella Casella, former Circus Oz acrobat turned senior artistic associate. Antonella was the founder of Vulcana Women’s Circus in Brisbane, and a founding member of Rock-N-Roll Circus (which dates back to the 70’s before everyone knew circus was cool). She described her work with Rock-N-roll circus as a way to help change the nature of theater at the time in order to open it up to other arts. Rock-N-roll Circus eventually became Circa. Antonella knew Emma because after Emma graduated from NICA, she joined the Circa ensemble for 3 years and became the head trainer of Circa Zoo, the youth circus.
After we had the circus talk (who you know in common, your circus mantra, where you had been and are going and what your projects are), Antonella squeezed Fiona’s arm, ropey from hours of handstands, and launched straight in to a little background info about Circus Oz. For 33 years they have considered themselves counter-culture. Antonella described their shows as cabaret-style, full of anarchic action, parody and comedy--with a lively band. The current show is called But Wait…There’s More! I went straight home afterwards and watched the trailer, searching carefully for elements of anarchy. Wedged in between the more classis acts, this year’s production features an acrobat who leaps through smoke rings, a chanteuse for a ringmistress and a wardrobe that looks like it came straight out of BeetleJuice. Their mission statement focuses on issues of social justice and eco consciousness, and their shows reflect it. Take for example their sponsor, ‘Stuff’, and the ensuing commercial break; “Do you ever lie awake at night wondering ‘What’s it all about?’ Is there a hole deep inside you? Hmm? Well, say goodbye to that messy existential crisis forever and fill that hole with stuff!” I was sad to have missed them, but Antonella assured me that I would soon have another chance as they tour America frequently.
Emma walked us through the big practice and performance spaces. Circus Oz moved in to the building last year, but you wouldn’t know it. The place was stamped with character; a jumble of props and white boards carefully mapping out their production plans. A composer worked on his notes in the music room as we strolled through, and a huge white board of unfamiliar looking words caught my eye. Emma saw me looking and explained, “That’s an indigenous language. Circus Oz works with indigenous Australians. You may have heard of Dale Woodbridge? He works with them.” Americans know next to nothing about Australia, I thought for perhaps the 100th time that trip, and stared in awe at the strange words, “Womraka moses yenyen walla” the first line read. It turns out it was an Aboriginal Christian hymn called Ngaraa Burra Ferra in the Yorta Yorta language. The language is considered extinct-with only an estimated 21 speakers left based on the 2006 census, but the song gained some popularity in 2012 with the release of a movie about 4 Aboriginal musicians in the 1960’s called the Sapphires. Clearly, Circus Oz is committed to following their mission statement, and the effort to help keep indigenous culture alive is part of that.
On the way back, I noticed Emma seemed at home in Melbourne, jetting us across the many roundabouts that made the city a maze to outsiders. Describing a residency where she will invite choreographers to explore flow, repetitive actions, breath and conscious movement, she said “I want to grow the culture of telling stories with bodies, because the body is an artistic tool, not just a set of skills.” This is why I call the woman a powerhouse, because she digs deep in to the motivation and intuition of artists while exploring technique. She is an example of the type of innovator Australia continues to produce in its ground-breaking exploration of contemporary circus. Best of all, as an artist she wasn’t just concerned with producing her own show, she was also collaborating, innovating and facilitating new artists.
Fiona asked Emma her opinion on the current and future trends in Australian circus. Emma thought about it while shifting gears and leaned in to another roundabout, “The circus and dance fusion that Circa started maybe eight years ago was so new and edgy—that stripping down of circus— it’s still hanging in there. And a mix of theater and circus is happening, although some of that stuff can be cringe-worthy, it has become almost its own art form. I think when you blend in circus it lifts the other genre,” she explained. And why not? Mixing circus with other art forms adds the physical dimension to stories. Won’t adding the physical feat to music, art, dance and theater, help complete the story that we tell ourselves to explain our existence? And why not circus bodies? Aren’t those the bodies that show us that it is possible to defy logic, nature and gravity with sheer willpower? And isn’t that freedom what humans are striving for?
Women’s Circus
There was one circus still in town in December. It was the Women’s Circus, a ‘feminist organization dedicated to the individual well-being of women and connectedness within and across their communities.’ Just our luck, it was located in the highly populated immigrant territory of Footscray, right where we were staying, and there was a student showcase. So on another hot day, my family and I found ourselves crammed in to a busy gym in a small circus school, sitting on the floor to see a show. It was just like home, except this tight-knit community of women of all ages and abilities had Australian accents. Watching the performances and the love the community had for the performers was fabulous. I saw an act involving women my mother’s and daughter’s ages interacting in a presumed race against time. They struggled and collided with each other and crossed paths in a blur. Sometimes they got stuck, and when one person halted, the others slowed down for a minute, pausing in their frantic efforts just long enough to reconnect and help the other out. Like Emma, they were barreling through space and time on their individual missions, but reconfiguring when necessary and when other bodies crossed their paths. That was the choreographic language of bodies telling its story and it solidified my impression of circus in Australia. They were groups of individuals all striving in their own way to tell a story and make an impact not just on the arts but on other humans, and taking the time to stop and assist each other when things got a little rocky.
At Circus Promoters, we are committed to increasing your access to happenings and trends in the worldwide circus community. We also aim to provide access to exclusive interviews with inspiring people in the industry.
If you are not a member of Circus Promoters yet, registration is free and all levels of performer are welcome. Visit circuspromoters.com to create your profile and learn about employment opportunities.
Bio & links:
Kim Campbell is a circus and theatre critic and writer. She has written for Spectacle magazine, Circus Now, Circus Talk and was a resident for Circus Stories, Le Cirque Vu Par with En Piste in 2015 at the Montreal Completement Cirquehttp://www.nica.com.au/the-nica-story Festival. She is the editor of American Circus Educators magazine, as well as a staff writer for the web publication Third Coast Review, where she writes about arts and culture. You can follow her frequent musings on circus via Twitter, Instagram or at Kimzyn Chronicles .
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Circus Promoters and Kim Campbell with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Resources: