Cluster Arts: Brisbane’s Circus Management Team Backstage and Taking Care of Business
Transcribing my conversation with Deb Wilks (Executive Director) and Kate Malone (Executive Producer) of Cluster Arts was like time travel. We spoke…
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Australia and New Zealand
Applause: Latest Funding and Awards Announced
The Flying Fruit Fly Circus has announced the five projects which will be supported through its COVID-19 seed funding initiative…
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Circa Contemporary Circus Launches Podcast PRODUCING HEROES
In a first for the pioneering Australian performing arts company, Circa Contemporary Circus is launching a podcast. In Producing Heroes…
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Don’t Let Our Cultural Heart Die of Covid Neglect
No one doubts that health, the economy and education are valuable. Culture, however, is having a harder time mattering to…
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Hudson’s Circus – Shane Lennon Makes Traditional Circus Modern
Shane is from the Lennon Family that has owned and operated circuses in Australia and New Zealand for over 120…
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A Tasmanian Performer Teaches Students About Consent, Drawing on Circus Tricks
After running away to join the circus at the age of 21, the aerialist and trapeze artist has returned home…
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Circus Arts Hub Launches With Resources for the Circus World
Circus Arts Hub is the brainchild of Australia’s Antonella Casella, an original member of Rock n’ roll and Vulcana Women’s…
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‘Enormous Pressure’: Arts Organisations Call for Help Amid Crisis
Leading arts figures say live audiences have “disappeared” and small organisations face bankruptcy during the coronavirus crisis, ahead of an…
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Crisis Management and the Virtual Office
At Circa, we are familiar with crisis situations. Risk is part of our world, and one of the key elements…
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Vietnamese Bamboo Circus Bursts with Boundless Invention
This inspired circus from Vietnam draws upon twin impulses in the contemporary art form to create something stunning, immersive and…
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Chasing Smoke Brings First Nations Experiences into the Circus Ring
“It’s an all-Indigenous circus show that has all the flavours typical of contemporary circus; you’ve got trapeze, corde lisse, tumbling…
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Audience Members Shaken After Incident at Great Moscow Circus in Nelson
Audience members got more than they bargained for when a large swing came apart at the Great Moscow Circus in…
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Leviathan Review: Circa’s New Production Explores the Ordinary, Extraordinary Mass of Humanity
As the audience takes their seats, two feet poke out from beneath the curtain. In hindsight, it’s the first trick…
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Lost in Circus Perth Fringe World 2020
What is Fringe? In this video by Ken Fanning, hear from various circus fringe voices as they discuss the culture,…
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So You Want My Arts Job: Circus Trainer
Loic Marques is the Training Director at the Flying Fruit Fly Circus. He is a French National sports acrobatic champion…
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CIRCA Embarks on Two Collaborative Projects
Circa, Australia’s contemporary circus company, keeps staying in the forefront on pioneering how extreme physicality can create powerful and moving…
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Interview with Circa’s Acrobat Paul O’Keeffe
In this video interview, Wolfgang’s Magical Musical Circus performer Paul O’Keeffe talks about his cheeky side and how the show…
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Love as a Balancing Act: Literally
Circus today is well-suited to portraying love from the inside out, straying as it does into borderlands of dance and…
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Juggling and Circus Festivities For All
One winning master-juggler will wing their way to Mexico after a competition next week in Katikati. “These guys are beasts…
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Sex Positivity with Your Aerial Spins? The WonderWombs Wields a Fearless Mix of Circus, Women’s Issues, and Laughter
One of the most risk-taking shows in town right now is a circus—and we’re not necessarily talking about the Dust Palace’s gravity-defying aerial…
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Life-The Show (Strut & Fret Production House, Sydney Festival)
LIFE – The Show is brought to us by Strut & Fret’s Creative Director Scott Maidment who returns with a…
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The 2020 Dance and Circus Calendar
Physical feats and disciplined artistry unite the worlds of dance and circus, despite the many differences between the artforms. In…
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Art, Empathy and Crossing Borders: a Provocation by Yaron Lifschitz
The following speech is an edited version of a provocation delivered by Yaron Lifschitz at the 2020 ISPA Congress in…
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Circus Stays Open Despite Families Being Evacuated from New South Wales Coastal Towns as Out-of-Control Bushfires Rage On
A travelling circus has remained open using a generator in a coastal town which has been ravaged by bushfires. Residents…
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Sick, NICA (VIC)
Sick presented by NICA’s Bachelor of Circus Arts third-year students is a slick, sophisticated and utterly human contemporary circus work set…
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Circus Oz Explores New Artistic Direction
Australia’s national circus company, Circus Oz has announced exciting new artistic plans that will reposition the company within the new…
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Fresh Start and Old Ending? Australian Circus Company Circa Brings Its Second U.S. Premiere to NYC with En Masse
A man (Robert Murray) draped in robes sings a Schubert aria, his knit hat, fingerless gloves and staff in hand…
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Orpheus & Eurydice: Opera Queensland And Circa Combine Two Art Forms
Opera Queensland and contemporary circus company Circa are joining forces to present Christoph Gluck’s much-loved opera ‘Orpheus & Eurydice’. In…
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Gravity & Other Myths: Amidst the Chaos Part 4 –’Sound’
In Part 4 of a four part video series titled Amidst the Chaos on Gravity & Other Myths, director Hamish…
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Australian Circus at the Hub of Global Entertainment: Histories and Consequences
In the continuing series titled Adventures in Circus Research curated by academic, author, and educator Alisan Funk, we will explore the…
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Gravity & Other Myths: Amidst the Chaos Part 3–‘Lights’
In Part 3 of a four part video series titled Amidst the Chaos on Gravity & Other Myths, director Hamish…
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Anna Lumb In Hard to reach Places Comes to Melbourne Fringe
Internationally acclaimed, wildly theatrical and incendiary circus performer Anna Lumb is about to set Melbourne Fringe alight with her new…
Read moreGravity & Other Myths: Amidst the Chaos Part 2 – Process
In Part 2 of a four part video series titled Amidst the Chaos on Gravity & Other Myths, director Hamish…
Read moreGravity & Other Myths: Amidst the Chaos Part 1 – ‘Themes’
In Part 1 of a four part video series titled Amidst the Chaos on Gravity & Other Myths, director Hamish…
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Circa’s New Paths to Success
Of course I had heard the stories about Circa. Consistently in festival delivery mode. Hundreds of performances a year around…
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Meet the Circus School – Community and Kinship, the NICA Culture in Australia
Found in the popular inner-city suburb of Melbourne, Prahran; the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) is the only course…
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Edinburgh Fringe Spotlight—Casus Has Circus in Their DNA
Seven acrobats in red fly across the stage, prop each other up, climb atop a tower of their kin, play…
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Circus Photography in a Nutshell with Mark Turner
Circus is an exciting and challenging subject for the camera. While there is no shortage of amateur and professional videographers…
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Penny Miles Appointed As Circus Oz Executive Director
Circus Oz announces that Penny Miles is appointed as Circus Oz Executive Director. Circus Oz Chair, Nick Yates, explained that…
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Circus Rio Shut Down After Two Performers Suffer Serious Injuries in Less Than a Week
A circus in Adelaide has been shut down after two performers were injured in separate incidents in less than a…
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Shaking the Snow Globe: Exit Interview with Circus Oz’s Rob Tannion
After three years as Artistic Director and co-CEO of Circus Oz, Rob Tannion has moved on to a new role…
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Circus Performer Seriously Injured After 36 Foot Fall in Front of Horrified Audience
Spectators at a circus show in Australia were left stunned when a performer fell from a trapeze and was left…
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Meet the 59-Year-Old Acrobat Flipping Stereotypes in Casting Off
At only 17 years old, Debra Batton was told she was too old to be a gymnast, so she quit….
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Wunderage is the Daring New Circus Show that Involves the Audience
Wunderage is Rob Tannion’s last show with Cirque Oz before he heads over to work with Cirque du Soleil. It…
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Hot Hints and Tips to Survive (and Thrive!) at Fringe
Fringe. Whether you’re talking Adelaide, Edinburgh, Hollywood or Prague, a Fringe Festival can make you or break you. As a…
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New Circus Children’s Book About Historic Australian Performer May Wirth–Interview with the Author
It is a precious opportunity to learn about and from circus from folks who have traveled with and performed in…
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End of an Era for Circus Oz, As Rob Tannion is Leaving the Company
Circus Oz announces that Artistic Director and Co-CEO Rob Tannion will leave the company on Friday, 28 June 2019 as…
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Circus Kids Are Happy Kids
Circus training delivers multiple mental health benefits for children, and cost savings to the broader community, an Australian study reveals….
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Circus ‘As an Artistic Experience’
On their 10th anniversary, circus theatre company The Dust Palace is going from strength to strength. Rebecca Fox talks to…
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The Queens of Hot Brown Honey Are Finally Centerstage
Step into the Hive: the first thing you might notice on the Hot Brown Honey stage is the giant honeycomb…
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Do You Really Need a Circus Agent?
As a circus artist, how do you sign up with an agency? Which agency would get you the types of…
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Circus Oz and Company 2 to Create a Mesmerising World this June with the World Premiere of WUNDERAGE
Circus Oz and Company 2 will create a mesmerising world this June with the world premiere of Wunderage – an…
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Circa’s Peepshow is a Coup for Castlemaine State Festival
Circa is one of the great success stories in Australia’s performing arts scene, rising from a boutique operation in Brisbane…
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To Clap or Not to Clap
The age-old relationship between audience and performer “The action of clapping is actually a quite primitive one, initially being used…
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Brains, Heart and Space for the Simple: a Conversation with Gravity and Other Myths
“Bigger is better” is a long time American circus tagline. It needs no interpretation. Adhering to this slogan, one would…
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YUCK Circus and Rest Share Top Fringe World Award
YUCK Circus and theatre work Rest have shared the top prize at the 2019 Fringe World Awards, which were presented…
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French-Vietnamese Circus Makes Sydney Opera House Debut
Sydney Tuesday 5 February, 2019. This June, ground-breaking contemporary circus troupe Nouveau Cirque du Vietnam will make their Opera House…
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Fringe World: YUCK Circus is Ready to Kick Art
YUCK Circus is a show which couldn’t have been timed better. With the #metoo movement and the recent Gillette advertising…
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Fraser Hooper Wins Iron Chicken award for Best Busker at Christchurch’s Bread & Circus
An English busker who boxes with his audience has won the Iron Chicken award at the Bread & Circus –…
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Why Circus Arts and Festivals are a Match Made in Heaven
From Perth and Sydney to Castlemaine, as Australia’s international arts festivals reveal their programs it’s become increasingly common to see…
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Stunning Circus, Clowns with Ruffs and Magical Comedy in Pick of the Night Shows
Garry Starr wants to save theatre. In order to complete his mission, this clown in a Shakespearean ruff – and sometimes little…
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A Second Coming–Australia’s Briefs Factory Confronts NYC with Queer Circus, Drag & Burlesque
Makeup and mustaches, feathers and leather, bananas and balloons, these opposites are toyed with in just the right proportion to…
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Mixing Mozart and Acrobatics in Circa’s Delightful Family Show
Circa is one of the great Australian success stories in the arts. In just over a decade, artistic director Yaron…
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Alex Mizzen’s Invisible Things
Alex Mizzen is a creative who uses circus and dance-theatre to make evocative, challenging works. She is a world-class hand-balancer,…
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Flipside Circus Celebrates 20 Years!
Emerging from humble beginnings in the Brisbane suburb of West End, Flipside Circus grew rapidly from a small community organisation,…
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Circus Oz’s New Festival ‘Sidesault’ is a Multi-Dimensional Masterpiece
Celebrating 40 years of Circus Oz in 2018, Australia’s leading troupe of theatre, satire and rock’n’roll keep the thrills coming…
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Perth Festival to Feature Nouveau Cirque du Vietnam’s Lang Toi
BETWEEN Hanoi’s glamorous French Quarter — where Graham Greene penned The Quiet American — and the Grand Opera House is…
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Backstage with Model Citizens : Words By Lucy Gamsby Frost & Photos by Luke David Kellett
A Day in the Life of Lucy Frost, Touring Production Manager at Circus Oz. Model Citizens Tour 2018 I wake…
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AutoCannibal–Circus Gets Dark
This dark work-in-progress (AutoCannibal) by Captain Ruin (aka Mitch Jones) was what he came up with in creation mode with…
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Dystopia, Trauma and Grotesque Ballet: the Gut-Wrenching Darkness of Modern Circus
Three of Brisbane festival’s eight world premieres come from some of Australia’s most exciting companies – and their takes on…
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En Masse Is An Arresting Fusion of Circus, Dance and Classical Music
According to their artistic director, Yaron Lifschitz, Circa’s En Masse “speaks of fresh starts and old endings, of violence and…
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Chasing Smoke is Pushing the Boundaries of Circus
The Australian circus scene is getting a very deadly shake-up with the arrival of ‘Chasing Smoke’, the only all-Indigenous contemporary…
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Are Community Circus Shows Still Relevant? –A Case Study with Vulcana Women’s Circus
The last couple of years have seen Brisbane’s circus profile on the rise, with a large number of circus companies…
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Circus Tradition and Experimentation Make a Seductive Mix in Lexicon
Roll up, roll up for the 250th anniversary of circus as we know it. Daring high-wire acts! Death-defying trapezes! Crazy…
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Extraordinarily Human: Training the Next Generation of Circus Artists
Anni Davey joined the Flying Fruit Fly Circus as its new Artistic Director in July. She reflects on a mid-career…
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Is Australia the Next Circus Superpower?
The mayor of Montréal opened the 2018 Montréal Completement Cirque Festival with a speech that lauded the city as “la capitale mondiale…
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Circus Oz Celebrate 40 Years with ‘Precarious’
Roll up, roll up. This year marks a huge milestone for Circus Oz as they celebrate 40 years as Australia’s…
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Gravity & Other Myths Pushes Their Art Form to the Limit
Some of the routines and feats that Gravity & Other Myths, an Australian physical theater company, create, can be described…
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$300,000 Granted to Flying Fruit Fly Circus
Coinciding with its year-long 40th birthday celebrations, Flying Fruit Fly Circus (FFFC) has received $300,000 in funding from the Turnbull…
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Rock N Roll Circus: Pioneers of the Brisbane Contemporary Circus Sector
With its roots embedded in the thriving bohemian and nomadic local arts scene, the origins of Brisbane’s (Queensland, Australia) contemporary…
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Casus – You & I (Teaser)
Casus, the contemporary Australian acrobatic company that brought Knee Deep into the circus world is creating a new show entitled…
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Circus Oz at 40: From Self-Made Tent to Global Success, in Many Tricky Moves
Tim Coldwell tosses a bolt of old canvas painted a faded green and gold on to a benchtop. He turns…
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Adelaide Fringe review 2018: By a Thread
MELBOURNE-based One Fell Swoop Circus gives the Adelaide premiere of By A Thread, a circus show based on — and…
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Adelaide Fringe 2018: Ethiopian circus Abyssinia Granted Visas to Perform at Adelaide Fringe After Cancelled Shows
PERFORMERS in an Ethiopian circus act forced to cancel shows at the Fringe due to visa issues have been granted…
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Seven Charged Over Sexual and Physical Abuse at Katoomba Circus School: Police
Trigger warning: sexual and physical abuse inflicted upon young children. A group of men and women from a Blue Mountains…
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The Western Australian Circus Festival, an Annual Festival Brought to You by Lunar Circus
The Western Australian Circus Festival takes place every year in January in beautiful Karridale, in the famous Margaret River region…
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Sydney Festival 2018 Circus Roundup
The Sydney Festival Circus Program 2018 confirms the leading-edge, world-class nature of Australian Contemporary Circus. The 2018 Sydney Festival, under…
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Does the Bechdel Test Have a Place in Circus?
There is nothing more satisfying than walking out of theatre having been inspired by an amazing circus show. However, a…
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It’s Not for Everyone
Circus, commedia dell’arte and performance art collide in this masterwork from Australian circus company, Acrobat. It’s Not for Everyone, the…
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Circus Oz Starts 2018 Dialing Back the Years (by 40 Years)
Some people start their New Year fighting back tears, drunk-dialling their exes to beg for one more chance. Others declare impossible…
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Circus Oz takes Model Citizens to Parramatta for Sydney Festival
In its 42nd year, Sydney Festival takes place from the 6–28 January 2018, to turn the Australian capital into a…
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How to Make a Circus City
Brisbane’s circus sector is internationally recognised. What conditions led to such creativity and how can its future be secured? From…
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Circus Skills Send a New Message
The art of circus is being used to break down communication barriers for adults and children with intellectual disabilities.
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New Era for Australia’s Circus and Physical Theatre Sector
The Australian Circus and Physical Theatre Association (ACAPTA) has been wound up, with its services transferred to Theatre Network Australia….
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The National Institute of Circus Arts Presents PRECIPICE
This September, Australia’s next generation of circus talents will be on show when the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA)…
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Circus and Autism – Difference, Creativity, Community
Kristy Seymour tells the story of her mission to bring circus to children with autism, and the struggles she has…
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The Australian Circus Influence via Antonella Casella of Circus Oz
Antonella Casella’s influence on Australian circus reads like a fascinating historical primer on this contemporary art form. Whatever company she…
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Circus Oz Presents Model Citizens
Circus Talk has a new contributor! Hamish McCormick will write about Australian circus for us, which is really an extension…
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Conference: Imagineers in Circus and Science: Scientific Knowledge and Creative Imagination
Call for Papers The Humanities Research Centre at the Australian National University presents Imagineers in Circus and Science: Scientific…
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Yaron Lifschitz Says Dark Times Demand Artists’ ‘Fiercely Urgent Work’
Late last year Yaron Lifschitz (above), the CEO of Brisbane’s circus company Circa, made an incendiary speech slamming the major arts companies…
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