Chasing Smoke Brings First Nations Experiences into the Circus Ring - CircusTalk

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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 and acrobatics,” Casus Circus co-founder and Chasing Smoke director Natano Fa’anana tells The Adelaide Review. “You’ve got the wow factor, but more importantly it delves into the personal stories of the five individuals onstage who are all young Indigenous people in a very modern context. They discuss what it’s like to be Aboriginal in this day and age.”

A veteran performer and co-founder of Fringe favourite Briefs alongside his brother (and Fringe Ambassador) Fez, Fa’anana encountered the performers that make up Chasing Smoke while serving as guest director of Circus Oz’s BLAKflip program.

“It’s a sort of gateway program of masterclasses where First Nations people from around Australia can come in and get a taste for circus, train up for a couple of weeks a year [and] from there they can determine whether they want to go on and see this as a career.

“Only one has trained in circus predominantly, and he’s been training since he was nine,” he says of Waka Waka man Harley Mann, who is now a celebrated emerging circus performer in his own right. The rest of the ensemble includes dancers, actors and ex-gymnasts, with whom Fa’anana has worked to find ways to bring their skills and stories to the fore…

Read the Full Article at The Adelaide Review

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