IMPACT | Vulcana
All images including cover image by Jade Ellis
Vulcana’s IMPACT is a community experience both in content and presentation. Set outdoors next to the Brisbane River, the audience sit on picnic blankets and camp chairs, with children and dogs running around while adults share drinks and snacks. From the moment Aunty Dawn Daylight welcomed us to country with her wise words and music, IMPACT felt like a community forum in which each performer could explore their relationship to the ongoing climate crisis. The show is ambitious, but Vulcana’s creative team is able to anchor the experience through recurring themes of land and disaster. Music, dance, poetry, visual art, and of course circus, are presented collaboratively and conversationally to weave together a cohesive performance.
Circus intimidates me. My relationship with the art form has always been casual and sporadic. Coming into this experience I was concerned that I wouldn’t ‘get it’. However, throughout IMPACT I felt able to more greatly appreciate the medium of circus. Vulcana has designed the show to be accessible, through the inclusion of relatable themes, music, and splashes of comedy. The best moments of the show are when all the pieces come together; when performers hang above poets or move in time with the lighting and sound design. As someone who rarely sees circus, I enjoyed the variety of skills on display and was especially impressed by the aerial work. There was one moment in which several performers dropped on aerial silk in time with thunder crashes, creating an impactful scene. IMPACT is set outdoors, with all the rigging and scaffolding required to perform aerial tricks on display. This felt like a peak behind the curtains into how much trust is required by the performers in each other and their equipment. I feel confident in recommending IMPACT to someone new to circus and looking to learn more.
Throughout the show each circus performer was given time to shine and show off their circus skills. This made IMPACT feel like an uplifting showcase of talent. Several of the Vulcana performers also read poetry dealing with themes of climate change, and natural disaster. In one section performers held onto each other closely to create a human mound for poets to take turns standing on to address the audience. This evoked the image of a community soapbox, upon which individuals are lifted to have their voices heard.
Poetry and spoken word are crucial elements in IMPACT. First Nations writers Aurora Liddle-Christie and Che Skeen provide narrative framing through their powerful words. Skeen walked through the performance several times to talk directly with the audience and probe us on our relationship with this land. Art cannot escape its political context; the strong elevation of First Nations voices reminded me of what a crucial time it is for us all to consider how we came to this country and more importantly who was here first.
Given the strong themes of climate change, it felt natural that IMPACT included music from Pasifika group Beauty and the Beats. Our neighbours in Polynesia are directly and devastatingly affected by rising sea levels, and the inclusion of Pasfika voices in our narratives is deeply important. The band played both slow percussion and strings led melodies, and upbeat hip-hop performances. Accompanying the melodic Tahitian and Samoan language singing, Kara Kaisara delivered an impressive dance performance. The movements of Kaisara were led by her hands, with her hips moving in time with the accompanying percussion. This effective pairing of dance and music was one of my highlights of the evening.
The showcasing of such a diversity of voices all affected by the climate crisis is what made IMPACT special. The entire event felt like a community getting together to share stories and find comfort in shared experience. The professional circus performance of Vulcana was enriched through the shared dialogue with music, dance, and poetry.
