"It automatically places people in this space of physicality that builds trust." Vulcana Circus on elevating the voices of those less heard
Vulcana Circus holds a well-deserved crown as Brisbane’s most innovative feminist arts collective. Creating works of authenticity centred on the experiences of women, trans- and non-binary people since the mid-nineties, the Vulcana ethos is that of empowerment and emancipation, encapsulated in their tagline, ‘Home of the Brave, Daring and Strong’.
Michelle Grant-Iramu and Vulcana ensemble performers. This image + cover image: Nadia Jade
Their next production, Circus In A Tea Cup, sees an ensemble of fifteen performers on stage, of whom one third have come from the Vulcana ensemble and two-thirds are women who have come through to the project via a long term relationship with Micah Projects and the Brisbane Domestic Violence Centre (BVDS).
In this interview, Nadia Jade talks to co-directors and facilitators Celia White (Vulcana Circus’ Artistic Director) and Michelle Grant-Iramu about the process of enabling and empowering a large ensemble of a recently acquainted cohort, the imperative for access to art-making for people with experiences of trauma, truth-telling with a view to elevate the ordinary and making it extraordinary, and how circus is a perfect vessel for transformative art-making.
Tell us about the process of creating a work like this?
Michelle: These types of community engagement projects do have a number of stages to them. The first stage is very much about community building. We need to create a space for people to start to get to know each other and build trust amongst each other, before we start to investigate and build ideas to make a show together. And one of the great things about circus is that to be able to learn and do circus skills, it automatically places people in this space of physicality that builds trust. Like through acrobalance for example, or the beautiful flocking movement work that Celia leads people through. There’s this lovely experience of having to pick up on the movements of others in connection to you. Getting people stepping into your space and building balances on each other and you’re trusting each other and you’re going through that process together. Also, introducing aerials is often a way of challenging people, and challenging women to experience the strength of themselves, and take them out of their comfort zone. Getting to feel achievement, in achieving something that they maybe never thought that they would before. So those things are very important parts of that first stage of the workshop process.
Once we’ve gone through that process, you really feel a coming together of the group, and that’s when you really start to explore these shared ideas and shared experiences and an exploration of those through movement.
Celia: The thing to add about this particular cohort is that there is a really significant trust deficit, because of the lack of trust that has been their recent experience, or even a long time ago experience. It has been stated the kind-of thankfulness of regaining the trust in themselves, and in other people, and that’s a significant part of this project, and other projects with people who have been subjected to trauma.
Vulcana ensemble in a creative devising session. Image: Nadia Jade
What’s it like to mix this group of women who have come through from BVDS and this group of women from Vulcana?
Celia: It’s been extremely respectful. And we have never asked the group from Vulcana about what their experience is. We have never interrogated anybody about what their experience is. It’s been up to each woman to disclose whatever they are capable or interested in disclosing. There is an unspoken understanding between the group. There’s a shared understanding of the imperative for action around this particular issue. And there’s a shared kind of perspective on power structures and things that don’t need to be stated, but implicitly, and in shared conversations, that the group has been able to demonstrate to each other that they are on the same page. As opposed to implicitly asking questions about that.
It's an organically interconnected group. And I think that there is a shared understanding of the power structures at play that lead women to become victims and survivors of domestic abuse. So there has been space for the women who are survivors to actually select the language that they use to describe their experience. So we’ve been led by that language. There is a respectful understanding that a number of women in the group that domestic abuse has been part of their lived experience, but there’s also an understanding of the shared and collective experience of being a woman, as well. Which has really come through in the group. So its not like there is a disparate experience, there is really a collective element to it as well. A shared space as women.
There is an understanding that some of the Vulcana women have developed experience in physical skills, but that they have used that experience to support women who are learning those skills for the first time. And that’s been a lovely part of that cohesion as well.
What is like to work with performers who have limited or no experience?
Celia: It’s a joy and a challenge. Sometimes it seems somewhat wild that in the one project we are trying to get circus skills up, and then present something that is circus skills. Which is why I focus on movement. What is circus really? Circus is kind of a codified set of movements that are mostly connected to other objects, whether they are other bodies, or actual objects. So where can we find the strength in the limited amounts of skill that someone can gain in certain amount of time, that conveys strength and control over your space, and success, in the strongest way possible.
So we do frame it as circus, there are circus elements, but the critical language is movement. That brings everything together. And without that and the idea of performance we wouldn’t have a show. But I think that about anybody’s circus. But what the training in circus does, which is also the training in movement, is that it gives people confidence to stand on stage and tell their stories. In the context of the ensemble. And so that is the point of doing it. To give them the confidence to trust themselves, trust each other and stand on stage.
Michelle: So learning the circus skills is critical to the first stage of the project, in terms of what we were talking about before, building trust, trust in oneself, and trusting in others that you are working with. Rather than building a repertoire of circus skills to place in the show. It’s more fundamental in that first stage. But then we (as facilitators) can see the types of movement qualities that people lend themselves to naturally, so that we can try to draw on the things that each of those performers find affinity to be able to give them a platform to be able to feel success within the performance. The value of having Vulcana women who have different levels of experience in circus means that these small movements that can be evoked in some of the performers who are new to it, can be amplified through more experienced performers in that space. So again, those performances support and enhance each other, rather than seeing any disparities. That’s the goal.
Celia: We also understand that an audience that comes to see something called Circus In A Tea Cup expect to see circus. And people come with a very specific idea… The more circus that there is out there, the more that people can see circus, the more expectation there is about what they are going to see on stage. So we don’t want to put that burden of responsibility onto people whose knowledge of that artform is very new. So how do we help that to make them feel supported in their exploration of this artform. That’s really important for me.
Michelle: One of the things about circus that I love is the extremeness of it. It takes the everyday to an extreme space that you can then play around with the absurdity, or any emotional element that you are looking to perform. You can take it to the extreme, or the ridiculous, or the absurd. For us, when we are working in a domestic setting, then the opportunities to use ordinary everyday furniture… We have a range of ideas and expectations about what a kitchen table is, or what sitting around a table on chairs is. When you take them to aerial spaces or take them to unexpected spaces, then you can play around with the ideas of what those domestic spaces mean. So then having some level of contemporary circus skill that you can lend to that, it informs the narrative to what you are trying to say in the show.
Celia: The other thing that’s been really useful is this collision between what circus does, what we do with circus, that is me, and Michelle, and Vulcana as a whole, is to reframe things as extraordinary. So this is a part of the process of the survivors of domestic abuse reframing their story into something other. So it directly matches the experience these women are going through.
Michelle: And some of the women within the group have articulated that throughout the process, actually seeing it this is like ‘a reframing of my story’, turning it into something else. And that is really powerful part of their journey. I am not wanting to speak for them though.
Celia White in situ. Image: Nadia jade
Why is this work relevant right now?
Michelle: I think this work is always relevant. In fact we did this work in 2005 we did a similar type of work and it was just as pertinent then as it is now. And we were doing a similar type of work back in the 90’s and it was just as pertinent then as it is now. Elevating the voices of people that feel like they are unheard is always important. Yes you could say that domestic violence is in the national zeitgeist at the moment, but just because more people are thinking about it and more people are aware of it doesn’t mean it’s more pertinent.
Celia: It doesn’t mean the structures have changed.
Michelle: Probably what it means is that people are more open to creating theatre space for this conversation to be had, people may be more open to buying a ticket to a show about this because it has infiltrated the popular conversation right now, this year, more than it has in recent years. But it is always pertinent.
Would you like to speak to the similarities or the differences between this project and the one before? As creatives or facilitators or observers?
Celia: The intention is the same. The process is always different. You’ve got different cohort of women, so you’re just in the process making the work as you make it, with the bodies that are in the ensemble. There’s a difference in terms of where this group of women have come from, and the fact that this group of women are able to perform in public. The last group were not, cause they were at a different point in their story of survival, and the level of support that they required or the level of hiding that they were still undergoing. That was an invited audience only.
But other than that the process is its own. Once you start, the process is with the people that you are with and the demands of the project equal who’s in the room. Obviously, we have a show to deliver, and we come with some premises, some of which we hold onto and some that we might shift. You start with some idea of something else there and as soon as you start you are in another project and you start at the beginning.
Michelle: Every time it’s been a while since I have done a process like this, and I used to do them more regularly, but there is this moment where the group comes together and I just go, wow, this is powerful. Every time.
Rehearsals at Vulcana creative hub. Image: Nadia Jade
It’s the connection between the women that happens, there is this level of closeness, and then the way that they support each other in the things that are going on outside in their lives, as a result of them trying to survive this experience, and people at different points of the journey along that. And being able to share that experience with people that are going through it now. The compassion and the empathy and that shared experience and I think the fact that these processes fast track that, and there is always this point you can recognise, you’re like wow. The group has hit that point and that’s quite a marvellous thing.
Is there anything else you would like to share?
Michelle: Yes. It’s so important to see theatre venues actually recognising that this is a powerful experience, and providing a platform for people to share their stories, that aren’t mainstream stories. And not mainstream processes…
There is value in that, and there is also an obligation to use these creative spaces, and theatres, to be able to elevate the voices of those who are less heard. And that people want to hear them. And it doesn’t mean a downing of artforms, lessening of the value of the works, it’s a different type of work that audiences can enjoy. And can name something from.
Circus In A Tea Cup takes place 16-18 December 2021 at the Cremorne Theatre, QPAC.
Celia White is a devisor and director of contemporary circus. Celia is Artistic Director of Vulcana Circus representing women, trans and non-binary gendered people to create new circus work with emerging, professional and new performers, and working in partnership with community groups and organisations. In 2021 with Vulcana she created Over the Back Fence, a bus tour of performances in surprising local spaces across the Morningside area, Seen But Not Her, a performance conversation between women composers, musicians, circus artists and dancer presented at Judith Wright Arts Centre. She also works as an independent artist, creating Nerve, with artist Lauren Watson for the Undercover Artists Festival, as part of Brisbane Festival, at Queensland Theatre Company.
Michelle Grant-Iramu’s background in social work and extensive career in the arts and cultural sector has provided her with a depth of experience in working with diverse communities, the creative development of arts and cultural programs, managing events and organisations aimed at increasing public engagement, securing funding, producing and touring theatre productions, and actively participating in Queensland’s vibrant arts community. Her experiences as an arts leader in an industry that demands collaboration, innovation, agility and enterprise has led her to a career in Higher Education where these capabilities can be fostered through learning and teaching innovations.
