It’s been a busy year for Circus Oz, with the debut of Model Citizens by Rob Tannion in his directorial debut for the company. But what many may not know, is the companies ongoing and ever in motion program that continues sometimes in the shadow of their bigger productions. Not only do they support circus artists through their ever increasing program, but on any given day their expansive home in Collingwood can be a buzz with many different independent artists and companies creating their own work.

As 2017 quickly and at an almost scary pace, reaches its end. There is no sign of slowing down over at Circus Oz, explains Antonella Casella Senior Artistic Associate of the Company, as she spoke with TAGG about the next few months for the company, Taylor Mac and Melbourne Festival alongside many of the companies initiatives including Sidesault.

What is in a name? How did you decide to upon Sidesault as the name of this program?

I guess we have a a history of coming up with name for our programs that have the energy and the fun of the circus but also fit with whatever that program is aiming to do. We already had BLACKflip and Hand2Hand as well but I was looking for a name that basically encompassed the idea of the stuff thats a bit experimental, left of field the stuff which isn’t straight down the line. Circus acrobats and gymnasts know what a sidesault is, but I think its a fairly unknown compared to a, say, a front and back somersault. Sidesault encompasses all the side projects the company is producing, its a commitment not just to our ensemble but to all the artists and companies that are in this space creating there work, and we will always be committed to that, because our work will always be strengthen by supporting others to create interesting work. 

So kicking off the next few months of work here at Circus Oz, what’s going to be the first cab of the rank?

This week we are working with Company Two from Brisbane, they are the company who created Sediment, which won Best Circus Show in Melbourne Fringe last year, as well as ScotchnSoda, Cantina.  One of the things we haven’t seen about that company here in melbourne is that they have a very special interest, and really great skill, on tight wire, so they are collebarting with our company on a what will hopefully become a site specific work with a focus on tight wire – exploring what we can do  physically with three or four tight wire wires placed in interesting spaces. Right now its a testing ground. All the circus artists working on this project all have young children and work a lot with teenagers. So in this creative exploration they are playing with communication and family life, and it will involve their own very young kids as well as some young people from some Melbourne youth circus programs –  so they are working with three generations of circus artists.

And BLAKflip, which is of vital importance, how does this fit into the program?

After that one we have is our BLACKflip program. We have already premiered Chasing Smoke earlier this year, which was a big step forward for the Black Flip program, because although we have created work before this is our first completely new work. It premiered earlier this year at the Yirramboi Festival. So we now have a core group of young Aboriginal and Torris Straight Islander circus artist collaborating together within Circus Oz.

Strong Woman is next, every year we do an intensive, supporting emerging women circus artists to develop their creative voice and circus skills . This is important on so many levels, we still live in a society where the  representation of woman in the mainstream continues to be very limited, and its important to inspire stronger, more diverse images to inspire woman to be what ever they want to be.

And Circus Oz are also involved with Melbourne Festival and in particular a 24 Decade History Of Popular Music, lets discuss this?

Taylor Mac,  is totally about celebrating the diversity of people and cultures, and its a really beautiful approach to use popular culture to give all these voices a public forum. We have been talking about doing a decade, the 1860’s, when suffragettes which came to the fore after the civil war, but we are in Australia so are using it as a more general opportunity to celebrate woman and as a metaphor for woman to be able to choose to be what ever the hell we like. The other song we are doing is a little more complicated it’s Home On The Range, which was originally a song about giving the land to the free slaves, which I didn’t know. We are lucky to have some BLAKFlip artists amongst the Strong Woman artists, so we will be aiming to broaden the idea of land ownership to an Australian context. Taylor Mac and his director are really encouraging about make it relevant for us.

There has been some discussion surrounding the ticket price for this event, with it being “pitched” at being inclusive, how can the $699 dollar ticket price be justified?

When I first heard the ticket price for Taylor Mac’s Decade of Popular Music, after we had agreed to participate, I had the same reaction as you Jessi, how can a work which is primarily about inclusivity be so expensive? Its contradictory. Is it about ‘performing inclusivity’ for the elites? I read your article,  Ben Neutze piece and Ben Eltham’s articles too. The festival’s Artistic Director, Jonathan Holloway, I thought, had a great response. As Ben Neutze says in his piece for The Daily Review, The Festival “says it will be making tickets available for unwaged and disadvantaged people closer to the October event, and is working with Mac on the details of the ticketing.” I think this will make sure that members of the community who have the most to gain will have the chance to see it.

I believe targeted, supported ticketing is a really important way to ensure accessibility to this kind of work, and that it is possibly more effective than ticket prices alone. Circus Oz has a version of this, “A Good Time for All”, at every Melbourne season, and it has been hugely successful in getting people to our shows, who otherwise just would not have the chance. And I think given the strong community connections The Festival is making as it works with all the groups performing in 24 Decades of Popular Music, I believe they are in a great position to target the right groups for subsidised tickets. 

But its an important question. There are many tensions around budgeting for a festival, and getting the balance between being able to resource a significant program of several stunning works of scale, while ensuring a festival’s accessibility, is one of those tensions. How much of the cost should be passed on to audiences? How much of the cost can be carried by the Festival? The emphasis on measuring the success of major subsidised arts events through box office income is perhaps another issue to consider?

And following on from Melbourne festival?

We then go into our new educations show Stacks On!, which is inspired by the respectful relationships focus that is coming into schools now. The curriculum around that was inspired by the recent advocacy for education in the area of domestic violence, and that has now evolved to a another level where in schools they are being taught more about respecting difference and non violent forms communication. Circus slips into there perfectly, especially the way Circus Oz does circus, because we are already a celebration of diversity. Stacks On! will then turn into a larger shower that will tour to remote places, which is another important part of our work. 

Possibly the most exciting development to take place here at Circus Oz is Sidesault, what will this encompass? 

So this is a new festival which we are starting, its a small niche festival with four to six shows, again its about the Sidesault ethos its about programming shows that are experimental edgy. Challenging in the way that they use the art form or the content they are exploring and we are very excited about that. Its building on an our overall use of the Spiegel Tent as a venue for independent work, but focusing specifically this time on experimental  circus and its something that is really needed.

In many ways, Circus as an art form is still struggling, or perhaps very emergent, in that  experimental place, because its so accessible and there is always going to be work that is going to draw a broad audience, stuff that is fun to watch, skilful, polished, honed. A lot of festivals have a very strong focus on that more accessible work. This festival is about opening up more of a space for circus where the risk is not just in the acrobatics, but in the approach to making the work itself. 

Do you feel this issue is responsible on the part of the audience, or do you see it as being an endemic issue to the arts industry?

The struggle is not so much with the audiences, but with how circus is positioned, I think, in the broader context of programming within festivals and seasons . I believe circus has almost become too successful as being programmed as the popular fun part of the festival, the colour and movement and the shows that attracts the broadest possible audience, which is really important, of course. But I think this means circus is not being programming in the way that an experimental theatre piece or a dance work might be programmed. 

This seems a perfect segue to talk about Circus Oz’s last work of the year, which does blur the lines even further, we are of course talking about the collaboration with Otto Astrid

The synergy is like a match made in heaven, well a match made in Otto and Astrid heaven, what ever looks like, definitely Marriage Equality is in that heaven, its just been a perfect alignment, actually that sounds so boring – the word alignment I mean– its been a perfect connection. Otto and Astrid have this crazy back story that they have been alluding to for years in their shows, did their parents die getting eaten alive by a lion or did the die in a tragic train crash? Our artistic director Rob Tanion’s background is in directing and choreographing musicals, theatre and circus so thats a perfect combination for him too bring to the project too. And yeah, it does blur the boundaries, on one level, its a really fun rock’n’roll night out, yet at the same time, its a completely original concept, a mockumentary/rock opera/biography/circus show, why not! 

For more information on this exciting chain of events or the company for that matter, click here