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Circus, dance, and all things movement
Absolutely FEMMEulous - 2021
Videography: Jeska Stephens
Absolutely FEMMEulous - 2021
Videography: Jeska Stephens
Absolutely FEMMEulous - 2021
Videography: Jeska Stephens
Absolutely FEMMEulous - 2021
Videography: Jeska Stephens
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CIRCUS
Having grown up climbing trees, doing gymnastics and dancing on and off through school, these days you'll most often find me training in the gym, at Circus Nexus, Gravity Dolls or Women*s Circus. I have been training in circus since 2017 and have greatly enjoyed trying my hand at a variety of skills, from German wheel to juggling, to stilts, to partner acrobatics. At the moment my focus is on tumbling and aerials. Static trapeze and dance trapeze are my specialities, but I also enjoy lyra and aerial cube.
Women*s Circus has been such an important part of my growth as an artist; it is a safe, friendly, queer space open to anyone who belongs to a marginalised gender. It's a space where I have felt creatively and physically challenged, had many chances to collaborate with others, and had a number of opportunities to perform. I have greatly valued being able to give back to the Women*s
as a volunteer at the Midsumma stall for three years, as an assistant at our workshops for the Asylum Seeker Resource
Circus community
Centre, and behind
the scenes of the Women*s Circus 2019 show, The Drill, where I lent a hand building sets, bumping in and bumping out.
In February of 2020, my theatre-partner Nicola Dobinson and I put our circus skills to use, staging a comedy circus show, How To Be A Good Person. Nicola and I started at Women*s Circus together and greatly enjoy practicing acrobatics as a duo, Nicola as the flyer and myself as the base. Having produced four shows through our theatre company, Shakespearean Jeans, we were keen to try something different. This desire, combined with overwhelming amounts of existential angst and dread in the face of the current state of the world, lead to the creation of this show. How To Be A Good Person was staged at The MC Showroom and was generously supported by the UMSU (University of Melbourne Student Union) Creative Arts Department as well as the Hand2Hand Incentive by Circus Trick Tease. We were also fortunate enough to receive mentorship from one of our first ever acrobatics trainers, the wonderful Sal Frances, in the creation of the show.
During the various Melbourne lockdowns of 2020, I was very thankful to have been able to keep up my training in an online format, taking strength and conditioning classes 3-4 times a week with Women's Circus, The Circus Spot and NICA (National Institute of Circus Arts). I also amused myself by participating in UMSU Creative Arts Department's At Home Arts Festival, in which my entry, Social Isolation Circus, won a Couch PotARTo Award.
In 2021 I was one of the artists involved in Women*s Circus' show Absolutely FEMMEulous. I was lucky enough to have the brilliant Mahla Bird (aka Themme Fatale) as a mentor as I developed an act on the static trapeze. The entire show has now been made freely available to watch online, including my act Something's Got To Give. At the end of 2022 I performed in my first live Women*s Circus show, Life As We Want it directed by Kate Fryer with Assistant Director Sal Frances. This was a cabaret show featuring a number of different artists. I had the opportunity to do some acrobalance in an ensemble, as well as some slapstick, leading up to my act which featured as the finale, wherein I combined dance trapeze and roller skates. A recording of my act, Go Out With A Bang, is available to view on YouTube.
Across February and March of 2023, I spent my nights working at the Adelaide Fringe Festival and absorbing as much circus, cabaret, comedy, drag, theatre and burlesque as I could. During the days I trained with Spin Circus as a student in the Spin Course. The course allows students to focus on two specialties, I picked handstands and act creation. Each afternoon we would come together to work on a different discipline as a group, be that tumbling and flex, devising for group performance, movement (tumbling sequences / flow), handstand strength and conditioning. This course was an invaluable experience; it was wonderful to have the opportunity to work with other artists from all around the world and learn from some incredibly talented and creative circus coaches. I am excited to be returning to the course in 2024, especially given how much fun I had in January volunteering for and training at Spinfest, one of the company's other offerings.
Photography by Zoe Seale.
Left: Nicola Dobinson, Right: Lucy Seale
Photography by Jessica Connell
In December of 2023 I performed in Pride and Possibilities, my second Women*s Circus Cabaret. My act Electric Love combined tumbling (floor acrobatics) with roller skating. I had great fun developing and performing this piece. It was such a joy to get to tell this story - truly a tale as old as time; an unrequited love story between a mosquito and a bug zapper.
Photography by Yvonne Meng
SKATING
Since the age of six I have been inline skating and am largely self-taught. While at university I also trained regularly with MUISC (Melbourne University Inline Skating Club) where I gained a lot of new knowledge and skills, and just as many new friends. In 2021 I worked at a pop up ice rink behind Federation Square, and had a blast, skating around all day and teaching kids (and adults) of all different levels of experience. More recently I have been teaching myself quad skating, and slowly but surely making progress with freeskating, which I have to say is perhaps one of the hardest skills I've ever tried to master.
To check out more of my skating, you can watch a training montage video I made for UMSU Creative Arts Department's At Home Arts Festival.
DANCE
I always enjoyed taking dance classes during high school school. Then at university I took some dance subjects at the VCA (Victorian college of the Arts) and fell in love with contemporary dance. These days I also enjoy taking class with BalletRADICAL. In 2020 I was fortunate enough to receive funding from the University of Melbourne Theatre Board to complete a creative development period with Sydney Dance Company in their Virtual Studio. It was a very rewarding opportunity in which I explored quite a few of the 45+ dance classes the company has on offer each week, for example: contemporary, jazz, hip hop, ballet, lyrical, stretch, strength and conditioning, etc. I took an average of nine classes a week. I am excited to have gained new skills and different approaches to working physically, which I hope to apply to my future creative practice.
OTHER MOVEMENT ADVENTURES
I am someone who loves to explore almost any movement discipline. I especially enjoy learning to combine a language of physicality into my theatre and comedy practices. In the past I've enjoyed taking workshops in stage combat, physical comedy and clowning, and in particular a physical theatre workshop with one of my favourite companies, Frantic Assembly. Read more about my training and workshop experience here.
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