Circus Artist Darnell Bolton (Prescott Circus) at AYCO 2017, hosted at Trenton Circus Squad.
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JOURNALISM: Youth at the Center: Defining the Future of American Circus
Published by Circus Talk September 5.2017 The American Youth Circus Organization’s (AYCO) recent bi-yearly festival, hosted by the Trenton Circus Squad, was a celebration of all things possible, as circus dares to do. It was also the site of a burgeoning debate on the future of a long-standing organization, and the limits and potential of growth and development if they were to merge with the organization Circus Now (CN). A community, hopeful yet divided, met with the uniting factor of a deep passion for all things circus, and for the future of our youth and our industry. We are as circus, as Americans, as people, among the most uncertain times. Sustainability of our environment, politics, health, livelihoods, and future are all deeply in question. These issues are held just beneath the surface of our public and private lives. Most of the time. Our collective struggle drives a will to provide a better future for our youth. But, wait… this is CIRCUS! Aren’t we simply talking about circus!? The topic of the merger between the two most significant American circus organizations came to the boardroom table in 2016 as AYCO searched for ways to expand its reach. Beyond its primary mission to promote the participation of youth in circus arts across the United States, it had grown to include work like the ACE Safety Program and a focus on building insurance relationships. These programs set standards and influenced the security of our country’s ongoing teaching environments. In looking to the future, executive director Amy Cohen shared the board’s assessment that it sees three significant opportunities to enhance its field: 1.) to bring circus to schools, 2.) to promote the participation of youth through social circus, bringing more resources to that sector, and 3.) to explore the question of “What’s next?”, providing pathways for youth to continue their circus journey into adulthood. Continue Reading... |
Janine Antoni in collaboration with Anna Halprin, Paper Dance, 2013. April 20, 2016 performance view from Ally, produced in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum. Photographed by Carlos Avendaño. Courtesy of the artists and The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia.
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ARTS REVIEW: Wrapped in the Interstitial: Janine Antoni, Anna Halprin, and Stephen Petronio at the Fabric Worskhop and Museum
Ally Fabric Workshop and Museum April 21 – July 31, 2016 By Sarah Muehlbauer Published by Title Magazine INTERSTICE [in-tur-stis] noun
On view at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, the exhibition Ally features work by collaborators Janine Antoni, Anna Halprin and Stephen Petronio. Facilitated by the process-driven FWM residency, Ally activates the boundaries of form—the interstices—methodically examining the nature of intimacy, of poetry of the body and material. The artists ask: How might the ethereal forces of performance be encountered in the exhibition space where objects have long reigned? It is not simply a question of material but of energetics—looking at form not as a barrier, but as an opportunity to diminish the space between artist and artist, artist and audience, maker and made. Centered on four performative acts complemented by a static exhibition, Ally opens with a micro-examination of the experience of experience, turning viewer into third-hand witnesses. Evidence of the first floor’s Rope Dance is not the dance itself, but a wall-sized projection of Halprin’s face as she watches her audience and the dance. The video loops and a gallery guide speaks a narrative description of the event. Her landscape of expression— attention, surprise, tears, and delight—sets up an anticipatory tone with respect to the absent content. It is an initiation to the question: Is there resonance that carries beyond the moment, some energy that infiltrates the space? Continue Reading... |
 ”Emerging Artists” Valerie Arthur and Sara Greenberg, curated by Emily Hughes photo Ken Dobbs
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FESTIVAL DRAMATURGY: CCAFT V4: Anchored in the past, I commit fully to the present, maintaining a vision of the future we will imagine
By Sarah Muehlbauer CCAFT 2016 Festival Dramaturge Published by Anandam Dancetheatre The Contemporary Circus Arts Festival of Toronto coalesced in year four of its existence, like any social organism, responsive to its environment. 2016 was a year to mine artistic practice guided by an invitation to move deeper into skill and mastery through multi-day intensives. While outwardly it appeared as a contraction—rather, this structure reflected a self-conscious choice by festival producers Leary and Leonard to offer a limited number of classes with greater sensitivity; this was a call to the community to dig deeper roots. Founded by Anandam Dancetheatre’s Brandy Leary and A Girl in the Sky Production’s Rebecca Leonard, CCAFT was designed to cultivate the Toronto circus arts sense of community while addressing accessibility issues in the educational environment. Leonard and Leary came together as pioneering and established artists who had, at their own risk and expense, traveled widely in pursuit of skills and experiences to accomplish a high-achieving performing arts path. Understanding that this investment was not universally possible (or at least, not perceived to be so…) they gathered world class professionals from their networks to bring training home to their local environment. The first three festivals featured 2-3 hour workshops in a variety of disciplines, introducing a wide set of tools students might use as future creators. Initial years emphasized a sense of grounding in the mechanics of healthy movement as well as rigging, prioritizing responsibility and ensuring the protective environment necessary for growth. In the years since CCAFT’s launch, the Toronto circus community has grown continually and recognized (...) Continue Reading |
Wish for Spirit
2013-14
A short visual poetry book representing the quest for the spiritual through everyday object and ritual. Print and PDF copies available upon request.
2013-14
A short visual poetry book representing the quest for the spiritual through everyday object and ritual. Print and PDF copies available upon request.
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MORE
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Where Fairy Tale Meets New Circus: Eat Sweet Feet by Le Radiant // Circus Talk
We aspire to represent the beauty and grace of extraordinary skills, but also the imperfections born of ordinary people, who resemble very much the spectator. — Krin Haglund, Le Radiant The newest creation Eat Sweet Feet, by the company Le Radiant (The Radiant), Montreal-based originators of The Rendez-Vous and Cirque PROM, tackles issues of childhood and identity through the integration of theatrical creation methods and contemporary circus arts. The show debuted January 19-21, 2017 at Maison de la Culture Mercier following the company’s creation residence and will begin touring Fall 2017 as part of the Montreal Arts Council‘s and TOHU Cité des arts du cirque “Springboard” touring program. Eat Sweet Feet is the company’s first narrative circus and first collaborative creation with a theatrical dramaturge, Sarah Elkashef. Incorporating strong feminine perspectives and an identification with the outsider, its unique presence is testament to the opportunity and challenge of creating interdisciplinary work with maturity and depth. Continue Reading... Anandam Dancetheatre: Evolving Audience and Expectation // LION OR FOX
What are the boundaries of “circus”? Is it defined by its apparatus, its history, a set of forms? Do we accept and demand a certain type of virtuosity or overarching structure? Can circus appreciate small moments on par with spectacle? Could it be framed as an outlook… a mission to transcend human limits? Anandam Dancetheatre, Toronto’s cutting-edge collective entity under the direction of choreographer Brandy Leary puts the term “circus” to task, creating work that occupies disciplinary grey spaces. Rightfully so, with grace and force the company draws from a deep well of eastern philosophy and movement, earned through Leary’s significant intercontinental immersion in Indian culture. The company’s aerial rope-infused theater resists traditional classification, often assembling large ensembles and a minimalist aesthetic that connects ground and air, while experimenting with technology, light, and sound; site-specificity; and alternative audience engagement. To understand the heart of this work one has only to look to its linguistic roots. “Anandam” is Sanskrit for “liminal bliss,” but more accurately this is a space prior to awareness, as Leary describes, “Before the brain makes any kind of rational or concrete judgment.” Operating out of Collective Space... Continue Reading Relay Rewind: A Look at the Process of the CCAFT Creation Relay // Anandam Dancetheatre (2015)
If you’d like to meet us here, you can start by walking backward. On the third day of CCAFT’s Creation Relay, ten artists and two facilitators met at Equinox, the twice-yearly perfect balance of light and dark hours. This alignment highlights the abundance that comes from solar energy along with the anticipation of release. This was the harvest, and the peak of one very densely considered week of artistic creation. We began the morning walking backward on the West Toronto Rail Path, retrograding our practice of forward locomotion. As a group, we felt a fresh acknowledgement of the territories we de-prioritize. As we flocked together, we found a way to follow the path. I feel hesitant to choose labels for what unfolded here at Collective Space, but I’ll do my best with words to relay a living picture of the “Creation Relay”, an experimental incubator program led by Brandy Leary and Manu Cyr. While circus is a central unifier and common language, we were asked to look directly at it and to explore the periphery of its form. But where are the boundaries? It feels entirely appropriate that our days began with a collective circle and an act of giving—to ourselves and to each other in performance practices based in ritual and community. We started on a material level—addressing the body as flesh, fat, and fluid, spirit and psyche. We adopted shamanistic practices to equally question and cull them into existence. We worked to heal ourselves and each other. Through aggregate shaking, rubbing, sharing, stretching, treating the body as sacred, Brandy Leary led us through the subtle body toward the big picture: our impact on energetic, material, and social levels. Continue Reading... |
Peñasco Theatre Residency: Cultivating Creative Space for Circus Artists in the States // Circus Now
As circus artists in the States, many of us struggle to reconcile our soaring visions with perceived limitations to our options and resources. These constraints are more or less tolerable depending upon our levels of ambition, desired lifestyle, means of employment, and the social and economic obligations that shape our relationships. One of the gaping holes in our current performance art landscape is arts-funding. For the circus artist, this challenge is exacerbated by the need for a specialized space and sufficient time to create work with the high level of training that circus inherently demands. Not an easy combination. Enter The Five Obstructions. If you haven’t had the benefit of an art-school education or have not yet jumped off the deep-end of self-production, I highly recommend you take a look at this collaborative documentary on creative process by filmmakers Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth – a masterful exploration of the generative possibilities of working within constraint. Von Trier sets Leth an artistic task: to remake Leth’s 1967 cinematic gem “The Perfect Human,” constrained by a series of obstacles posed by Von Trier. It’s a fascinating and inspiring example of what happens when you strip away expectation in favor of conceptual and material challenges—and the rich creativity that results. Exert enough atmospheric pressure on carbon and it becomes a diamond. I have come to realize that plasticity is the essential skill of the American artist and producer; what I honor so much about US practitioners is their ability to address ongoing challenges and make work in the best and the worst of times. Nonetheless, recognizing the need for flexibility in our creativity is just one part of the equation. It is equally important to know what resources are available to support artistic development. Those who provide infrastructure to facilitate the broader growth of artists and industry have taken up a noble cause, one that requires risk and a belief that this growth is possible. Enter the scene in New Mexico. If you find yourself at a crossroads, between sticking to familiar territory (venues, audiences, routines) or creating ambitious, original work, whether solo or with a group, you might consider taking an artful spirit quest to the mountainous desert of Peñasco, NM. There you will find a small collective of committed visionaries who provide a structure within which your creativity can take shape. Continue Reading... ADDITIONAL
CCAFT 2015: This is a participatory experience // Anandam Dancetheatre Read article Cinars Biennial Provides Global Connection for Performance Arts Industry // Circus Talk Read article Krin Haglund: One Woman, Many Talents // Circus Now Read article Material Concept in Circus Arts // En Piste Read article Where Art Belongs // Fluxspace (collective publication) |
