Canberra Circus Festival – Warehouse Circus at The Big Top, Lions Youth Haven, Kambah Pool Road, Kambah, Canberra April 19-23, 2022.
Commentary by Frank McKone
Galoshes
were definitely needed for the sploshes as the rain fell faster than a
Warehouse youth performer unravelling down from the high point of an
artistic three-dimensional ‘dance’, twisted in two strands of beautiful
hung material which looked hardly likely to support her weight. Then it
supported two of them at once in a thrilling suspended daring duet!
Fortunately
the Big Top didn’t drip on the audience, but I was worried about the
electrics when the ground began to flood. Would I ever get my car out
of the parking paddock? Would I ever get home on the terrifying drive
on the Tuggeranong Parkway?
Like my language, circus always has
an exaggeration about it, demonstrated admirably by the acts and the
audience responses throughout the launch – almost literally – of the
brand new Canberra Circus Festival, titled appropriately “The Great Big
Circus Gala(h)” opening night. For our overseas readers, galahs are
wondrously silly large pink-and-grey parrots who entertain us throughout
our Bush Capital, in cahoots with other crowds of sulphur-crested
brilliantly white cockatoos. This is the seat of Australian government,
you should know – where the air is full of noise and flapping about,
not necessarily signifying much, but fun to laugh at.
Nothing
could dampen the enthusiasm of this circus crowd, from littlies to
ancients like me, especially after the concert master with an enormously
unlikely extending baton, trained us in the subtleties of clapping and
cheering from the soft and thoughtful to letting go of all inhibition.
The
Canberra Circus 5-day Festival is a sort of culmination of the thirty
years’ development of Warehouse Circus since 1990 – the last two
pandemic years shouldn’t be counted. Except that the pressure of
holding things down in lockdowns has built the energy for this new
explosion.
The acts showcased performers from young barely
teenagers training with Warehouse through to professionals from other
visiting companies, making the point about how their skills keep
developing even as they reach what I call middle-age, which the young
think is old. Personal development through circus arts is what
Warehouse Circus was always all about: one strand of arts education.
It
was excellent to hear, as the Australian Capital Territory’s Minister
for the Arts’ senior adviser Michael Liu emphasised the commitment from
Tara Cheyne (who was unable to attend personally) to continuing support
for the arts, and in particular the financial investment in Warehouse
Circus which – with many other sponsorships and practical help from
community and business organisations, such as the Lions Club – means
that the Canberra Circus Festival will add to the many arts-based events
in the Canberra calendar.
Go to https://warehousecircus.org.au/ to book tickets:
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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