It's circus, but not as you know it.
Gravity and Other Myths - an acrobatics and physical theatre company from Adelaide - took in the sights at Floriade ahead of the opening of their show, Backbone, at Canberra Theatre Centre.
While the mention of circus conjures images of a big top filled with apparatuses such as the trapeze to aid the performance, Backbone is somewhat of a raw performance. It is a celebration of human connectedness and strength - both physical and mental - and sees performers use only their bodies to perform gravity-defying theatre.
"Most people we talk to you about circus they expect animals and stuff like that. We just have us," performer Benton Adams-Walker said.
"Our main apparatus is our bodies - which means a lot of body maintenance and taking care of that - but we don't use trapezes or tissues [aerial silks] or the wheel of death or any of those you know, normal things.
"And this is called backbone and to go into that a little bit, we explore the idea of strength and how we can push ourselves and our bodies and each other in different ways, using various different styles of strength."
For Adams-Walker and fellow Gravity and Other Myths performer Annalise Moore and Benton Adams-Walker the performance also is a chance to return home. Both grew up in the capital before training at the National Institute of Circus Arts in Melbourne. Moore also went on to train in Montreal before performing with Cirque De Soleil and Circus Oz.
For Moore, here career in circus started at after-school circus, meanwhile Adams-Walker found that it was a certain type of sibling support that really got him hooked.
"I went to Warehouse Circus here when I was about 13 and fell in love with juggling and then found out I could throw my brother. From there it sort of took off," Adams-Walker said.
Backbone is the third work produced by the circus company, and comes to Canberra following its debut at the Edinburgh International Arts Festival to a stadium audience of 20,000. Their previous work, A Simple Space, achieved huge international success and was performed more than 700 times at 98 festivals and theatres across 29 countries.
"It's a rare treat to experience this kind of jaw-dropping, gravity-defying theatre. Canberrans will love witnessing the extraordinary skill of these world-renowned acrobats," Canberra Theatre Centre director Alex Budd said.
Gravity and Other Myths will be at the Canberra Theatre Centre until Saturday. For tickets go to canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
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