Being born is like being pushed off a building that is so high, you can't see the bottom - but people whisper 'certain death.' Like being one of those goslings - in the David Attenbrough thing - except we won't learn to fly. Freefall is a high. It grips you tight, red-wristed in present tense, lets you feel nothing but sensation. Allows you to forget, at first, about the end. Falling is breath - taking, but you kind of get used to it. I fell into being - an accident born haphazard and screaming I keep falling through the net of years. On the way down (or up depending on your position) I grab on to things - people, ideas, a nice leather jacket, in the hope they'll slow me down. Though I know the extra weight, will betray me, I drag them with me for a while. I train my grip and can hold on really tight. And I hit things too, sometimes, people, ideas, holes. some cling, some don't. I joined the circus to learn to defy gravity but instead it taught me how to use it, fall better, and not to look down. And we're all falling together, different speeds, different heights, in every direction scared. Avoiding any jagged edges that - may break our fall too early, hurling rocks at each other to clear our own paths, or just to kill time. The seconds rush past ruffling our hair. And mostly when I pass others I smile (or else am told to cheer up), pretend I am not scared, make a joke about something sad, talk about the weather, make my excuses and slip away.

BOAT SHOW

Anchored firmly in the water-way/side community spirit – our circus boat takes us on journeys along the canals and rivers, originally in France where we started out on the Canal du Midi and then throughout London.

 

This is a space where Collectif and then… get to be who they want to be and say what they want to say. To work in and with the communities they move through to build beautiful, chaotic, improvised performances – a place we can celebrate being the dirty, messy, rusty things that we are!

 

With an aerial rig custom built by Joppe from Circus Marcel we can take to both water and air and everything in between (well I guess that just leaves land…). We are indebted to Roelofje aka The Vital Spark aka The Circus Boat (why settle on one name!) for much joy – she is a constant reminder of why we do what we do and a source of much love.