Circus Oz Announces Inaugural Sidesault at The Melba Festival

In the ongoing pursuit to challenge, push and develop contemporary circus artists and the art form, Circus Oz is delighted to announce the inaugural Sidesault at The Melba festival in Collingwood over two weeks this November.

Generously supported by the City of Yarra, Sidesault at The Melba will feature five emerging and established circus companies presenting new works ranging from breathtaking physical stunts to outstanding circus poetry, with styles and approaches that span political satire, to feminism and the roles of women across life stages, to provocative sideshow.

The support of Sidesault at The Melba provides circus artists with an amazing, intimate and beautiful space to share their new ideas and explorations to a wider audience.
Circus Oz Senior Artistic Associate, Antonella Casella, has co-curated Sidesault at The Melba with Melba Spiegeltent Producer, Halley-Jean Buckram, and explained that circus is an art form that is continually reinvented by new generations and different artistic collaborations.

"In many different ways all the shows in this festival are focused on the 'circus body' and placing it in a new context - whether that be the female body across a lifetime, the body as a site of destruction and pain, the body as something ridiculous or the body as a site of explosive power and human celebration," said Casella.

8 - 18 Nov 2017 Circus Oz Sidesault at The Melba
8 - 11 Nov 2017 at 6.30pm Casting Off - A GOOD CATCH
8 - 11 Nov 2017 at 8.15pm Unsuitable - Tumble Circus1
5 - 18 Nov 2017 at 6.30pm Nonstop - Time in Space
15 - 18 Nov 2017 at 8.15pm Party Ghost - Poached Eggs & Asparagus
15 - 18 Nov 2017 at 9.45pm Relax: Everything's Fucked - The Syndicate Group
Venue The Melba Spiegeltent
Location 35 Johnston Street, Collingwood
Tickets $27 - $23 + booking fee (Festival passes available)
Bookings: trybooking.com

Casting Off - A GOOD CATCH (Australia)
Ensemble: Deb Batton, Sharon Gruenert and Spenser Inwood
kNit is 29, Pearl is 40 and Slip is over 50 but under 60. Biologically, socially and psychologically their needs and concerns differ. Casting off stereotypes these acrobats devise without a leader, leap from heights, tumble around corners and catch-up with each other in precarious positions while celebrating the accumulated moments.

Unsuitable - Tumble Circus (Ireland and Australia)
Ensemble: Tina Segner, Ken Fanning and Angelique Ross
Unsuitable is a circus comedy with confused jugglers, dangerous aerialists, dispirited clowns and broken acrobats. It's about displaced and marginalised people trapped in a world of pain.

Nonstop - Time in Space (Australia)
Ensemble: Dylan Phillips, Hamish McCourty, Lisa Goldsworthy, Mark Longo and Josh Croall
Nonstop draws audiences into the limits and possibilities of the human body both physically and mentally. The music influences the way the acrobats move, think and feel. Nonstop brings a fresh approach to circus that combines tricks, dance, group acrobatics and juggling into an experimental circus show.

Party Ghost - Poached Eggs & Asparagus (Australia)
Ensemble: Jarred Dewey and Olivia Porter
Do we celebrate our 'death day' in the afterlife as we do our birthday in the land of the living? A ghoulish exploration of the post-mortem mystery through an absurd pop-cultural lens, Party Ghost is part circus and part séance - it's a macabre suite of the grindhouse kind. Created from the limbs of drag queens, the blood of acrobats and the guts of misunderstood clowns, Party Ghost is a wacky Frankenstein monster of a show.

Relax: Everything's Fucked - The Syndicate Group (Australia)
Ensemble: Captain Ruin, Samora Squid and Elle Diablo
Watch in awe as these punk rock daredevils go bigger, better and weirder than ever as they challenge the boundaries of decency and common sense with spectacular sideshow stunts, electrifying burlesque, incredible escapes and whip sharp political satire. Brimming with ideas, wit and anarchistic energy, Relax: Everything's Fucked is a carnival cult-hit that pushes boundaries, tantalises senses and subverts expectations.
(Recommended for 16 years+)

Circus Oz
Credited with revitalising a traditional artform in a uniquely Australian way, Circus Oz is a rock 'n' roll, animal-free circus that has influenced the development of circus arts around the world since its foundation in 1978. Circus Oz undertook its first and critically praised international tour in 1980 and has continued touring to over 100 cities and regions in 28 countries - playing to over 4 million people.

Learn more at circusoz.com.

Photo credit: Rob Blackburn

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