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Circus: Arts, Life, and Sciences

Joe Culpepper and Mélanie Stuckey
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Circus: Arts, Life and Sciences is a non-profit, peer-reviewed, open-access journal that disseminates cutting-edge research and promotes diverse practices in the circus arts across disciplinary boundaries.

Circus: Arts, Life and Sciences est une revue à comité de lecture publiée en open access et sans but lucratif; son projet consiste à diffuser les recherches de pointe en arts du cirque et à promouvoir un large éventail de pratiques dans un esprit interdisciplinaire.

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Published: 2022
Publisher: Michigan Publishing

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Pre-show Notes: The following video takes place in a circus studio in Katarokwi/Kingston, Ontario called Kingston Circus Arts. The studio is an open space with various apparatuses suspended from the ceiling. The video is a series of clips from a workshop weekend focused on aerial dance and people who identified with Disability. All of the participants are white. We are working to change that and recognize that a lot of racism can be experienced by racialized people who openly identify with Disability and many other reasons that people might not feel safe. Aerial dance involves using rock climbing gear like harnesses, ropes, and sometimes a wall. There is an apparatus that is called a coat hanger that is like an upside down horse shoe that can change heights. It is held in participants hands, or people are attached to it via a harness or via their wheelchairs. The attachment points are on the sides of the hips if using a harness or the sides of the wheelchair. It allows for forward and backward rotation, swinging, and spinning. There is also a rope that is suspended from a beam on the ceiling that is attached to participants via a harness. Participants can then interact with the wall and height. There is also a rope in the centre of the room that can be attached to a harness which participants use in or out of wheelchairs. The video is twenty minutes long and has English captions. (start of video) Disability and Aerial Dance Intensive The three day exploration at Kingston Circus Arts was open to anyone identifying as Mad/Deaf/Neurodivergent/Disabled. Erin, a double below knee amputee is ten feet off the ground, suspended in mid-air and pushes off the wall with two prosthetic feet to rotate away from the wall and back around, like a cartwheel on the ground. Chelsea, a participant who identifies as neurodivergent and chronically ill, uses the side of the wall to perform an aerial cartwheel movement in a harness on the wall, like a cartwheel on the ground but horizontally, with hands and feet connecting to the wall. Brett, a quad and manual wheelchair user, is wearing a harness on a mat on the ground, not in his wheelchair, attached to a curved bar, like a horseshoe, by a rope and hardware on either hip. With consent, one of the aerial dance instructors pulls a rope and lifts Brett into the air. Annie, a single below knee amputee, wears a harness and explores pushing off the wall with her hands and feet (including prosthetic foot). She hovers four feet above the ground. Drew, a quad and power wheelchair user, is sitting in a manual wheelchair that has been attached to the horseshoe-like bar. Mélissa pulls the rope and lifts Drew into the air. The bottom of the chair is four feet above the ground. An assistant and aerial instructor, Brandy, offers Drew a slow spin in the air. A manual wheelchair user, Brennan, is attached, including their wheelchair, to the horseshoe-like apparatus. The wheels mostly stay connected to the ground. Mélissa and Brennan improvise together: Brennan moves their chair across the floor and Mélissa pulls on the rope, lifting part of the wheels off of the ground, sometimes tilting and spinning Brennan. Twice, Brennan and their chair are completely suspended. Chelsea wears a harness and is attached to a rope that hangs from above in the centre of the room. She explores spinning and various shapes like wide legs and bending backwards. When she lifts herself off of the ground, she is four feet up. Attached to a rope, Annie wears a harness. She spirals around, suspended four feet in the air. Brett is suspended five feet in the air, attached by a harness to the horseshoe, Mélissa and Brett explore rotating backwards and forwards while Brett holds his legs into his chest. In the centre of the room, Brennan is attached by a harness to a rope and is attached to their wheelchair. Brennan stays connected to the ground and explore arching backwards, moving around the space, tilting sideways and spiralling around. Erin wears no prosthetic legs and the video is sped up while spinning around and around attached to the rope in the centre of the room. The video continues with Erin wearing prosthetics legs, spinning slower, pushing off of the ground with hands. Brett swings in the air in his harness, attached to the horseshoe. Mélissa pushes. Cut to Drew spinning around in the air in a transfer sling that he uses to transfer in and out of his wheelchair, as the manual chair is placed underneath him. Several people assist with the transfer, all done in collaboration and discussion with Drew. In the manual chair, three feet above the ground, Drew swings. In this scene, attached to the rope, Brennan spins around in their chair. They hold the rope with both hands and lean back, head touching the ground, wheels off the ground as the chair in horizontal. Some spins are fast and wild, some are slower and more graceful. Four feet in the air, Brett spins around attached to the horseshoe, out of his wheelchair, holding his legs to his chest as Mélissa pulls the rope and lifts him higher. The spinning stops and Brett is lowered so that he can release his legs and his feet touch the ground. Using her foot, wearing no prosthetic leg, Annie pushes off the wall, wearing a harness attached to a rope four feet in the air. Drew is suspended in his manual chair by the horseshoe and Annie and Brennan are on either side of him, holding the ropes that suspend the chair in the air. They explore pushing and pulling, as Drew is rocked sideways. Upside down about a story high, wearing no prosthetic legs, Erin pushes off the wall, swinging, and eventually presses so much that a full turn, like a weightless and free ballerina spin, is completed in the air, landing back on the wall with hands. Annie and Erin are on either side of Drew and his chair. Annie stands and Erin kneels without prosthetic legs. Erin hangs by hands only and proceeds to attempt to spin by pressing off the ground with a hand. Erin and Drew create a spinning duet with Erin completely suspended. Participants are on either side of Drew. Erin climbs up above Drew, supported by the participants, eventually kneeling on Drew’s shoulders. The chair hovers slightly above the ground. On the wall, Brennan wears a helmet and is supported by a rope that Mélissa is holding. They explore movements with the wall in a harness attached to a rope and attached securely to their chair. Without prostheses, Erin kneels in a sling and climbs up the rope, using a typical “jogging up” method of going up in aerial dance that involves travelling upwards, typically done with feet and Erin does it with her knees. Erin did not think this was possible without prostheses but makes it a story high. Unattached to the horseshoe except by hands holding the metal bar over their head, Brennan pulls on the bar and spirals around quickly in their chair. Drew is suspended, attached to the horseshoe, Brandy, Brennan, and Annie surround Drew. Erin kneels on Drew’s shoulders wearing no prostheses. The three on the ground begin to spin the two in the air by moving in the same direction and holding the ropes attaching Drew’s chair to the bar overhead. Annie lifts both her foot and prosthetic foot off the ground, hanging by her hands. This image conveys community, inclusion, interdependence, support, and fun. (Text appears on screen): Collaborators: Erin Ball Mélissa Colello Sophie Oldfield Brandy Leary Brennan Roy Chelsea Edgell Annie Peace-Fast Drew Cumpson Brett Babcock Luca Tucker Thank you to everyone who contributed to this project: Montreal Aerial Dance Anandam Dance Inside Out Theatre Springboard Performance Kingston Circus Arts Canada Council for the Arts

Workshop: Aerial Dance and the Disability Community, Kingston Circus Arts, Ontario, July, 2022

Volume 2, Issue 1, June 27, 2023

Disability and Aerial Arts

140 performers of all ages, dressed in vivid, colourful costumes, slowly cross the river Corrib on highwires. When they reach the end, the celebrate with their tutors, hugging, high fiving, and cheering. It is a beautiful summer's day.

Safety from Within

Volume 2, Issue 1, June 27, 2023

‘Safety from Within’ An investigation into Lifeline - a funambulism project by Galway Community Circus, July 2022

Apparatus of Repair

Volume 2, Issue 2,

Apparatus of Repair

This video is the documentary The Flip Side, directed by Val Wang.

The Flip Side

Vol. 3, No. 1, June 2024

The Flip Side

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