Break is a brand new work created by Gold Coast-based dance firm The Farm, along with performer, Cecilia Martin. It’s a private exploration of how we outline ourselves, what occurs after we crumble and the way we are able to get better when our goals and ambitions are shattered, primarily based on the life experiences and artistic work of Martin.
This one-woman, autobiographical present options Martin, who educated as a circus performer and aerialist. She labored extensively with Circa for 5 years, travelling the world as knowledgeable acrobat, earlier than a sequence of accidents stopped her high-flying profession in its tracks. Martin says: ‘Break started as a story of the physique, after a number of wrist accidents halted my profession as knowledgeable acrobat and led me to query the very factor that had constructed my illness: my ambition. I realised that the identical drive that had allowed me to fly was additionally breaking me.’
She describes her journey and the restoration course of with Gavin Webber, one of many Creative Administrators from The Farm, and collaborator and director Kate Harman. The trio examined how individuals, and artists particularly, push themselves to the boundaries and questioned the character of burnout.
As co-directors, Webber and Harman have collectively crafted a properly thought-through narrative in a 60-minute present that swings between acrobatic demonstrations and spoken textual content by Martin about her journey. Quick-paced and dramatic in equal measure, it additionally has moments of solitude and unhappiness. Creating an fascinating story arc, the work contains detailed explanations of how acrobats and aerialists work and hone their craft. This was assisted by drawing on 4 viewers members at random to assist exhibit many points of acrobatics with fascinating revelations about respiration and being supported or supporting colleagues with your personal physique.
An outline of pyramids and flyers (the individual on the high of the pyramid), and the way physique weight and distribution works, helps to level out the spectacular technical abilities of the acrobat. It was after one such pyramid, when her belt failed to have interaction correctly, that she suffered a second damaged wrist.
Martin provides a rare efficiency that’s bodily energetic however superbly nuanced, transferring simply from one part to the subsequent with quite a lot of fast costume adjustments and the usage of props. She can be a consummate actor, with a real means to have interaction and maintain the eye of an viewers, providing a self-deprecating however tongue-in-cheek sense of humour. She demonstrates moments of unhappiness, some anger and reflection about her circus accidents. But, regardless of this real sorrow – for instance, after taking part in a poignant and favorite music on guitar – she by no means descends into maudlin self-pity.
Early in her engagement with the viewers she states that circus has all the time been her life, shared with different artists, explains how she is now alone doing a monologue and asks the query, ‘Who desires to hearken to an acrobat?’ Instantly, she has the viewers on aspect as, in spite of everything, we’re there to listen to and watch her story.
There are some marvellous scenes too that exhibit her persevering with abilities. Skipping immensely quick and talking on the identical time exhibits nice breath management. Spinning a sequence of plates on lengthy poles is a normal trick and is well-managed, till she intentionally drops and smashes one to point out her frailty. A remaining scene sees her demonstrating aerial work on a swing that’s fairly lovely and appears to supply her personal bodily love letter to circus and her craft.
The atmospheric lighting from Briana Clark provides vastly to the visible design of Rozina Suliman. Composers and sound designers, Anna Whitaker and Ben Ely, create a rating of largely percussive, digital music that well-supports Martin’s efficiency. Moreover, a soundscape of background noises related to the narrative enhances the work.
This can be a courageous and brilliantly executed work that examines the broader problem of the character of humanity and the way we outline ourselves. Martin’s ambition in creating Break was to ask individuals to look into themselves and study what it takes to rebuild lives when issues get powerful or don’t go to plan. It additionally strongly displays on our want for human contact and one another, which is prime to the connection for Martin of working inside an acrobatic ensemble.
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This want is demonstrated within the remaining staged moments of her work. Martin reaches out to the strangers within the viewers, these she has met when she bringing them onto the stage, in a gesture of ensemble collaboration. A becoming finish to Break.
BreakPresented by Metro Arts and commissioned by HOTA and Metro ArtsMetro Arts, West Village, West Finish, BrisbaneBy The Farm and Cecilia MartinCreated by: Cecilia Martin, Kate Harman and Gavin WebberPerformed by: Cecilia MartinDirection: Gavin Webber and Kate HarmanLighting Design: Chloe OgilvieComposers and Sound Design: Ben Ely and Anna WhitakerVisual Design: Rozina SulimanBreak can be carried out till 24 June 2023.