Circus artists wow Montreal

Australian circus and physical theatre performers have won strong recognition at an international festival featuring the industry's best.

The biannual International Exchange for the Performing Arts (CINARS) took place during November in Montreal.

Thirty-three curated productions in dance, theatre, multidisciplinary arts and music were presented to 1000 artists, programmers, agents, observers and journalists from 50 countries.

An Australian delegation, led by Australia Council Theatre Board chair Ian McRae, included representatives of 11 circus and physical theatre companies.

The event was dominated by Canadian artists, but two Australian productions were among just six non-Canadian shows singled out for special commendation by the CINARS juries.

One was Lucy Guerin's Aether, a new dance work that examines the problems of simple human expression in the face of the 'overwhelming sophistication of contemporary communications'.

The other was The Space Between, performed by Circa, in which three performers explore 'the things that keep us apart and our desire to be together'.

Circa artistic director Yaron Lifschitz said that 'the Australia Council strategy to target markets' was paying off both at this CINARS and CINARS 2004.

He said Circa expected to tour four times across five continents in 2007-08 as a direct result of Australia’s presence at CINARS.

'You can’t understand our work from reading about it or even from watching a DVD,' said Yaron. 'People have to see it, fall in love with it and tell their friends.'

Yaron said that 'a small Brisbane-based company like Circa' could not have achieved the same levels of success without support from the Australia Council and the delegations to CINARS.

He said that innovative Australian artists had always led and innovated the field of circus and physical theatre, but that it was now more difficult to stay ahead of the pack.

'We worked for 18 months on our CINARS showcase. In Montreal, the camaraderie between different Australian companies really helped.'