The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted events around the world, including Circus and its Others’ planned activities: Our third conference, originally planned for November 2020, will now take place in November 2021 at the University of California, Davis. We did not want to wait, however, until late 2021 to continue our work and the movement of scholars and practitioners related to the Circus and its Others project! We are therefore offering a series of smaller, on-line, digital events, spanning from Fall 2020 to the summer of 2021. With these online events involving artists and scholars, we intend to bring yet more attention world-wide to our community and to our questions.
These panels are being organized by the academic and creative committee of the Davis 2021 conference: Charles Batson, Karen Fricker, Olga Lucia Sorzano, Veronika Štefanová, and Ante Ursić; and produced by Russ Martin.
Our first digital event was Color in Center Ring: Cultivating Inclusivity in Circus on Nov 14. Watch a full video of the panel discussion below.
Thank you to Global Affairs, The Department of Theatre and Dance, and The Performance Studies Graduate Group at the University of California, Davis; and the Match of Minds program at Brock University for their support.
Hayley Landry
Hayley Landry is an uplifting experience. A proud Torontonian of Jamaican and Acadian descent, she joined LookUp Theatre's mental health social circus troupe in 2012. Since then her role has expanded from participant to performer and instructor. She is continuously grateful to be a part of the circus community in the colorful city of Toronto. Circus as an art form has consistently been integral to Hayley's experience of storytelling and empowerment. Hayley has co-created and performed in a variety of contemporary circus shows including Resilience (2018), Rite to Bloom (2019) and Covisions (2020).
Natayu Mildenberger
Natayu Mildenberger grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. After graduating from the three-year professional training program at the Quinte Ballet School of Canada, Natayu moved to Switzerland where he successfully furthered his education of Circus Arts at Ecole de Cirque Zôfy. Throughout his career he has worked with Anima Inc, A2D2- Aerial Dance Cirque Company, Caravan Stage Company, Cirque Starlight, Canada’s Ballet Jörgen, Ballet Creole, Luminato Festival, Hit and Run Dance Productions, KasheDance, Trip The Light Fantastic, and Toronto’s 2015 Pan Am Closing Ceremonies. In 2018 Natayu was a backup dancer for Brigitte Boisjoli, Jean-Marc Couture, Ruth B and Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine for Canada Day on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. In 2019 Natayu was the Creative Artistic Assistant to Bengt Jörgen at Canada’s Ballet Jörgen. More recently, his passion grew towards the hair industry and he currently works as a professional certified loctitan.
Marco Motta
Marco Motta was born in Salvador de Bahía in 1992. In Brazil he began to prepare and train as a dancer and in contortionism. It has become his true language and his way of expressing himself. For ten years he has used the language of breakdance as his main means of body expression, and for a little more than five years has been doing aerial acrobatics.
Veronica Blair
Veronica Blair is a professional aerialist with over 15 years of performing and teaching experience. She is currently aerial director for Celebrity Cruises Entertainment. Expanding her portfolio beyond performing, Veronica launched the development of “The Uncle Junior Project” in 2010. The ongoing documentary shines a light on the careers of African-American circus performers, including Emanual “Uncle Junior” Ruffin who remained largely uncredited for his contributions to American circus until after his death. In 2010, she was invited to speak at the Smithsonian FolkLife Festival about her experience as producer and director of “The Uncle Junior Project”, and served as organizer and moderator on a panel highlighting the African-American circus experience. She’s also worked with the African-American Art and Culture Complex to stage "Entrapment to Entertainment: A Celebration of Blacks in American Circus", a three-month exhibition that ran from October, 2013 – January 2014 with over 1,000 attendees.
Lavie Williams
Lavie Williams is a proud black woman, and has lived in Kingston, Ontario (Canada) for a total of six years, first as a student and now as a human rights practitioner with a focus on anti-racism. Lavie is also a novice aerialist and part of the performance team at Kingston Circus Arts. Her long limbs, Afro hair, and Black identity are all part of the space she occupies in the aerial world. Lavie is dedicated to pursuing necessary societal change through continuous learning, critical thinking, and of course direct action. Put simply, Lavie bases her work on challenging “neutral” situations to fully recognize, affirm, center and most importantly, make space for those who experience marginalization. Lavie endeavours to collaborate with and empower her community to achieve substantive change and social transformation. Acknowledging the complexity and broadness of that goal, she notes it is apt to recognize that racism and other ideological systems of oppression, are in a sense “moving targets.” Which means there are no “one-size fits all” approaches to deconstructing and then reconstructing our social realities.