When I was at circus school in London, I went to see as many shows as I could. I loved living in a city where I could see contemporary, traditional and new circus from all around the world.
But while I enjoyed going to see these shows, I was increasingly aware of a glaring mismatch. In my year at circus school there were 17 female and three male students. Yet when I went to see shows, there would predominantly be all-male cast after all-male cast. Sometimes a token woman, often wearing a red dress, would be to be thrown around by the men or balanced atop their broad shoulders.
So, I started to wonder what roles there would be for me when I graduated. Or for my wonderful female classmates, who were brilliant and skilled circus performers, but who didn't want a career playing the role of the girl in the red dress.
I also love contemporary theatre and during my time in London spent as much time as I could at theatres like The Yard and BAC. There, I saw work that was political, experimental and exciting. The work was often female-led, sometimes with large female casts like the brilliant Trilogy by Nic Green. Why couldn't circus be as thoughtful, challenging, intelligent and feminist as the work being made in contemporary theatre?
Female circus performers are not any less strong, less skilled, or less good performers than their male counterparts. They are not less able to entertain and compel or hold the centre of the stage. Yet it was increasingly apparent to me that contemporary circus was sidelining them as much as traditional circus had done over the decades.
I decided, while still at circus school - while sitting and watching yet another show performed and created by male circus performers - that I wanted to make my own work, work which would give opportunities to female circus performers to display the full range of their skills and strength.
No Show grew out of wanting to explore the question 'What are our expectations of female circus performers?'. It draws on the shared experience of six women. The show was devised together as a group, although using my initial provocation as a springboard.
We talked about how we had been treated as circus performers, things that had been said to us, how we had been denied the opportunity to do our best tricks, and how often female circus performers are sidelined in favour of their male counterparts. As the director, I wove these stories into the performance which became No Show.
No Show feels timely in many ways. #MeToo has happened since we first started to make the show, but the continuing inequalities that women face in their daily lives and careers suggest that while there is increasing awareness of the way the world is weighted in men's favour, there is still a long way to go - and changing structures is difficult.
No Show is a provocation and a challenge which offers a different perspective and throws down a dare to its audience through proving that female-led circus offers has many thrills, spills and wow moments. I hope it will inform how audiences watch circus in the future.
I am learning along the way. As a performance-maker, I am acutely aware I have power. I get to choose who stands on stage. I get to choose what gets showcased. And it is my - along with other performance-makers' - responsibility to ensure our stages become more diverse, that different stories are told, and a multitude of voices are heard.
No Show is just one piece at the vanguard of female-led circus shows proving that circus can be bold, political, fierce, and use an art form that is often merely seen as having entertainment value to examine the world in which we live. I am thinking of shows such as Hot Brown Honey and companies and artists such as Mimbre, Upswing, ona Kewney, Alula, Can't Sit Still, Lumos Company, Collective, Groupe Bekkrell and more.
As the women who have made No Show, we are delighted to join this monstrous regiment of circus pioneers.
Find dates and venues for the No Show tour here
Photo credit: Chris Hoyle, Chris Reynolds
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