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Daniel Rabin, The New Breed

Daniel Rabin, The New Breed

For its first venture into Sydney, the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) is presenting third year students under the direction of renowned Brazilian circus director Rodrigo Matheus in The New Breed. It’s also the first NICA show to feature an international director. Rodrigo has worked with companies and schools in Brazil, the UK and France, and in Australia with Circus Oz and the Flying Fruit Fly Circus.

The performers range in age from 18 to 25, their backgrounds an intriguing catalogue of professional circus, youth circus, archery, Olympic standard gymnastics, street performance, extreme push-biking, dance, music, athletics and kung fu. Along the way careers in computing, cabinet-making, graphic design, professional sport and ballet have been discarded for juggling, slackwire balancing, hoop diving, bowl spinning, flying trapeze, unicycling, poles, bars, handstands, spider bungy, tissu, foot juggling, sky-walking, cloud swing, diabolo and German wheel. Their ambitions include a life in the circus, movie stunt work, creating solo works, forming their own companies and joining Moulin Rouge.

The show’s producer, Jeremy Gaden, describes The New Breed as more physical theatre than circus in format, though rich in circus routines and tackling the problems of communication in an urban setting. The show includes spoken word, choreography for the 19 performers, and a cross-cultural score from Circus Oz musical director Chris Lewis.

Given the Australian penchant for circus and physical theatre and the international success of its practitioners, The New Breed offers a fascinating opportunity to see a new generation nearing their graduation from a relatively new institution uniquely dedicated to the circus arts. The show will tell us as much about NICA as about its young artists. RT

NICA, The New Breed, director Rodrigo Matheus, The Studio, Sydney Opera House, May 4-15

RealTime issue #66 April-May 2005 pg. 46

© Keith Gallasch; for permission to reproduce apply to realtime@realtimearts.net

1 April 2005