IN COMMON

 Tensegrity sculptures have an impossible quality – large solid bars seemingly suspended in mid-air, held in place by floating compression. 

We are struck by the power these structures have to evoke wonder and curiosity. The same principle of suspended tension applies both to the human bodies of our acrobats – without the tensional network of fasciae and tendons your bones would just be a pile of sticks on the floor – and the connections and dynamism of a community.

This new work will continue our practice of exploring circus as it relates to life. We will grapple with the idea of the social safety net: the network of systems, formal and informal, created by society to support the lives of its people. This community safety net is not something tangible or visible. It is built by belief in shared responsibility for looking after each other and strengthened by the commitment that we collectively put into it. Like the invisible tension holding the tensegrity structure aloft, its strength exists in its wholeness – the pressures and forces acting on it being spread out and carried across all its parts.  

This same principle applies to group acrobatics. In order to build a tower of three people standing on one another each person has a role to play in balancing the forces at work: minute shifts in weight to offset someone else’s; bearing someone’s weight under pressure to support the whole; and once it’s built, the whole tower standing still but buzzing with invisible tension and strength. 

By bringing out these concepts inherent to the acrobatics and echoed in the sculptural structure in which the piece takes place, we will guide audiences through a visceral understanding of the care we owe others in our community. More than a mere ‘display of skill’ usually associated with circus, audiences will experience the thrill of throwing yourself into someone else’s arms and the weight of bearing them.