CIRCA

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A note from Yaron Lifschitz

December, 2014

When a young artist arrives at Circa, their training involves much more than acrobatics. As they learn to do new and amazing things with their bodies, they also learn about mushrooms and fungus, spreading delight and 4-Space Theory. They learn that they are part of something extraordinary – as is any arts organisation that continues in these turbid times. And they learn to say thank you.

Thank you is always necessary and always apt. We say thank you to the technicians and producers and tour manager/directors who make our shows safe and possible, we say thank you to the elders, trainers and past ensemble members whose work has created the inner life of what we now enjoy, we say thanks to the office who work tirelessly on every insurance claim, reconciliation and phone call. We saw thank you to our executive group who chart complicated times with optimism and clarity.

As an organisation we say thank you to each and every partner, presenter and stakeholder. Every show we perform is thanks to someone’s act of belief, their courage to back this belief with conviction and to convince those around them that it’s worth the risk. And without these risks we would not perform even once. So the 366 shows we played this year are 366 moments of trust, hope and conviction.


There are many things to say thank you for: an ensemble of 21 circus artists, a committed and dedicated team, collaborators and co-conspirators, venues like the Barbican, Jacob’s Pillow and the Chamaleon who welcomed us back and new friends like the Lincoln Center in New York and the Sesc International Circus Festival in Brazil.

This year we made five new creations, we toured to 16 countries, five of them for the first time, our work was seen by over 130,000 audience members, we provided 11,000 workshop places, we toured Australia for six months, we garnered reviews we could only dream of.

We also got injured, sick. Lost our baggage and found ourselves in impossible situations where the hours in the day and the energy in tank were insufficient to meet the overwhelming demands of delivering our program and dreaming the next ones. And yet, somehow, we always made it – the inner strength of our teams realised every performance, met every deadline, paid every bill and embraced every opportunity.

A company is in some ways an impossible dream – an attempt to hold back entropy long enough to continue the noble pursuit of truth and beauty. To all those who made the 2014 chapter of the Circa dream possible our deepest and most heartfelt thank you.

– Yaron Lifschitz, Circa Artistic Director and CEO