Amid the development and rehearsal of her new project, circus artist Mayu Muto sat down with us to talk about the spaces between connection and disconnection inspiring her show ‘Mutating Roots’ and using our training space to develop it.
Identity. Assumptions. Stereotypes. Mayu uses circus to navigate these ideas and explore the experiences of Asian women in Australia in her latest project ‘Mutating Roots’ which has grown, mutated and developed inside Circa’s Training Centre space and is set to premiere at Adelaide Fringe Festival 2019.
Moving from Japan more than 12 years ago, Mayu’s simultaneous connection and disconnection with both her homeland Japan and her home in Australia has inspired the project which she describes as a way to share experience and voice the assumptions and stereotypes cast on her and how that has contributed to who she is today, for better or for worse.
“The project is my connection to my cultural identity and also the experiences of Asian women and myself in countries like Australia and America, and particularly for me, in Belgium and Germany,” said Mayu.
Mayu studied dance in Japan, Belgium and Germany before moving to Australia to study Human Movement Studies and fell in love with circus and physical theatre beginning her learning at Vulcana Women’s Circus – who contributed greatly to the early development of ‘Mutating Roots’.
Her show ‘Mutating Roots’ draws on traditional Japanese stories and culture and is her performing embodiment and response to living as a contemporary woman in Australia and the racism she experiences, but also as a Japanese woman who is no longer a Japanese woman when she’s in Japan. As Mayu moves through the space, her choreography shows why the raw and often wild energetics of circus perfectly match embodying connection and disconnection.
“The project looks at that space of disconnection as well as these traditional Japanese stories where these crones, these rejected women that don’t belong to the normal society, become mad or dangerous,” said Celia White, director of Mayu’s project.
Premiering at Adelaide Fringe Festival, Mayu has been developing the show using Circa’s Training Centre Space, which is open to all circus artists and physical performers in need of a free space to train, rehearse, remount or develop new work.
With limited spaces in Brisbane available for performers like Mayu to rehearse and develop these important projects, Circa offers a space to do just that when it’s not being used by our ensemble or Training Centre classes.
If you’re a circus artist or physical performance artist contact us to see when this space is available. Email us at info@nullcirca.org.au
Learn more about Mayu Muto and her show ‘Mutating Roots’
Head over to Adelaide Fringe Festival