Youth set to show off powerful stories at Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre with CircusWA performance

After more than 18 months work, a new production highlighting the joys, strengths and creativity of young people is set to take to the Bunbury stage. CircusWA’s B’Spoke show will offer a different take on traditional circus at the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre this week, showing off the talent of five young performers living with disability. Performer Olivia Riley said she is excited to be performing in the show and that each performance has a story to tell. “I got chosen as a storyteller as I live with a disability,” she said. “It is really special. I feel that is my part in the show and it needs to be great.” Director Natano Fa’anana said the audience can expect the wow moments of great physicality normally seen in a circus alongside “micro moments” of greatness showcasing the performers and their backgrounds. “Where we might have some of those big acrobatic moments, there are also some micro moments with some of our storytellers, because how some of the things that storytellers are able to achieve differ to that of some of the academy acrobats and performers,” he said. “(It is) nonetheless, still quite powerful and moving, still very much a testament to the human spirit.” The backing track to the performance will be world-class musical compositions by Shenzo Gregorio and Jude Iddison, which will accompany the vocals and lyrics of emerging singer-songwriter Maia Harcourt. Gregorio said the live music component is the “cream on the cake” of the impressive performances and stories of the artists. “The audience is going to hopefully not be too distracted from what we’re doing, because we support that, but we also take some moments there to remind people of that live music connection, which is part of an extra dynamic experience to which I think is in itself worth coming to see for an enjoyable and energetic exchange,” he said. CircusWA’s artistic director Jo Smith said the power of the performances is in the translation of the performers’ stories into a physical language and the different strengths of their bodies as non-typical circus performers. “Often we ignore each other, we only hang out with our own kind,” she said. “This is this is a time to learn language that, you know, is for the future, where we are working with everybody.” Ms Smith said the group hopes to also tour nationally to expand on the opportunity of building a career for the performers. “The hope is that next year we go to Brisbane and Olivia can start thinking about being a performer and maybe a director one day,” she said. B’Spoke will be showing at BREC on July 4 and 5.