Achievements
Our Graduates
Every one of them. From 1979 to 2009, and those still to arrive …
Awards
2009 Helpmann Award for Best Presentation for Children (The Promise)
2008 APACA Drover’s Award for Tour Management Excellence.
1990 Ros Bower Memorial Community Arts Award.
1986 BHP Pursuit of Excellence Award for Arts & Literature.
1985 Logie Award (Nanjing 1 Documentary).
1982 Gold Medallion in Le Cirque de Demain Competition (France).
International Training Projects
Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe of China, Guangzhou Acrobatic Troupe of China, The Moscow Circus.
Specialist training projects with artists from France, Holland, USA, UK, Morocco, China, Canada, Russia and Ukraine.
International Tours
Canada, China, Hawaii, Italy, Japan, Nauru, New Zealand, Singapore, UK, USA
Australian Festivals
Bougainvillea Festival (Darwin)
Bounce Festival (Geelong)
Chookas Festival (Melbourne)
Come Out Festival (Adelaide)
Darling Harbour Hoopla Festival (Sydney)
Iris Festival (Rainbow)
Jindabyne Easter Festival
Melbourne Commonwealth Games Arts Festival
Melbourne Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony
Melbourne International Festival of the Arts
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Out of the Box Festival (Brisbane)
Sydney Festival
Sydney Olympics Arts Festival
Sydney Olympic Games Opening Ceremony
National Training Projects
The first two week intensive for current performing arts workers and emerging industry hopefuls was held in Albury Wodonga in 1991. Since 2006 we’ve offered a national training project every two years, featuring specialist trainers with international performance and teaching experience. We’re now making it an annual event due to demand, with a focus on individuals with at least a basic level in their chosen areas of skill development.
However, with our usual training facility being dismantled to make way for a new fit-for-purpose circus space during 2010, we cannot conduct the project again until 2011, most likely in January.
For more details, or to add your name to receive information about the NTP, or express an interest in being employed as a specialist trainer at a future event, please get in contact with us here.
Historical Moments
1979 – 1980 The International Year of the Child and the Murray River Performing Group (MRPG) begins a circus project: The Flying Fruit Fly Circus is born. The project is repeated – as Sidewalk Circus - at Sydney Festival, and returns to Albury for a sellout season.
1981-82 Following a regional Victorian and NSW tour, we represent Australia at the Vancouver Children’s Festival, Canada and are the hit of the festival. Sell-out seasons in Melbourne, Albury and Benalla follow. Tanya Lester wins a Gold Medallion in Le Cirque de Domain Competition in Paris. The next year she is the recipient of the ‘Young Australian of the Year’ title.
1983 A tour to Adelaide’s Come Out Festival then the Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe of China undertakes a training project in Albury Wodonga with our performers, Circus Oz and other physical theatre artists. Nanjing 1 is the first training project of its kind in the western world. This initiative and its show, The Great Leap Forward, changes the face of circus in Australia forever.
1984-86 The Leapers (mainly graduate Fruit Flies) join Circus Oz and appear at the Los Angeles Olympic Cultural Festival. A Michael Willesee documentary of the Nanjing 1 Project wins a Logie Award. We return to Vancouver and tour Canada. We win the BHP Pursuit of Excellence Award in Arts and Literature and tour Melbourne, Sydney and regional Victoria before hosting a return visit from Nanjing acrobats. Nanjing 2 runs for eight months and results in the breathtaking performance Circus of Tomorrow.
1987-88 The Acrobatic Arts Community School opens. Australia now boasts a circus school unique in the western world. The Big Top is christened with seasons in Albury and Canberra. Artists spend three months in China training with the Guangzhou Acrobatic Troupe. A feature length documentary, The Greatest Little Show on Earth is released. We perform in Glasgow, Brighton and London (UK), Hawaii, Melbourne and Sydney. We win the inaugural Premier’s award for Outstanding Contribution to the Community of Victoria.
1989-90 Our tenth birthday. We perform at the Sydney Festival, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Geelong Performing Arts Centre and are invited to join the nationwide tour of the Great Moscow Circus.
We represent Australia at Australia Week in Veneto, Italy and are awarded the Ros Bower Award for Outstanding Contribution to Community Arts.
1991 We host the inaugural National Training Project for performers and trainers and tour regional centres, Melbourne and Sydney.
1992 The year of the Moscow 1 International Training Project – a three month intensive with trainers from the Moscow Circus – working with other Australian circus artists. The resulting show Red Alert performs at Albury, the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, Adelaide and Geelong. We tour Tasmania and conduct a second National Training Project.
1993 A sell-out season of Red Alert for the Sydney Festival (and half-time entertainment for the World Series Cricket!) begins 1993. Tours to Brisbane, Gippsland and Melbourne are undertaken, and roles in the Murray River Performing Group’s production of The Twits. A co-production with The One Extra Company of Sydney sees dance/circus show Suburban Pirates tour regional NSW and Victoria. A third National Training Project occurs.
1994 We run a workshop tour through regional Victoria and are special guests of the Great Moscow Circus for several months during its tour. Another liaison with the MRPG, this time in The Giraffe, the Pelly & Me. A fourth National Training Project preceded tours of regional Australia, Melbourne and Sydney (for Australia’s Wonderland).
1995 Totally Wicked travels to Melbourne for the International Comedy Festival, Brisbane and Nauru. Chance It! Goes to south east Australia and we appear at a national tourism convention and the International Conference on Children’s Television. We work again with the MRPG in Jackpot Jessie, undertake a fifth National Training Project, and for the first time share training and performance with the Maningrida Clever Kids from Arnhem Land.
1996 Totally Wicked was the hit of the Sydney Festival and performed at Albury. Chance It! plays at Victoria on Show, and we tour to Singapore for the Australian Tourist Commission before a Queensland and regional NSW season of Jackpot Jessie.
1997 A spate of Melbourne performances include the Summer Live concert, the Fashion Spectacular and Moomba. Outburst! Children of the Sun opens in Wollongong and goes to Sydney’s Darling Harbour. 1998 Totally Wicked travels to the New Zealand International Arts Festival, Impact to the Sydney Opera House and Outburst! to South Australia and Victoria, including the Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne. Impact was produced specifically to celebrate the Sydney Opera House’s 25th birthday. Peter and Beverly Brock become patrons.
1999 Three shows in repertory: Outburst!, Tabu Soro (Fijian for ‘never say die’) and The Gift. Outburst! Wows Adelaide, Tabu Soro charms Darling Harbour, and Impact performs to the Come Out Festival, again in Adelaide. To celebrate our 20th anniversary the Circus Festival transfers from its usual base in Tasmania to Albury Wodonga, where Outburst! performs. Impact tours regional NSW and Tasmania. Meanwhile The Gift opens in New York, selling out a five-week season over Christmas/New Year. We also travel to Singapore and Tasmania.
2000 Fusion is created for the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival, with special guests the Shanghai Circus School. Artists perform in the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games. We are invited by the Australia Council to perform at Parliament House to launch ‘Australia and the Arts: What do the arts mean to Australians?’ Backyard Barbie premieres at the launch of the National Australian Museum in Canberra. We undertake a 10-week performance and workshop tour, Stepping Stones in Circus Dust to remote communities in Far North Queensland. The Australian premiere of The Gift takes place in Albury before reaching Hawaii and New Zealand. We make a co-production with HotHouse Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Gift plays at Brisbane’s Out of the Box Festival and Canberra Theatre Centre’s subscription season.
2001 Backyard Barbie travels to Bruthen and the Iris Festival. Circus Dust II sets off for Far North Queensland. We open the Regional Arts Conference, Groundswell, in Albury.
2003 The Flying Fruit Fly Circus School burns down, though education continues in temporary facilities for three years. We tour Vancouver Canada for the first time since the mid 1980’s with The Gift featuring at the Island International Festival and the International Children’s Festival. In Australia The Gift performs at the Jindabyne Easter Festival. Backyard Barbie goes to the Darling Harbour Circus Festival. The HotHouse Theatre co-production A Midsummer Night’s Dream is remounted due to popular demand. In a joint venture with the North East Youth Group, we hold workshops with a performance outcome for youth at risk. In partnership with the Upper Hume Community Health Service, we implement a training scheme, again with a performance outcome, for the over 40s called Fruit Bats.
2004 Skipping on Stars tours nationally marking our Silver Jubilee. A year of celebration sees Circus Dust III tour Far North Queensland and a circus festival in Albury Wodonga.
2005 Les Clowns Triste performs in Sydney, Bathurst and Moonambel and is selected to represent Victoria at the World Expo in Japan. We form part of a Victorian delegation that includes Premier Steve Bracks and Arts Minister Mary Delahunty. We perform at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.
2006 3wAyXchange, a collaboration with Brewarrina Youth Circus and South Africa’s Zip Zap Circus, performs at Festival Melbourne, the cultural festival attached to the XVIII Melbourne Commonwealth Games. Simultaneously we rehearse and perform in the Closing Ceremony of the games! A remounted version of Les Clowns Triste entitled The Travelling Clowns tours regional NSW and our world premiere season of Circus Girl opens in Albury. We reinstate the National Training Project. A purpose built facility is opened for The Flying Fruit Fly Circus School.
2007 The Sydney Powerhouse Museum commissions Teetering on the Wall to augment the Great Wall of China exhibition. Circus Girl embarks on a national tour around NSW and Tasmania. We make our third visit to Sydney in as many months with the world premiere season of Beach Party as part of the Darling Harbour Hoopla Festival. We launch the Albury Library Museum.
2008 Beach Party supports the Shepparton Festival and the Bounce Festival, Geelong. A new work is created to celebrate Riverside Theatre’s 20th anniversary at Parramatta and we launch an exhibition Step Right Up in conjunction with the Albury Art Gallery, prior to an exhibition tour throughout Australia in 2009-10. Beach Party is revamped under new Artistic Director Markus Michalowski for a season at Griffith. Another National (Youth) Training Project is held and we conduct a training exchange with Montreal National Circus School. Workshops are undertaken throughout regional Victoria and NSW. We feature in performance and in an exhibition at the Chookahs Festival, Melbourne, and begin rehearsals for The Promise.
2009 Thirtieth birthday. The Promise at the Sydney Festival and Albury. The Hon. Peter Garrett announce $3.75m contribution to redevelop training space. We move to a temporary location in the meantime. Win Helpmann Award for Best Presentation for Children category for The Promise. Mobile outdoor show Pirates premiers in Albury before a regional Australian tour.