Catherine Daniel

Back in 2010 whilst working on a Bollywood musical as an Australian aerial artist in New Delhi, India, I attended my first Indian wedding. It was everything I hoped for and more. The magic of the colours, the jewelry, the spicy food, the groom arriving on a white horse and decorations everywhere in every bright hue imaginable. The kind of wedding a mother would imagine for her daughter.
That night I met Vikram Mohan, a very talented and passionate choreographer across many dance forms. Over the last 3 years we have hosted aerial silk workshops in Delhi for impoverished youth, school children from greater India and Nepal and emerging artists.
This May, we were hosting workshops from 6am to 8am and 5pm to 7pm to avoid the dry heat of the Indian "summer". During the day I was writing, and rewriting an Australian International Cultural Council Grant.
With much help from Alexander Daniel, Mei Zegers and John Nyagah, we were successful in receiving $24,000 to cover artists’ fees, freight, marketing and flights from the Australian Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. (DFAT)
Circus with Spice is a collaboration between Vertical Circus, Australia www.verticalcircus.org and The Kalakar Trust, India www.kalakartrust.org. Vikram has worked extensively with the Kalakar Trust, touring to Holland and Nairobi with their core youth ensemble.
The Kalakar Trust was established in 1992 to preserve the cultural heritage of the Kalakar people, who are a traditionally nomadic performing caste. They are skilled in puppetry, drumming, magic and street arts.
Within a few years it became apparent that primary education was also needed. Today the Kalakar Trust provides free primary education to young people, whose families are not able to afford primary schooling. Alongside the national Indian curriculum the pupils are taught their traditional and also modern performing arts. The Kalakar Trust has a continuing program for their graduates who go on to earn an income in performance, dance, drumming, puppeteering and contemporary art forms.
Vertical Circus will build on the Kalakar Trust’s existing structures and work with 30 young people full time who have completed their schooling. Circus with Spice will assist their development as artists. They will learn foundational techniques in the circus arts and will also be exposed to creative contemporary performance making techniques. The cast will also experience and learn some elements of indigenous Australian culture, in workshops lead by artist Michael Smith.
After the skill building and training phase, we will move into rehearsals to collaboratively create the “Circus with Spice” show. The creation phase will draw on the cast's existing skills in dance, drumming and street arts, which will be melded with their newly acquired circus and creation skills.
The show will play at the Village Jewel Open Air Theatre in Manger Village, Delhi and the Kalakar Trust’s open air theatre in Meherauli, South Delhi. We will also perform an abridged version of the show in low income primary schools in Delhi.
Shows will be a free event. Find those cheap flights and see you at the show!

We are aiming to raise $6000 cash from our circus fundraiser shows on the 22nd and 23rd of November in Sydney.
You can book tickets at www.trybooking.com/DSPN
Through pozible we are aiming to raise $2014
Funds will go to:
Food for the cast during skill development and creation of the project and the performance season. The meal will ensure that all cast members have access to enough healthy and nutritious food to participate in the project.
Publications and Printing to get the word out about our shows and gather as large an audience as possible including key stakeholders, who can contribute to the further development of the show and other touring prospects.
Documentation particularly photography of the project.
Costumes, which will be designed and sourced from India. We are looking forward to working with all the beautiful materials there and the skilled tailors and of course hitting the markets.
Project T-Shirts for the cast, crew and all those involved in the project
Travel Insurance
Visas

With any cross cultural project the initial challenge is finding the common meeting ground. As the project leaders we try to create a comfortable environment where everybody feels at ease to share their thoughts, knowledge, fears and hopes.
We also enjoy how much we can learn from the experience, the local trainers and cast. We never see the projects as a one way street but a true exchange of skills, knowledge and ways of doing things. We enjoy the richness of interactions and exchanges between individuals.
Working with people from poorer backgrounds often means English competency is not so high, despite English being an official language of the country. We try to learn the local language through study from teach yourself books and engaging with the cast in their own language as much as possible. We speak English more clearly, without slang and use demonstration. That is the joy of the circus arts so much can be shown and explained physically.
Vertical Circus places a strong focus on gender equality and tries to ensure an equal number of male and female participants in our projects and in lead roles in our final shows. We have encountered some difficulties in achieving this goal in Africa and also in the workshops we have hosted in India. Women are often expected to stay at home and help with household chores, some of our artist are young mothers and most of the child rearing responsibilities are left to them. We are understanding and accommodate different schedules and make sure through affirmative action, that women are also in leading roles in the learning phase and on stage.
Through my time in Africa I have come to learn that large multifaceted projects can also run on “African time”, that plans are helpful but need to be adaptable and that we are the guests in another culture which has very different ways of operating.
Similarly in India planning happens in a different way. One thing I am looking forward to immensely is working with the Kalakar Trust, “without ego” as the principal said!