Vulcana – Interview with Celia White

By Marianna Joslin

Vulcana Women’s Circus takes its name from a British strong woman in the early twentieth century, who performed amazing feats of strength throughout the world. Founded in West End in 1995, in response to the need to create a safe, non-competitive space where women could explore their physical potential, Vulcana is Queensland’s oldest women’s arts organisation. Women’s Circuses, as community arts organisations, are unique to Australia and Vulcana continues to create opportunities for women, trans and non-binary folk, young people and their communities, to participate in physical and creative processes, and experience personal revolution. Vulcana is proud to have supported many remarkable women in circus, Some Vulcanista’s have gone on to tour the world with renowned circus companies as well as with their own work, other’s pursue interests and careers not related to circus. They are proud of their diverse community and each individual’s success in their chosen field.

I am a proud Vulcanista, I started circus in Vulcana classes many years ago, and now have a successful international circus career. I interviewed Celia White, the current artistic director about all things Vulcana, ahead of their move to a spectacular new venue.

Marianna (M): How did Vulcana start?

Celia (C): Originally it was set up to address a lack of training opportunities and an imbalance in the representation of women in circus. It has always been a place that encouraged women to get into circus, a safe space where women can grunt and reveal their lack of strength in certain areas and give things a go.

Alongside there was this idea of the broader benefit of the work, so an outreach program grew quite quickly. It became more and more important in the work Vulcana did, creating full-scale performance outcomes (shows) with a range of communities. Outreach started in the mould of Women’s Circus in Melbourne, with communities that were in crisis situations, domestic violence, sexual violence, those kinds of very difficult communities. There were organisations that represented those women to connect us, but a lot of those organisations don’t exist any more; the funding and priorities have shifted. Also at various points in Vulcana’s history, we have branched out; we had a strong relationship with Inala Wangarra working with the Indigenous community in Inala, and the African refugee community.  The focus of it all is that it is women-led, which doesn’t mean we won’t employ men, but that we try and employ a woman first.

M: I still think that’s very relevant today, and maybe harder to prove? Or has it always been hard to prove?

C: No, you just have to look at any of the reports that come out about the structure of the theatre industry, it’s still highly relevant. We need more women to have access to opportunities, especially in positions of power.

M What does it feel like to see a project empower women?

Celia (C): It’s pretty great. One of my favourite examples that does just that is ‘Circus in a Tea Cup’, that was working with a particularly disempowered group of women survivors of domestic violence, and the change was visceral, you could feel it. The impact that had, not just on the participants, but on everybody, of the value of the work – it was huge.

Another project that was really exciting was ‘Strange Creatures.’ The outcome was again a performance, but the process was this cultural exchange between hearing and deaf women, and what that did to both groups of women, in terms of understanding each other and feeling so good about that. It’s not just the empowerment that circus gives, it’s the kind of expansion of how we understand each other. The same happened in ‘Small Change’, where there was this exchange between older women and younger women, of seeing each others ideas and value in the world, then again in ‘As If No One is Watching’, women sharing their stories and having such important special exchanges between each other.

In the process of circus – and it’s similar in dance – where you are body-on-body in contact with people, you are playing games and exchanging physical risks, the emotional exchange that happens, and the exchange of ideas, has a heightened quality to it. So it’s the cultural exchanges, as well as what women feel when they are successful in achieving something, whether it’s physical, creative or cultural.

M: Being someone that came into circus through Vulcana. I wouldn’t have thought I needed a women’s circus space but definitely the empowerment is different. I came from a physically difficult background, and it is a sacred thing having a supportive women-only space, trying stuff together and not having the male gaze that you either act up to or feel inferior to. Would you agree Vulcana’s ethos of empowerment in teaching and training is special?

C: Yes, it’s not the only model of how you teach circus to women by any means, and not everybody who comes to Vulcana comes for that reason, but often when they come here, they very quickly appreciate that space, which doesn’t mean they stay in that space, but they often come back to that space.

M: They can bounce from that space to other spaces that they might not have been able to without it.

C: Yes exactly, right.

M: How does that influence our artistic output?

C: We are interested in supporting artists making work about how women’s bodies are represented, as well as all other types of work. My particular interest is to make circus that is asking questions: Why? What are you doing? What work are you making?

M: That is always an important question because the way circus work is commercialised reflects society at large. Dominant forms are “sex sells” line of circus, of which there is some revolutionary work but many not. Contemporary work, which has strong women in it, but isn’t necessarily changing the way we look at women, family shows which can have great concepts and then more fringe works that are artistically potent but struggle to find a commercial platform. I think it’s always good to ask those questions as artists, especially in society right now it is very potent. Things are changing. 

C: Yes and we feel currently there’s a lot of contemporary circus like the toss-the-girl model with five men and one woman, that doesn’t necessarily redress this imbalance, and there’s also a resurgence of strong groups of women who are making work trying to address that issue.

M: I find what Vulcana is particularly good at is the inclusivity of skill. Your work has always reflected people’s story and a body in space, with the base as circus.

C: Yes, I have always been interested in making theatre that uses circus, so that’s my personal history as a performer and director. Working at Vulcana means working with people who may have very high skills or may have no circus skills yet, but everybody can move. So we look at how to incorporate all those bodies and all that experience into a piece of theatre, which means it’s got to be flexible, your circus has to be flexible.  We also understand that you may not be able to swing from a rope, but you may have an idea, or say something, or have movement that is the perfect thing for that moment. And we need that. Vulcana needs that representation in our work.

M: In my time I’ve seen these amazing pockets of community created which happens in circus elsewhere so it’s not just Vulcana. How does this happen?

C: Creating a community that supports women is something Vulcana actively aims to do. There is also the tradition of circus as a family space, you create a family out of the troupe. There is something about the shared risk; you swing through the air, you stick your head in someone’s crutch and you don’t have to have a relationship to do that, but some kind of relationship with that body that allows that and makes it ok.

M: Actually the desexualised nature of it all is great, we don’t have that, or even touch in the modern world.

C: Yes exactly the physical touch, that’s why I love acrobatics and I don’t understand why everyone wants to start in the air.

M: How do you survive as a non-funded community-based organisation?

C: It’s extremely difficult to sustain an organisation with very minimal funding. We look like an arts organisation, but we’re actually a bunch of independent artists. We have a long history of work, and we have organisational structures, but the reality is that without organisation funding, it’s very hard to maintain those structures. So everybody (in the office and on certain projects) is overworked, but not necessarily underpaid.

M: Yes Vulcana is very good at upholding wages

C: We took the position a long time ago that because women are traditionally underpaid, we try and pay properly. But obviously, in projects, there is more to do than there is money for, and so passionate artists do the work that needs to be done with or without the funding. We are under-resourced.

 M: Are we the least funded in Brisbane?

C: Yes, as an organisation.

M: That is astounding since Vulcana pays the highest wage. How did we survive the cuts?

C: When we first lost our funding and lots of companies were going under in the Campbell Newman era, I think around 2013, the community-made a decision to try and keep Vulcana going, so there was a lot of fundraising and an immense amount of goodwill. We’ve been experimenting with a social enterprise model for the last six years, trying to work out how we can do it, how we increase the income we can generate ourselves, and how much of that can then be invested in our artistic output. Fundraising will remain a critical part of our ongoing sustainability.

M: I know community shows need funding, which project grants are hard to get so they have taken a hit, but how about Incubator, the program that provides a period of space and access to you as a director to help make work, is that a way to keep providing artistic output?

C: Yes, so that’s my wage put towards supporting and encouraging artists. We give as much support to artists as possible.  We’ve got this resource, the space, so we pass it on to artists when we can.

M: So basically not being funded makes it 1. Very difficult to survive, and 2. Puts a restriction on how much you can offer the community, and these positive impacts which we both know are huge.

M: Ok so I want to talk about the impact of our community shows. Those shows have a lot of power and are incredibly artistic, but how do you prove that to the wider arts market?

C: I think something we battle with is how to communicate successfully the level of artistry in these shows, that they are shows to be taken seriously. Because not all the performers are professional or even identify as performers, but it’s produced by professionals and led by professionals. Since the Community Cultural Development funding was dismantled a while ago, there has been an undermining of this type of work. It’s not valued in the same way.

M: It’s put in a different category, yet it’s a shame because those shows have power.

C: I think it’s the problem of being a fringe organisation, which a women’s circus company is likely to be. Although we have a loyal following at our shows, at every turn you have to re-justify the fact that this work is valuable, not only for its benefits for participants and artists but as exceptional experience for audiences. If we don’t have a diversity of artists, forms, and content; if we don’t encourage this range of expression, participation, and practice, who are we culturally?

M: Vulcana is moving to a grand new space, can you tell me about that?

C:  The space is an amazing achievement, to have won a council-owned building that we run completely. It is in Morningside and has two huge rooms for circus, a few other spaces we can rent out, a kitchen and a bar, so it will be perfect for shows and events, as well as creating a community hub in this area of Brisbane.

M: So currently there is a fundraiser for the move?

C: We are running a fundraiser that is focussed on the move and the building work needed to transform it into a circus space, but also in an ongoing way  to support Vulcana to continue. We have to learn how to do it better to thrive. It’s not that we’re not interested in organisational funding, we are, but every year it gets tighter down our end of the arts and fundraising is an essential part of every arts organisation’s financial sustainability.

M: Yes, the funnel is very top-heavy right now.

C: Yes, but we have a very strong community to help us.

M: Ok last question, what do you love most about Vulcana?

C: Well the reason I’m still here is that I get to make fabulous work with the most extraordinary range of fabulous people. There is so much that’s unexpected, so much in the stories that come out. You don’t know what’s going to happen; you can come in with an idea, but what happens is the most beautiful and surprising things. You end up with such beautiful work.

If you would like to support Vulcana to continue with their incredible work, give now at  www.vulcana.org.au/support-us

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