A film by Matilda Deeble - NICA recreational student and circus advocate. 

In 2023, Tilly Deeble approached NICA with the vision of highlighting the importance of circus for society and why NICA is a precious gem in the Australian community. 

What she captured was something special; the purpose of NICA through the people who live it and, in many ways, need it. 

 If you google The National Institute of Circus Arts, it’ll say something like ‘is a creative learning space for aspiring circus artists. Its success can be measured by skill and talent it has produced and the name it has created for Australian circus worldwide’.

 But to the students and staff Tilly spoke with, NICAs purpose goes beyond tangible success, and becomes a place for those who seek to explore and test the boundaries of the human experience.

 NICAs ropes are far reaching, from the children who don’t fit into traditional sport, people in their 70s who can live their circus dreams, to indigenous and isolated communities who otherwise wouldn’t have access. NICA is a community, keeping magic alive.

 The topic of rebelling against reality comes up often, Zahnee Kimmel (Bachelor student) says ‘You go to school, and you go to university and then you go work at an office or for a newspaper or you open a bakery and that’s what it is. But running away and joining the Circus is about doing anything but that’ 

 ‘[circus] gives us something that we can’t get anywhere else. The things that we do in circus are so different to anything you can do in any other aspect of reality or life. In a way that feels so much more raw and real and innate to the person’

 The students at NICA learn to test the limits of the mind and body and find the relationship between mind, body and apparatus. These explorations undoubtably create a path to profound art. Former Sidney Myer Foundation Board member Vallejo Gantner agreed that ‘Nica perpetuated the ability for people to fulfill artistic expression and allow them to do it at the highest level – it’s totally fulfilled its mission’

 Tilly’s film of NICA gives a voice to the feeling of it being a home for those who seek it. A resource to produce art that is magic, an invitation to escape and challenge reality and a safe space to speak through performance and through community.

Watch it here

Published 21 Oct 2024