KOOZA – Cirque du Soleil

A night under the big top – it’s a magical space where time may often stand still, taking adults back to their childhood when the circus would roll into town. These days if one mentions circus, they would most often think of the global powerhouse that is Cirque du Soleil – a company that has, over the last three decades or so reinvented the wheel, re-imagining this art form and contemporised its for a whole new generation of audiences, both young and the young at heart.

So, it is with much delight that Cirque du Soleil will be bringing their latest grand offering KOOZA to Melbourne in 2017- staged under the blue and yellow big top, it promises to be an adrenaline pumping night of surreal performance, dare devil stunts and mind bending acrobatics. The performance will feature no less than 50 performers and promises to be nothing short of a spectacle that will take you on a journey through surreal landscapes populated with unexpected characters and more...

Following an extensive national and international recruitment process, Circus Oz is delighted to announce the appointment of their new Artistic Director, Rob Tannion.

Circus Oz Chair, Wendy McCarthy, said the Board is delighted Rob Tannion has accepted the role, “Artistic search is always exciting as we seek the person who will lead and challenge the company’s artistic history and future. I am confident that Rob will do that and much more as he brings his energy, contemporary skills and international experience back home to Australia to lead Circus Oz.” Rob Tannion is a European based Australian director and choreographer with many years experience in creating original circus, physical theatre and dance productions. During 2015, Rob was the artistic director of Spain’s Organizacion Efimera and the resident director of the Madrid based circus company Circo de los Horrores. In recent years his shows have toured in big tops, outdoor festivals and theatre...

Australia’s Centre of Excellence in contemporary circus arts training - NICA ANNOUNCES AUDITIONS ACROSS AUSTRALIA FOR 2016 CIRCUS COURSES. For its 2016 student intake, the National Institute of Circus Arts is casting the net widerthan ever before to attract applicants from across Australia and from a wide diversity ofbackgrounds.
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Kon Karapanagiotidis Credit Rob Blackburn
Presented by Circus Oz in partnership with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC)

Circus Oz in partnership with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) will present Boundless Plains to Share – a celebratory night of hope, humanity and hilarity at the Collingwood Town Hall on Friday, 1 May 2015.

Inspired by the call in the Australian national anthem to courageously combine together to advance Australia fair, the whole Circus Oz world-class ensemble will share the stage with special guest performers from the ASRC community.

Boundless Plains to Share will bring together all parts of the community – from First Australians to the most recently arrived asylum seekers – with the audience witnessing the human stories of those who have risked everything to contribute to the future of Australia.

This collaboration is just the beginning of the next phase of a deeper and multilayered relationship...

What: Le Noir - Part of the 2015 MICF

Where: Arts Centre Melbourne – State Theatre

When: April 9 - 18

Directed and Choreographed by: Neil Dorward

Composed by: Julian Wiggins

Performed by: Carla Broadway, Jeronimo Ernesto, Emilie Fournier, Marie-Christine Fournier, Elena Gatilova, Denis Ignatov, Melek Karakus, Alexandre Lane, Yuliia Lytvynchuk, Carlos Macias, Cecilia Baekgaard Mansson, Ash McCready, Anna Ostepenko, Vadym Pankevych, Gediminas Pavlovicius, Jessica Ritchie, Angelo Rodriguez, Salvador Salangsang, Dasha Shelest, Louis-David Simoneau, Yani Stoyanov, Valeri Tsvetkov,and Valeriii Volynets.

Costumes by:

Angela AaronCircus and all things acrobatic are all the rage right now, and you can go and get a top class ‘fix’ at the Arts Centre Melbourne this week. Le Noir: The Dark Side of Cirque is in residence in the State Theatre and it will blow you away! Melbourne knows circu...

The National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) Australia’s Centre of Excellence in Contemporary Circus Arts Training presents

PESCADO - A Circus Cabaret Fusion A new circus work featuring NICA’s second year artists directed by Hayden Spencer and Carita Farrer Spencer NICA’s talented second-year students will have no trouble fishing for compliments when they feature in this quirky aquarium of circus, cabaret and comedy. PESCADO - A Circus Cabaret Fusion will be performed in the National Institute of Circus Arts’ intimate studio space from 13 to 16 May 2015. Co-directed by Australian cabaret and circus mainstays, Hayden Spencer and Carita Farrer Spencer, PESCADO will submerge the audience in a wonderful world of piscean characters, outstanding circus skills and tonguein-gill silliness, all wrapped up in a ‘Venice Beach’ atmosphere. The directors have plunged their creativity into the underwater theme. “We have created human characters that are based on elements from the...

Carita Farrer Spencer has been a professional performer (cabaret performer, singer, actor, teaching artist, director, corporate performer, street entertainer) for 20 years. She graduated from QUT in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts (Acting). Carita has become synonymous with her musical and cabaret performances.

Carita will next appear at the 2015 Melbourne International Comedy Festival in her new show

Larry Paradiseo & The Fabulous Dame Farrar - Live at The Galleon St Kilda.

Carita (and her husband Hayden Spencer) are currently co-directing the NICA (National Institute of Circus Arts) 2nd year cabaret / circus fusion show which opens in April 2015.

In 2014 Carita created her latest Cabaret Act - the hugely popular gender bender Larry Paradiseo for Women In Voice 21 at The Judith Wright Centre (Brisbane). In 2014 she also appeared in The Fabulous Dame Farrar Goes Brazilian Nuts! at The Butterfly Club Melbourne and The Fabulous...

Mike Finch, Circus Oz Artistic Director

After 17 years as Circus Oz Artistic Director, Mike Finch will finish with the company in June

After 17 years as Circus Oz Artistic Director, Mike Finch has announced that he will finish up with the company on Tuesday, 30 June 2015.

Under Finch's artistic leadership, Circus Oz has performed to more than 1.7 million people in nearly 150 national and international locations, including tours from Arnhem Land to New York and from the Kimberley to Madrid.

Shows by the irreverent Circus Oz reflect the diversity of modern Australia. During his time with the company, Finch curated a diverse full-time ensemble of circus artists maintaining an equal number of men and women; and was also heavily involved in the significant engagement and inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performers through the Circus Oz BLAKflip program.

"This has been an incredible 17 years,...

Internationally renowned director Firenza Guidi, from NoFit State Circus in Wales, is creating a dynamic live circus experience featuring NICA’s graduating artists. This site-specific performance, titled Dreams from the Second Floor, opens on 26 November and runs until 6 December, at the custom built National Circus Centre in Prahran. Audiences can expect a unique encounter. The creative process and technical components will be on display in this site-specific work which engages with the NICA National Circus Centre in an innovative way. There is no back stage - this is a performance which will be fabricated in front of the eyes of the audience! Twenty one multi-talented artists will present high level circus skills on a range of apparatus including: Aerial Ring, Aerial Straps, Contortion, Rope, German Wheel, Hand Balancing, Hula Hoops, Roue Cyr, Dance Trapeze, Tightwire and Tumbling. Milan-born Firenza Guidi is an independent, award-winning theatre, circus and film director, ...

Cirque du Soleil is pleased to be adding new weeks of performances (February 17 – March 15 2015) to the upcoming Melbourne season of its all-new, mesmerizing production TOTEM. The spectacular theatrical experience will open on January 21 2015 under the signature blue-and-yellow big top at Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne.



Cirque du Soleil celebrated its return to Australia earlier this week with the Australian premiere performance of TOTEM at The Entertainment Quarter in Sydney. To mark the event, a host of celebrities walked the red carpet prior to entering the intimate setting of the blue-and-yellow big top and falling for the magic of the Cirque du Soleil experience.

Guests included: Claudia Karvan, Guy Sebastian, Luke Burgess, Kate Peck, Manu Feildel, Tim Dormer, Pia Miller, Camilla Franks, Melissa Doyle, Jordan Stenmark, Luke Jacobz, Rob Mills and many others.

Audiences and critics alike loved TOTEM and gave th...