acrobat
performance
research farm
About acrobat
Acrobat have been pioneers in circus performance for 20 years. The company was founded by Simon Yates and Jo Lancaster in 1995.
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The first performances were in Sydney at the Bondi Pavilion Amphitheatre in 1996. Since that time, the company has toured to major festivals and presenting houses in capital cities and regional circuits nationally, but the vast majority of their work has been outside Australia; in France, Germany, Croatia, Switzerland, Brazil, Austria, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, South Korea, Belgium, Lithuania, England, Scotland, Singapore, Ireland, Argentina and Canada.
Over time, acrobat has evolved, weathered and distilled, but the spiritual identity is still clearly distinctive - a dry, self-derisive and irreverent take on an art form that is now so often striving to be elevated to lofty class respectability.
Jo and Simon - performance artists
At 53 and 47 respectively, Jo and Simon maintain remarkable physical capacity, a testimony to the spartan lifestyle they have maintained and endorse. They continue to be inspired by one another’s kooks and peculiarities, agreeing on everything and remaining distinctly out-of-step with their contemporaries.
Tim Barrass - sound artist
Tim has been involved and influential since the company’s beginnings. His processes are obscure and unpredictable which adds immeasurably to the crafting of the performance. Tim also contributes his time to developing sound-making software and his CV can’t be understood by the layman. His affinity and canniness with all things computer, have got us out of many a tight spot.
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‘The quirky sound works (composed by Tim Barrass) include everything from zany circus music to chickens clucking and a beautifully crisp Australian bush soundscape in the closing scene.’
Kate Rotherham, RealTime Arts
Ryan Taplin - production manager/technician
What a guy. Ryan’s Great. We don’t like to be without him.
Despite their belligerence acrobat have won numerous bourgeois awards internationally
The Hangar