Imagine standing on your head – on a block of wood about 10 centimetres square – suspended on a steel rod about half a metre above the floor – while you move your arms and legs through the air – and then you are handed a Rubik’s cube, which you have to complete before you can return to your upright position.  Physical agility competing with mental agility, or just a plain nightmare?  In fact, this is a routine from A Simple Space, performed by Daniel Liddiard of Gravity and Other Myths, the Australian acrobatics ensemble currently appearing at the Christchurch Arts Festival.  This sequence is one of the quieter moments in a non-stop performance that leaves the audience breathless yet exhilarated at the conclusion of the hour-long show.  

The show’s title comes from the premise of stripping the performance of everything inessential and bringing the audience as close to the performance space as possible.  There are no spangled tights, just t-shirts and three quarter pants for the five men, shorts and black tops for the two women.  Lighting comes from standards at the four corners of the space and is switched on and off by members of the troupe.  Live music is provided by percussionist, Elliot Zoerner, who also performs a virtuoso riff using his own body as a percussive instrument. With the audience seated to the very edge of the performance space the show has a visceral immediacy as the acrobats perform seemingly impossible feats, muscles straining and lungs gasping for breath.  Yet paradoxically, such is the strength, skill and balance of these superbly drilled performers, that it is the grace and control of their movement that is the most impressive element.

The show opens with a sequence that establishes the mutual trust and collaboration that exists between the acrobats and that is essential to their performance.  One group of ‘fallers’ presents ever greater challenges to the other group of ‘catchers’, with the roles swapping and the falls becoming ever more perilous as the tightly choreographed sequence increases in tempo.  Friendly competition is also an essential component of the performance as the difficulty of moves is ramped up and one by one the acrobats are eliminated. There is an element of schoolyard rivalry here, but when, after   the entire cast performs repeated back flips until only one is left standing, the admiration and respect that the ‘winner’ is accorded by his colleagues is clear to see.  Interaction with the audience is also a feature of the show.  Cast members share their pleasure with us as a difficult sequence is deftly executed, but we are also invited to pelt them with plastic balls as they try to maintain handstands under this barrage of multi-coloured missiles.

It is, however, the aerial feats that remain most vividly in the memory.  Jascha Boyce performs with extraordinary balance and agility supported above colleagues who are themselves standing on the shoulders of those beneath them.   Rhiannon Cave-Walker’s precisely controlled movements as she shifts from one hand balance to another seem to defy what is humanly possible.  In the finale the two women literally take flight as they are flung through the air and caught in ever more daring moves.  We are left gasping at the seemingly boundless capacity of the human body to move beyond gravity’s constraints. 

A large audience of all ages rose to give this superb troupe of athletes a standing ovation, and they in turn waited to greet us and thank us for attending their performance as we left.  It was almost like leaving church, and we had indeed been participating in a kind of ritual celebrating the human body.

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