High drama in arts festival act

The circus career of Charice Rust got its start while working on her grandmother’s sheep farm in south west Victoria.

Rust, the founder and co-director of One Fell Swoop Circus, loved the feeling of pushing herself while undertaking hard physical yakka.

She had to build strength to get through mobs of sheep, and in a male dominated, “blokey” environment, loved the surprise that the farmers got when she would pick up a ewe and put it on the back of the ute as a teenager.

Discovering circus classes, she trained her body to be strong, agile and dexterous.

“It wasn’t weird to be a strong girl in circus,” she said, “so I grabbed it, I loved it, and sort of just kept going into adulthood, and now it’s my career.”

Rust specialises in aerial straps, which require an enormous amount of strength, control and endurance.

She’s one of seven performers in By A Thread, a physically and emotionally charged piece that uses long white ropes threaded through pulleys to connect the performers.

It’s a mix of high-level acrobatics and thoughtful choreography, with moments of tension, tenderness, humour and risk woven throughout.

If an acrobat is climbing one side of the rope, they can’t do so unless the other acrobats are securing the other side of the rope with their hands and their muscles.

“They’re literally holding that person up, and that creates a really interesting metaphor for connection, for trust and risk,” Rust said.

“We use that apparatus to explore, through a whole range of moods, what it’s like to be in human relationships, whether that’s romantic, whether it’s friendship, in groups and individuals.”

When it comes to risk, injuries are a factor in circus as with any physical pursuit, Rust said. For the most part, however, they tend to be chronic niggles, such as a sore back that occasionally makes itself known.

Doing 24 shows in four weeks in Edinburgh Fringe, there were days when you’d just want a day off, she said.

But after nine years of doing the show, the performers are skilled at making sure they are fit and ready and up to condition for the high level skills they showcase.

But there’s also “a lot of yoga and foam rollers and rest”, Rust said.

One Fell Swoop Circus perform By A Thread at the Theatre Royal on November 1 at 2pm and 7.30pm, and on November 2 at 11am. Tickets can be bought via https://nelsonartsfestival.nz/event/by-a-thread/.