No Man’s Land

No Man’s Land is an outdoor aerial site specific performance that is directed and performed by a monster. By monster, we mean a mash-up of the brains and bodies of aerialists, rigger, sound artist, producer, shakers and mess makers.

Through engaging physically with the various sites, we look at how spaces shift and change creating dreamlike and disorienting worlds with our bodies, ropes and intelligently designed rigging.

Through a relation with space we look at the contours, boundaries and borders and most importantly the spaces in between.

The audience are met by The tour guide, who introduces them to the rules and regulations of No Man’s Land. They are then taken on a strange and absurd journey and meet a multitude of other characters … a sneak might smuggle some oi to the official tour, some might get invited to a jogging session by a very enthusiastic jogger or get mesmerised and confused by multi limbed monster who will show then the dark and wonderful corners. Each performance is carefully tailored to each space it takes place. Ropes and people will dangle from trees, buildings, beams…

We want the audience to be asking themselves: What are the rules of this space? Who holds power? What are the ethics of this place? What is your responsibility as a spectator? All this while being dazzled and dazed and dancing!

Collectif and then… is a monster. It has many limbs, many eyes, many voices and many qualities that we don’t have the vocabulary for. The monster has devoured artists, thinkers & mischief makers.

The core 5 artists in the belly of the beast are aerialists heavily entangled in the ropes of circus, but have also grown out into other realms such as fine art, theatre, dance, building and activism.

It was born in 2010 when the first 3 members came together and realised their collective work could not be individuated and untangled and made them all co-authors.
Their first project was to create an aerial street performance aboard a canal boat mounted with a circus rig on the Canal du Midi, France.This project is ongoing and can be found popping up on the waterways of London.

As a collective, they travelled the world with a multitude of performances travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Ipswich, Prague to Amsterdam, villages to metropoles. In 2016 they won the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award for their immersive participative circus performance with Karkatag Kollektiv.

They are big & strong and have beaming smiles! They opt for disgrace over grace, elephant over elegant and naughty over nice. They are proud that reviewers have noted their ‘ungainly’ style. They are overambitious, delicious and nutritious.They try very hard at most things they set their minds to. They are quite charming. They are submerged in their work, occasionally emerge and lovingly converge.