Brave Space
By Aloft Circus Arts
“Playful and immersive, Brave Space is a bold yet delicate community experience for all ages.”
“Everything the troupe performs is completed with love and support. The performers smile broadly throughout, radiating joy, and in between movements there are hugs: are the women lovers, sisters, friends? The specifics don’t matter, the love displayed is pure and unconditional. That love is shared with the audience too...the message is clear: we trust you to be a valued part of our community.”
Building a world of wonder, one shared moment at a time. Where trust lifts us up, and the extraordinary unfolds.
"Brave Space" is an impulsive congregation in the tiniest of tents. Starting as a puddle of fabric on the floor, it grows to encompass a world of wondrous circus. Intimate and low-tech, we invite the audience to sit nose-to-nose with an all-female cast to build the world we want to live in, even for only a few shared moments. Inspired by the idea of creating community in divisive times, and designed to be able to pop up almost anywhere. Brave Space requires 100% trust between performers and audience as together we physically construct the show and keep the artists aloft.
“You have heard how it takes a village to raise a child. It takes an audience to help build this astonishing, often rapturously beautiful circus show from Chicago company Aloft. The tricks never feel flashy and are performed with an easy humour, direct eye contact and a bond of confidence that blooms quickly between audience and performer. The proximity of their dusty soles and bandaged joints lets you sense, however briefly, a circus company’s close-knit nature.”
Inspired by the idea of creating trusting communities in trying and dangerous times, Brave Space starts as a puddle 250 yards of fabric on the floor, and, with the help of the audience, grows into a massive blanket fort-a world of hope that includes aerial arts, acrobatics, juggling and balancing on 8 ft high poles. A show that is impossible to perform without an audience, each act in Brave Space is designed to physically draw spectators into the experience of putting oneself on the line for the safety andwell-beingg of at-risk members of a community. The audience becomes a part of the show, sometimes helping to build the physical space, sometimes holding ropes that keep trapeze artists aloft, sometimes standing so close to the performers you can hear their hearts beating.
Brave Space was created as an antidote to the horrors of the daily news cycle. It’s not a “safe space,” but, an immersive performance that requires the audience and artists to show up as their best selves, encouraging them to care for themselves and those around them. “I wanted to create a show that felt like the opposite of the Handmaid’s Tale--something empowering. I wanted to create the world I want to live in, even if it only exists for an hour at a time,” director Shayna Swanson explains.
About Aloft Circus Arts
Founded in 2005, Aloft Circus Arts brings heart and artistry to a performance art usually associated with physical strength and fearlessness. The resulting shows highlight more than just the physical capacity to fly, twist, balance, and spin - we celebrate the human capacity for sensitivity as well as strength, beauty as well as bravery, empathy as well as pure creative fire. Our performers are some of the premier athletes in the world, from a diverse range of circus acts - but when we work together, the stories we share with the audience are always about the feelings and experiences that unite us all. We look to have a direct emotional dialogue with our audience, and due to our accessible nature, everyone regardless of education, age, culture or background can be engaged.
Aloft has produced 8 full length shows and performed countless one-off performances around the world. Our ongoing shows “El Circo Cheapo Cabaret” and “Sanctuary” have gained a cult following in Chicago, selling out every monthly show for the last 11 years! In addition to performances, Aloft runs one of the largest circus schools in the United States, creating a training center for new artists so that we always have exciting new talent to bring our productions to life.
