I\u2019m watching a young man dressed like a bird flying through the air under a big top when I look past him, outside the tent door opposite me, and see a line of people holding on to a rope, muscles straining and shining with sweat in Brisbane\u2019s muggy heat. My eyes trace the cable back inside and I realise that this rope and this group of people are what is holding the performer up in the air.<\/p>\n
Moments earlier, the rope wranglers were on stage themselves, dancing and performing acrobatic tricks. I don\u2019t know if this is how other circuses work but it\u2019s how things go with the Fijian Flying Circus<\/a>, whose performers are responsible for every bit of magic you see on stage \u2013 including the stage itself.<\/p>\n They also put up the tent and installed the seats. \u201cIf you came a day or two ago, we all had hard hats on and safety boots and hi-vis vests,\u201d says Navi Fong, the artistic director of Vou, the Fijian dance company behind the Flying Circus. We\u2019re sitting outside in a shady patch of rainforest just beyond South Bank Piazza, where the show has opened as part of the Brisbane festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2018Dance and singing has always been a part of what it is to be Fijian,\u2019 Navi Fong. Photograph: Asron Walker PhotographyTwo days earlier the jugglers were assembling scaffolding. Photograph: Aaron Walker Photography<\/p>\n Sitting to Fong\u2019s left is Michelle Seini Florence Barrack, a 21-year-old dancer, juggler and master of hair suspension, who two days earlier was assembling scaffolding. Two hours later, I will watch as she juggles rings and clubs. To Fong\u2019s right is Patrick Joseph Mecatric, also 21, who is a dancer and specialist in aerial silks. He\u2019ll be flying like a bird shortly, before staffing the snacks stall during interval.<\/p>\n Both performers, the youngest in the troupe, tell me they\u2019re pleased to have the extra skills \u2013 hard and soft. \u201cThe main thing I\u2019ve learned is teamwork; I\u2019ve also learned some accounting,\u201d Mecatric says.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Barrack says \u201clearning from the others really helped me grow as an individual\u201d. She\u2019s also trained in merchandise, stock management and book-keeping. \u201cIt helps me support my family back at home,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n When Vou launched the circus in 2024, the company was learning these administrative and technical skills \u201con the job, touring around the towns in Fiji\u201d, Fong says. The troupe of young dancers had only been trained in circus skills for a year. The company then took the show international, touring Tahiti, New Caledonia, New Zealand \u2013 and now Australia, including stops in Darwin, Sydney and Melbourne.<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s the kind of show that reminds you tricks are only half the circus experience; working the crowd is equally important.\u2019 Photograph: Aaron Walker Photography<\/p>\n It speaks toVou\u2019s incredible ambition and can-do attitude. Vou means \u201cnew\u201d and Fong, who joined 15 years ago as a teen, says its distinctive blend of traditional Fijian and contemporary dance \u201ccame out of a yearning of young people to make work that talked about us now\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cDance and singing has always been a part of what it is to be Fijian,\u201d he says, \u201cand I think for the longest time, even though the country was changing, the arts were tethered to the past. It was a great preservation of our traditional knowledge, but it was very hard as an urban Pacific Islander or Fijian to see yourself reflected in those stories.\u201d<\/p>\n Vou now offers the country\u2019s only accredited tertiary performing arts training: a two-year diploma covering dance (including ballet, jazz, hip-hop and Fijian cultural), theatre, circus, singing and drumming.<\/p>\n Back inside the big top, I see how this grab-bag of skills, styles and influences coalesces in a family-friendly show, set in a \u201cmystical world\u201d of cheeky spirits and elemental forces and loosely arranged around the story of a young girl on a quest to retrieve an enchanted shoe from a mischievous spirit.<\/p>\n Every extra dollar remaining after staff are paid helps to fund the company\u2019s scholarship program back in Fiji. Photograph: Aaron Walker Photography<\/p>\n The show\u2019s energetic young cast, all graduates from the Vou conservatorium, alternate between full-throated song, floor-shaking ensemble sequences and traditional circus acts including juggling, trapeze, tight-rope and aerials. Sometimes, they wear traditional costumes, with vesa (arm and calf bands made from hibiscus bark) and liku vau (hibiscus bark skirts). Sometimes, they wear sequins.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a lo-fi, high-energy mix, fuelled by the natural charisma and easy charm of the performers, who use physical theatre to communicate the story and marshal the audience into a call and response of clapping and hollering. It\u2019s the kind of show that reminds you tricks are only half the circus experience; working the crowd is equally important.<\/p>\n The most important thing for these performers, however, is what is happening back at home. Once their salaries are paid, every extra dollar from ticket, merchandise and food and beverage sales goes towards funding Vou\u2019s scholarship program, which provides free tuition, board and stipends to between 12 and 14 students annually from around Fiji. After graduation, they\u2019re guaranteed paid full-time work with Vou.<\/p>\n The circus comes to Melbourne and Sydney after its Brisbane run. Photograph: Aaron Walker<\/p>\n \u201cIn Fiji, the avenues for a successful life are narrow,\u201d says Fong, pointing to the country\u2019s current HIV and drug addiction crises<\/a>. \u201cThe education system, [traditional] career pathways \u2013 they don\u2019t fit everyone \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cWe won\u2019t catch everyone, but there\u2019s a few people that are going to come in through our system that, had it not been for [this opportunity], might have been part of the statistics.\u201d<\/p>\n