Finding the Silence performs at Baycourt on 22 and 23 October. Photo/supplied
Finding the Silence performs at Baycourt on 22 and 23 October. Photo/supplied
AS A youngster, Emma Serjeant was an elite gymnast, but freely admits that after her family moved from England to Australia, she started going off the rails. What saved her was running away to join the circus. "I'd been teaching a circus performer to tumble at a gym club and hesaid I should train at the circus school. "Every day for weeks, I'd been walking past a poster advertising auditions for the National Institute of Circus Arts and when I decided to do it, realised I was too late. But I rang them anyway and they said 'come along' - and I aced the audition." Six months later she joined the National Institute of Circus Arts in Brisbane and from that moment, Serjeant says, she blossomed.
"Circus is an art form that's not biased. There are so many things you can be. You'll find one that suits your body type and natural talents. If you work with the body and the mind, the thing you love will find you."
In 2011, Serjeant and three others founded Casus circus company - and then sold an unmade show to a festival. Three frantic weeks later, Knee Deep debuted and went on to tour Europe before wowing audiences at the 2013 Tauranga Arts Festival. The show was last month awarded Best Circus Show at the Avignon Festival in France, a real accolade Serjeant says, because circus is a living part of French culture.
"At 10.40am in Avignon, the ticket queue for Knee Deep was out the door and we were selling seats in the aisles - and that was before the award was announced. For a little company from Australia, that was a very proud moment."
Casus now has four touring shows, including Finding the Silence, which premiered last year and is coming to this year's Tauranga Arts Festival in October.
The inspiration for Silence is the sort of story only a circus performer could tell. "I was trying to balance on one arm on someone's head when I realised I only nailed it when my brain went completely silent.
"From there, we developed concepts about the struggle between body and mind, the constant search for silence and happiness. The beauty about silence is that it's never going to last, but getting into that flow state where time just disappears is magic."
Due to a shoulder injury that requires surgery, 31-one-year-old Serjeant is this year working as a promoter and developing a solo show.
"I imagine I'll have another 10 years when I come back - older performers get smarter with technique. I've already stopped doing backflips at parties so there's hope for me yet."
