Ella Horner Dreams from the Second Floor Interview

Ella Horner Dreams from the Second Floor Interview

Internationally renowned director Firenza Guidi, from NoFit State Circus in Wales, is creating a dynamic live circus experience featuring NICA's graduating artists. This site-specific performance opens on 26 November and runs until 6 December, at the custom built National Circus Centre in Prahran.

'Every show that I do is a book of dreams", says Firenza Guidi, "I sell dreams. Most things in life are random. Like the sequence of pictures in a dream."

Audiences can expect a unique encounter. The creative process and technical components will be on display in this site-specific work which engages with the NICA National Circus Centre in an innovative way. There is no back stage - this is a performance which will be fabricated in front of the eyes of the audience!

Raw, raucous and infectious, Dreams from the Second Floor will explore different types of dreams from those which come to us at night, sometimes so vivid that we can smell and taste and touch, to those which we carry with us through our waking reality. Witness performers weave their way through their own dreams - where things are uncharted and the world is upside down.

Twenty one multi-talented artists will present high level circus skills on a range of apparatus including: Aerial Ring, Aerial Straps, Contortion, Rope, German Wheel, Hand Balancing, Hula Hoops, Roue Cyr, Dance Trapeze, Tightwire and Tumbling.

NICA is Australia's Centre of Excellence for training in contemporary circus arts. It is one of eight national arts training institutes and offers Australia's only Bachelor of Circus Arts. Graduates of NICA have gone on to pursue exciting careers both locally and internationally and have contributed to the development of Melbourne's vibrant circus arts industry. The course is accredited by Swinburne University of Technology and attracts applicants from around the world.

Tickets are on sale now at www.nica.com.au

The National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) presents:
Dreams From The Second Floor

Director: Firenza Guidi
26 November – 6 December 2014
NICA National Circus Centre
39 - 59 Green Street, Prahran
Session dates and times:
Dates: 26 - 29 November and 3 - 6 December 2014
Times: 7.30pm, Sat 1.30pm and 7.30pm (90 minutes)
Tickets:
General Admission
Adult $33 / Concession $27 / Child U16 $22

Family (2 adults & 2 children) $88
Family (2 adults & 3 children) $105
Groups (min 10) $25pp
Parental guidance recommended (PG)
Bookings: www.nica.com.au

Interview with Ella Horner

Ella fell in love with circus at the age of 7 when she was accepted in to the acclaimed Flying Fruit Fly Circus. Through touring extensively with award winning productions, Ella continued to diversify her performance repertoire and at age15 landed the lead role of Ringmaster in Joining the Chorus's production of Barnum the musical. Offered the rare opportunity to attend the National Institute of Circus Arts and simultaneously complete her schooling at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, Ella was awarded for commitment to her studies (NICA) and won academic student of the year (VCASS) in 2010. Now, as a student of an elite institution and young yet established performing artist, Ella's passion is to entertain anyone and everyone, anywhere and everywhere with her innovative and exciting circus work.

Question: What inspired your love of circus?

Ella Horner: NICA is an amazing institution that is very different to any university in the Australia and most in the world. My classroom is a training centre full of acrobatic equipment instead of text books and computers. Of course we do theory work as well, but the majority of my study involves flipping and spinning and stretching until I fall over.


Question: Why did you want to attend NICA National Circus Centre?

Ella Horner: Circus has been a huge part of my life for basically as long as I can remember. I grew up training and performing circus and very much wanted to make that lifestyle my profession. Going to NICA offered me the opportunity to expand and refine the skills that I had learned as a kid in an amazing facility and work with some truly amazing people.


Question: Can you talk about your move from Albury to St Kilda to attend the NICA National Circus Centre?

Ella Horner: Moving to Melbourne away from all of my friends and family was one of the biggest and scariest decisions I have ever made. I had just turned 16, had never lived anywhere else and was very happy where I was. However I knew that there were new exciting experiences to be had that simply would never happen if I stayed in Albury. It was a huge step, but one that led to a whole new world adventures and friends. Now it's something that I often think about when I have a tough decision to make and gives me confidence to take risks.


Question: Which of the circus skills do you specialise in?

Ella Horner: At NICA I specialised in Aerial Cube, Contortion handstands and Teeterboard.


Question: How does it feel to be graduating?

Ella Horner: In a lot of ways graduating NICA feels like moving out of home. Over the last 5 years NICA has become a home and the people there have become family. It feels scary to be leaving the place you know so well and moving away from people who love you, but what lies beyond your place of comfort is incredibly exciting and those people and that home will always be there. I can't wait to experience the world in new ways and perform professionally!


Question: What does the title Dreams from the Second Floor mean to you?

Ella Horner: Dreams of the Second floor means lots of things to me, but mainly it is about possibility and freedom. Dreams of the Second floor is about all different kinds of dreams – the ones we have at night and the visions we have of our future. Happy dreams, sad dreams, exciting dreams and straight up weird dreams. The show is about anything being possible and having the ultimate freedom to explore who you are in these worlds without risk of punishment or failure.


Question: Can you talk us through your role in the Dreams from the Second Floor show?

Ella Horner: As a performer in this company, our job is give the audience an experience, to make them think and make their hearts race. I might sounds strange that as physical performers we put so much focus on these abstract ideas, but to really make a performance memorable we have to be able to do more than just amazing tricks.

Question: What work has gone into rehearsing for the Dreams from the Second Floor show?

Ella Horner: Gratuitous amounts of blood, sweat and tears (literally) has gone in to the making of this show from all of the performers, our crew and of course our incredible director. Every person that has been a part of this show has spent years and years training their specific skills to be ready for this kind of work. There is no such thing as a 9-5 day on a production like this. Besides the fact that pulling something like this together just takes more physical hours than that, once you're in the creation of the show, it becomes your life. You go to sleep thinking about your routines, you walk down the street and see images that give you ideas for the show. It's completely consuming, but that's what makes it so rewarding when you finally take it to the stage.


Question: What is it like working with Firenza Guidi?

Ella Horner: Working with Frienza, there is never a dull moment. Frienza brings an unimaginable wealth of experience and creative wisdom to the table and it's up to us young, emerging performers to try and soak up every drop of it that we can. I think Firenza summed up what the experience would be like perfectly on day one. She said 'Creating a show should never be a chore. You are performers and performing is what you live for so fasten your seat belts and love every moment of this."


Question: How do you feel about the fact there is no back stage in Dreams from the Second Floor?

Ella Horner: At first it was a little daunting that we would not have any space where we could not be seen by the audience, but Firenza was very up front about this and gave us plenty of warning and made us feel very confident that we could own that space. She gave us the freedom and the responsibility to make the space ours and now we love it!


Interview by Brooke Hunter