Coming to cSpace Marda Loop this November is a new double billed circus show that seeks to explore the gamut of human emotion through unique combinations of circus and theatre.

Free Falling, presented on stage from Nov. 28 through 30, combines two stage shows from creators Leda Davies and Holly Benedetti.

Davies, through the Screaming Goats Collective, is presenting Fish at the Bottom of the Sea through the circus medium, using a unique aerial bungee apparatus designed to embody struggle and grief through underwater themes.

“Fish at the Bottom of the Sea, the script, was actually created before circus came into mind. It was written by Nicole Schafenacker… and she had experienced her own personal loss, and was using it as a platform for her to navigate that. When I was doing my master’s program, I was looking for some text and Liz Hobbs, who became the director of the project, suggested the text to me,” said Davies.

“What’s really beautiful about that text, particularly is it’s quite poetic. It’s a little bit more abstract, and the circus really helps enhance and tell the story. So, where you have underwater themes, the bungee gives it that sense of buoyancy, that feeling of being underwater, and also that kind of like resistance to wanting to move forward as we do out of grief, and then getting pulled back in.”

She said that her experiences through the pandemic, and the loss of her father, led to her choreographing the work.

“We lost a way of living, a way of being in our community, which many people are still experiencing, and a loss of culture, perhaps that some people might be experiencing. And a loss of identity,” Davies said.

One of the other unique aspects of Free Falling, outside of being a double circus bill, is that there is a planned talk back at the end of the performances facilitated by the Being Human Club.

“They’re a feminist and trauma-informed collective of therapists in Calgary, and so they will help facilitate the conversation at the end of the show. We have professional therapists that will help guide that conversation so that people feel safe and like they can participate,” Davies said.

“Something that we noticed is that the pieces aren’t heavy, per se—there’s humour and there’s wonder and spectacle involved. But at the end, I think because of the circus element, because of the movement element, we’re kind of left feeling like, ‘whoa, what was that? And I’m feeling things, and I don’t know how to process this.'”

Part of that, said Davies, comes from performing a type of contemporary circus that is entirely different from what audiences might expect from spectacle circus like Cirque du Soleil.

“In Calgary, we don’t really get to see a lot of that. We see Cirque du Soleil when it comes, which is really cool, but there’s a whole side of contemporary circus that we’re not as exposed to. So when I came back, I really wanted my community to see this other side of circus,” she said.

“So by bringing Holly in, I get to also kind of have that Eastern connection and show Calgary audiences other kinds of circus that we can experience.”

For her part, Benedetti will be presenting through Femmes du Feu Creations her work of In the Fire, which captures stories of being a firefighter based on her father’s experiences.

“This show is about fire, but this show is also about memories, trauma, and my relationship with my Dad. It’s an homage to all the Firefighters out there, and to all those who have lost something or someone to fire,” she said.

That performance also uses a unique circus apparatus created out of firefighting equipment.

“She’s taken firefighting equipment, like a fireman hose and a fireman jacket and a ladder, and turned them into circus equipment. So they both kind of have this really unique way of approaching circus, and my company’s mandate is also to kind of bridge this gap between eastern and western circus arts,” said Davies.

Tickets for Free Falling are on sale now at www.showpass.com/free-fallings-a-contemporary-circus-double-bill.