Jascha Boyce

Angle: World class talent born and bred in Adelaide

It is not news that this two years has been a challenge for many, particularly touring artists. However, for Adelaide born and globally acclaimed circus company Gravity and Other Myths, this forced break has been a blessing in disguise.

Jascha Boyce, a touring circus performer, producer and one of six founding directors of the international brand sits across from me in the circular library of the State Theatre.

We are only a few kilometres from where her career in the world of acrobatics began at Cirkidz in Brompton.

“I started doing classes one day a week when I was four, kind of instead of doing gymnastics or playing sport, and just absolutely loved it and never left,” said Jascha.

At age 9, Jascha joined the company’s performing troupe, training three to five times a week and performing regularly to audiences across the state including in the biggest Fringe in the Southern Hemisphere, the Adelaide Fringe.

In 2009 when Jascha graduated from the troup after 10 years of performing with the same team. However, her and 6 other friends decided that they wanted to continue training together. They created their first show and then their own company, Gravity and Other Myths or GOM.

The company’s first show Freefall premiered at Theatre Works in Victoria and then at the Adelaide Fringe with a sold out season and two awards.

“It was very exciting and our first year in Fringe was a huge success and we won the Best Circus award, which we just were not expecting at all,” said Jascha.

After their 2013 Edinburgh fringe show, the team thought this would be the end of the company.

However, it was only the beginning of many successes to come. It was in Edinburgh that their agent found them and within a month, a whole year of touring was planned. Today, the company has grown to include 30 circus performers.

Before COVID-19 Pandemic, GOM had three teams, presenting three different shows and touring globally for up to 11 months of the year. A lifestyle like that has many ups and downs, but one of the things Jascha loves most is the tight knit global circus community.

“One of the special things about it, is that you can turn up in a city that you’ve never been to before, find the local circus training space, drop in and you will instantly find connections with people and have friends in common.”

These connections only make the buzz of the Adelaide festival season even stronger for our internationally acclaimed artists.

“During Fringe time having that whole community come to my home town is such an amazing experience,” said Jascha.

Despite living in other parts of the world for most of the year, Jascha hasn’t missed Adelaide’s festival season in more than a decade but her love for the festivals started long before she ever performed.

“I grew up going to the Fringe and Adelaide Festival and kind of all the other little festivals in between from a really young age. I was, like, at the first WOMAD ever when I was two, I think. I still have a T-shirt,” Jascha laughed.

Her earliest memory of the festival was when she was six-years-old when she saw a street performance by Albury-Wodonga based, Flying Fruit Flies Circus.

This influenced her desire to continue circus training. Then, just 3 years later, in 1999 she attended for the first time as a circus performer.

It is this history that informs the work that GOM and Jascha do now. Despite their ever growing international success, when the pandemic hit, they returned home and began to build roots in Adelaide with the hope of giving back to the creative communities here.

“Adelaide, really, has – I mean, the Adelaide Fringe and Adelaide Festival really did build us as a company, so I think it is really important for us now to be able to give back”

In the past two years, the company has created two knew shows and hired many new emerging performers so they’ll be ready to hit the road once borders open.

But while they’re here Jascha is making the most of being back in the festival city. She’s been working at the Royal Croquet Club, RCC, bringing her love of production and circus together to create immersive entertainment.

In 2021, Jascha was a co-artistic director of the entire program, working with a staff of 50 to bring to life new experiences for festival goers.

With her husband, Jascha co-founded Pulsing Heart, a company that creates large scale art installations.

The work of Pulsing Heart and GOM have been included in some of her most recent programming at RCC. While they enjoy making use of international connections in the programming, Jascha is passionate about finding emerging creators giving them a platform.

“The thing that really excites us is finding – I guess being able to find, like, the hidden or up-and-coming artists that actually haven’t had that much experience presenting work yet and use that as a bit of a launch pad,” said Jascha.

As Adelaide, the Festival City continues to grow, for artists like Jascha, it is a testing ground where experimental work is well received and supported by the community.

“Working kind of on both sides of the festival as an artist and a director and also as a programmer, it’s like – it’s very empowering to be able to consider Adelaide as a place that you can start a festival and, potentially, trial a festival that then goes somewhere else,” said Jascha.

 
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This article is part of the Festival City Stories series, a collection of reflections about Adelaide made by the people who make this a festival place. The project was funded through the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Arts South Australia, Arts Recovery Fund, and delivered in partnership with the State Library of South Australia. 

Written by: Manal Younus

Photography by: Thomas McCammon