Interview with Circus Arts BA Hons Student Vee Smith
with Sarah Beaumont Liberti
Vee is about to graduate with a BA Hons in Circus Arts and has recently performed her Devised Piece in our production of ‘Ghosts’. During her time at the National Centre for Circus Arts, Vee was awarded the Leverhulme Scholarship.
How did you get into circus?
After graduating from my first degree in Film and Television Analysis with Comparative Literature, I started doing some burlesque and cabaret which turned into live art and Avant-garde performances. Whilst in Stuttgart, I met some circus artists and became inspired so I went back to Glasgow and started doing evening classes at Ariel Edge. Up until then, everything I’d done had been self-taught. I went to Circus Warehouse in New York and trained there for three months. On my return, I was accepted onto the Foundation Degree here at the National Centre and I turned 30 in the first year. I’d started circus training when I was about 27, with no previous experience - I wasn’t even fit.
Tell us about your journey here at the National Centre?
In addition to all of the amazing physical things I’ve learnt, I think the biggest journey has probably been my own development as an artist. Before I started the degree, I felt that I was kind of chancing my arm. I found it really hard to be in the professional arts world with no formal training. Now after having done the degree, I feel like a professional artist and I feel confident going out into the world. I realised that you can’t really change who you are - I look at myself and say ‘you can only be a better version of yourself.’ There’s enough space in the circus industry for all types of creative people; whether that’s people that are amazingly physically gifted or people who are more creative. I think one of the good things about the National Centre and about British circus is that it allows space for all of those different types.
What has been the highlight in your time here?
The moment that springs to mind is when I performed cradle with Ruby Gaskell during the production of Soho, our 2nd year ensemble. I’d never flown out of lines before so it was amazing to show that two women can do something so powerful.
What’s the most difficult thing you’ve learned?
I’m an aerialist and I’m terrified of static height. If I’m on a lunge liner or I’m clipped into a rigging harness and I’m spinning or swinging at height, I’m perfectly fine. If I’m static and more than two meters off the ground, I get really stressed out! This fear could have had a severe impact on my career and it’s been a really interesting process to learn strategies to overcome the fear and to not let it hold me back.
Tell us about your chosen discipline, Dance Trapeze, what made you choose this?
Dance trapeze is rigged from a single point so the ropes come up in a triangle and I’m really short so it kind of fits my frame- I feel nice and secure in it. It’s a very expressive discipline and it’s come a long way after not being all that popular. It incorporates techniques from rope, trapeze and strap as well so it’s a pretty versatile piece of Ariel equipment, plus I get to sit down sometimes too, which is nice!
You’ve recently been awarded a Leverhulme Trust scholarship. How had this helped you?
I was really honoured to be awarded the Leverhulme scholarship. Although I think I coped well on the degree, I was surrounded by people who are at least 10 years younger than me and often it was a challenge to keep up. It was really touching to see that my contributions on the degree had been recognised; it makes me feel some form of validation and legitimacy. Obviously the financial support was incredible as it meant that I’ve not had to worry about finding tuition fees for the last part of term. I’ve got a little bit of a buffer to help support me in the difficult period between graduating and finding some kind of income or a pathway.
You’ve just performed your Devised Piece in the production of ‘Ghosts’. How did that go?
The experience of doing the devised piece production was amazing- I’ve learnt so much about performing at that really high spec level within a full scale production. When you come from Cabaret, you don’t have access to Lighting Designers, Sound Technicians and Stage Managers. Having the height that’s available in the Combustion Chamber here at the National Centre is something that I’m unlikely to have access to again- being able to make a piece that really used all of the space and the capacity of my equipment was an amazing experience. I wanted to make something that really confronted the concept of risk. When you read about contemporary circus and what makes it circus rather than dance and performance - one of the things that it keeps on coming back to is the concept of risk. If it involves risk then it is definitely more circus than dance or physical theatre. When you perform or see a lot of circus, a lot of that danger and magic is taken away as you know that the tricks are safe. I saw a performance called La Meute at Edinburgh Fringe and it made me gasp so I wanted to give that feeling back to the audience as I know with experienced audience members that feeling can often go away. I also wanted to play a lot with the media image. So much of how we experience performance now is mediated through the screen is mediated through television or editing our YouTube videos so I wanted to work with a more disjointed narrative so my piece has lots of blackouts and height changes that in my mind sort of represent editing. It’s a way of trying to bridge this idea of edited performance and the live performance in one to see if, again maybe because I studied film, the emotional and narrative function of a disjointed narrative that you see through editing and film- can that be translated onto the live stage.
What’s next - what are your plans after graduating?
I am hoping to do a series of circus discussion seminars at the Edinburgh Fringe Participant’s Services- it’s going to be called ‘Damn Everything but the Circus’. I’ve got ideas for ensemble productions and for solo work so I’m hoping to stay in London. I’d also like to do a PHD at some point - possibly on the ‘Rise and Development of Contemporary British Circus’ because contemporary British circus is broadly undocumented.
