Vulcana Circus has been an integral part of the cultural landscape of Queensland since 1995. Vulcana takes its name from a British strong woman who performed amazing feats of strength in the early part of the twentieth century. She was an early feminist, lobbying against the wearing of corsets and other restrictive clothing for women, and Vulcana is proud to take its name from this inspiring forebear of women’s circus (who could lift an adult above her head with one arm).
Vulcana was established to counter a major discrepancy between women’ and men’s experience of circus, both in training and in the expectation of how and what they perform. Vulcana now welcomes women, trans and non-binary gendered adults, kids and teens of all genders, to its inclusive circus training, performance making projects, and community engagement programs. It is an incubator for new, emerging and professional artists who have developed their passion as practitioners, performers and teachers in this art form that offers every body a place to explore their uniqueness and their creativity.
Vulcana respects diversity and the feminist principles of equity and inclusion which are central to all our work and the starting point for engagement with students, participants, communities and artists.
Across all our performance work we aim to represent diverse stories, bodies, abilities and creative responses. Circus provides a shared physical language for people of all backgrounds to explore, express, and build connections. It contains the ideas of freedom, transgression and risk. And within the structure of circus activity is the physical reality of cooperation, exploration, trust, strength, and daring.