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BRAVE FACE FOR BRAVE SPACE The eight-person circus group relies on audience participation in their circus show. PHOTO: MICHELLE REID
Cracking the Safe JUNE 12-18, 2019 | GOODTIMES.SC | SANTACRUZ.COM
Women’s circus troupe Aloft turns ‘safe space’ into ‘Brave Space’ BY GEORGIA JOHNSON
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loft circus group never intended to be an allfemale and non-binary troupe. That’s just the way it happened. “It just felt right to us,” Aloft artistic director Shayna Swanson says. “It came through the process. It wasn’t an advance decision.”
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But Swanson admits that since the group itself is pretty feminist, the gender breakdown isn’t really a surprise. “In some circus acts, the men are strong and the women are pining after him and things like that,” she says. “These very stereotypical plays
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between men and women in circuses are frequently represented, and it’s so boring. I’m so tired of it.” A contemporary do-it-yourself circus group based in Chicago, Aloft is visiting Santa Cruz next week to perform their Brave Space show incorporating aerial arts, hoops and
silks, and acrobatics. This summer seems to be the time of the circus in Santa Cruz. With the Venardos Circus just wrapped up in San Lorenzo Park, and Flynn Creek Circus visiting Scotts Valley next month, Santa Cruz is being been overrun by big tops. But Swanson
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