THE WORLD AT OUR FEET
[An old hospital wheelchair is suspended in the air. A performer hangs from it, behind the chair, by their armpits. Their hands are free and close to their face but do not cover it and their feet dangle below. A performer with no lower legs sits below and to the side of the chair. They gaze towards the chair and performer.]
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PERFORMED BY: Vanessa Furlong and Erin Ball NARRATED BY: April Hubbard DIRECTED BY: Tracey Guptill CHOREOGRAPHY BY: LEGacy Circus and Rebecca Leonard ENHANCEMENTS FOR BLIND AUDIENCES BY: Alex Bulmer SPECIAL THANKS TO: Susan Murphy for additional direction and Michael S. Ryan for music |
Erin Ball and Vanessa Furlong of LEGacy Circus present The World at our Feet, a contemporary circus story. Follow the journey of Erin and Legacy (Vanessa) as they discover how full life is when you have so many different feet to choose from.
Aerial wheelchairs, circus prosthesis, stilts, trapeze… LEGacy Circus will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about storytelling and circus.
Aerial wheelchairs, circus prosthesis, stilts, trapeze… LEGacy Circus will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about storytelling and circus.
Alex Bulmer worked to enhance the show for Blind and partially sighted audiences. There is an ASL interpreter and it is a relaxed, all ages performance.
[Two performers are back to back on a trapeze. Their hands holds the ropes and they arch out, away from each other.]
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The World at Our Feet, won best direction and best circus show at the 2019 Halifax Fringe Festival. “ In my 25+ years of theatre going I have rarely been as moved by a show as I was by THE WORLD AT OUR FEET.” -Ryan William “ Thankful to have caught LEGacy Circus' The World at our Feet. The show was really powerful: it featured a powerful story, powerful performances, & powerful bodies. And, it was accessible to more audiences. I left in awe.” -Danielle Dungey ‘WE’RE ALREADY POWERFUL’: THEATRICAL CABARET GIVES PERFORMERS A CHANCE TO CHALLENGE PERCEPTIONS OF DISABILITY - CBC News-Manitoba |
THE TEAM
Vanessa Furlong has 15 years experience coaching all ages in theatre, clown, beginner&intermediate acrobatics, act creation, and stage presence. With a degree in Theatre and Music performance, and 15 years professional performance and instructor positions, Vanessa brings a great deal of insight into theatrical and circus related stage arts. Vanessa works with students of all abilities and has a keen understanding of social outreach based workshops and adaptable acrobatics alongside Erin.
Erin Ball is a circus artist and coach based in Kingston, Ontario and she is the owner of Kingston Circus Arts. She is mainly an aerialist but also does some hand balancing. She took a year off in March 2014 due to life changing events that resulted in having both lower legs removed. She has returned to her passion of training, coaching and performing. She loves adapting and creating new/different ways of executing skills.
Erin loves to move and to connect with others through movement and play. She has worked with many diverse groups of people. In 2017, she developed a workshop and manual, called Flying Footless, a course for aerial coaches working with amputees and aimed at increasing accessibility in circus arts in general. In 2018, she hosted her first amputee circus camp week at Kingston Circus Arts. Erin has taught circus to people with limb differences and various other adaptive individuals across Canada and the USA.
Erin has many current artistic projects, including her company LEGacy Circus with Vanessa Furlong, various aerial and ground works, and creative audio description projects (to make circus more accessible for the blind and partially-sighted community). Erin regularly collaborates with artists from across Canada and the US, including Femmes du Feu, Heidi Latsky Dance, Anandam Dance, Alex Bulmer, Michele Frances, and many more.
Erin also writes a column for The Kingston Whig Standard newspaper, called No Feet and a Heartbeat, about life since her accident.
Erin loves to move and to connect with others through movement and play. She has worked with many diverse groups of people. In 2017, she developed a workshop and manual, called Flying Footless, a course for aerial coaches working with amputees and aimed at increasing accessibility in circus arts in general. In 2018, she hosted her first amputee circus camp week at Kingston Circus Arts. Erin has taught circus to people with limb differences and various other adaptive individuals across Canada and the USA.
Erin has many current artistic projects, including her company LEGacy Circus with Vanessa Furlong, various aerial and ground works, and creative audio description projects (to make circus more accessible for the blind and partially-sighted community). Erin regularly collaborates with artists from across Canada and the US, including Femmes du Feu, Heidi Latsky Dance, Anandam Dance, Alex Bulmer, Michele Frances, and many more.
Erin also writes a column for The Kingston Whig Standard newspaper, called No Feet and a Heartbeat, about life since her accident.
ABOUT LEGACY CIRCUS
Erin and Vanessa met at Circus Sessions in Toronto in 2016. They were under mentorship through Adèll Nodé-Langlois to create a unique piece together using their leg attachments. Erin, a professional acrobat and aerialist, is a double below knee amputee who uses various leg attachments on floor and in air. Vanessa is a professional acrobat and aerialist who experiments in these fields using stilts. The results of their collaborations were so well received that they immediately created their collective “LEGacy Circus” and have been performing, researching and developing their full length show for the past two years.
Erin and Vanessa met at Circus Sessions in Toronto in 2016. They were under mentorship through Adèll Nodé-Langlois to create a unique piece together using their leg attachments. Erin, a professional acrobat and aerialist, is a double below knee amputee who uses various leg attachments on floor and in air. Vanessa is a professional acrobat and aerialist who experiments in these fields using stilts. The results of their collaborations were so well received that they immediately created their collective “LEGacy Circus” and have been performing, researching and developing their full length show for the past two years.