Ten Thousand Hours

Everybody is a master of something.

Blink, step, jump, balance, flip, fly.

This is an ode to the countless hours needed to achieve great things.

A tribute to the dedication required to realize our physical ambitions.

An acknowledgement of the backstory that is often more spectacular than the finished product.

Eight world class acrobats investigate physical skill; how we obtain it, how we perfect it, and how it can transform our lives. Through highlighting the nuance of high-level acrobatics, audiences experience a heightened appreciation of the countless hours required to master the skills they are witnessing.

This is a love letter to our bodies and the amazing things they let us do every day. This is an invitation to watch us work.

Gravity and Other Myths is a circus company with roots in Adelaide, Australia who use an honest approach to performance to create work with a focus on human connection and acrobatic virtuosity. Through this, they hope to maintain an exceptional and diverse artistic program. After forming in 2009 as a group of young Adelaide artists with a passion for circus and physical theatre, they’ve spent the past 13 years growing steadily and creating six critically acclaimed main stage works.

Their work strives to nurture human connection while challenging the genre of circus through conceptual sophistication and acrobatic virtuosity. They employ an honest approach to performance, illuminating the complexities of humanity through ingenuity, humour, and physical prowess.

The predominantly ensemble driven creative process encourages their artists to engage deeply with the work they are inhabiting and allows true investment in and commitment to the company's core values.

As a leader of contemporary circus in Australia, it is Gravity and Other Myths’ responsibility to continue to challenge circus as an artform.

Join us for more! Immediately following the performance, local artist Jane Kirby will host a “Talkback” with the company, giving you the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the performance.  

Jane Kirby is an aerialist specializing in vertical apparatus. She recently returned from an eight-month tour of the Southern U.S. and B.C. as an aerialist with the Caravan Stage Company’s original production Nomadic Tempest. She began her circus training and performance career with Halifax Circus, has performed frequently across Ontario and Nova Scotia, and has trained with several top coaches in Montreal, Toronto and Vermont. She now mostly creates her own work, often in collaboration with her partner under the name Lowlit Aerial Arts (lowlitaerialarts.ca). Recent works include In Defense of Libraries (Nocturne Halifax 2016), Beneath Our Feet (Kick & Push Theatre Festival 2016) and echolocation (Skeleton Park Arts Festival 2015, In the Soil Arts Festival 2015, Contemporary Circus Arts Festival of Toronto 2014). Jane has been teaching aerial arts since 2011, and has completed Introductory Aerials and Foundation Level Trapeze and Fabric teacher training courses through the New England Centre for Circus Arts. When not in the air Jane is also a non-fiction writer, and published her first book in 2017. She is thrilled to be back teaching and training with the Kingston Circus Arts community!

Jane was a 2023 Kingston Grand Theatre Local Artist-in-Residence.