Talking Passions: Sunken Circus

This week Talking Passions features the beautiful girls from Sunken Circus. Hailing from Winchester but spreading their incredible talent for street theatre and circus performance up and down the country, Phoebe Hoyle and Catherine Arnaboldi set up Sunken Circus a year ago and it’s gone from strength to strength, gaining them a fantastic reputation among festival goers! Adam managed to catch up with them recently for a cup of tea and a chat about their passion for performing arts.

Adam Chisman (TP). “As young girls what did you want to be when you grew up and how did you get to where you are now?”

Catherine Arnaboldi (C). “When I was younger I knew I always wanted to perform but I think I saw myself doing maybe musical theater. I never really knew about outdoor art, street art, street theater, things like that. I always wanted to perform but I never knew exactly what, I think the stereotypical Lion King or something. I always loved things like that and still do. When I was in school I’d always get involved with the school shows, I’d always be doing dance club, and then it wasn’t until I got to uni, until I found the course, that I realized there was a broader thing with musical theater and performing. I got more into circus and street theater, and there were more doorways.”

Phoebe Hoyle (P). “I was pretty much the same to be fair. I’ve always performed, dance and singing. I got into physical theater in college, and then was either going to apply to a drama school or the street arts course degree. I went there (Street arts) and got really into circus and aerial silks, which we’ve been training in for the last couple of years, and met Catherine, and then in our second year we were like, ‘Yeah, let’s make something together.’ Then I’ve been training in circus, silks and movement and design stuff ever since.”

TP. “Awesome, and I’ve seen you performing and have to say it’s phenomenal. What is it about what you do that makes you love it so much?”

C. “We love it for different reasons.”

P. “Yeah, we have a different range of performances so we love just getting up and doing aerial or circus as actual performers, and as a duo, because the feeling when you’re performing is just great!”

C. “And when you’ve been working on something for so long as well, it’s nice to finally do it, it kind of all pays off. We’ve been training in silks now for three years now, so you have to get good enough to get to a standard to be able to perform it, and when you feel like you can perform it and It’s like, ‘Oh, actually this is alright!”

P. “And then we also do other stuff as well as doing the whole performing circuit. We do stuff with kids, so that’s very rewarding knowing that someone’s enjoying and appreciating what you’re doing, and community work as well is nice. And we do a couple of charity gigs a month which we always like getting involved in, and then we do things like childrens parties to workshops at festivals. When you know the kids love what you’re doing.. and we do things like taking kids away from their families and getting them messy in paint, and they have to go back to their parents covered. It’s nice just letting them play and have fun, and then when we’re performing we just love it.”

TP. “Awesome, and you’re inspiring the next generation too in a way. Who do you look to for inspiration when coming up with a new routine and things like that?”

C. “I love Cirque Du Soleil, they are my fave. I could spend hours watching their Youtube videos, and I think I’ve seen every single video possible that’s out there.” 

P. “Just seeing talented circus acts. Even the person who’s trained us in silks Tori, she’s incredible at what she does, and she’s based in Southampton, but seeing the determination someone’s got to do something really well, and who’s really modest about what they do really pushes you so much more. That’s what’s pushed me in silks, in training, seeing that you can always do better. She’s a pretty big inspiration of ours.”

C. “Yeah, and even sights like Pinterest and Cirque Du Soleil for costume ideas, because they always have a story behind their acts which is really nice. Because we’re always making new costumes.”

P. “Do you know what actually, it comes from all over the place, because recently Me and Catherine got dragged along to watch the new Star Wars, and we really weren’t keen, but we were watching the 3D version so got the glasses. We sat down and were like, ‘Oh my God, this could be one of our costumes!’ So we got this sci-fi style Star Wars costume from that. Inspiration literally comes from anywhere.”

TP. “Fantastic. Yeah, I guess I’d forgotten about the make up and theatrical side of it, because the whole thing is a big show, and you’re taking people into your own magical world.”

P. “Yeah, so our ‘Disco Space Divas’ came from watching Star Wars with 3D glasses.. that we didn’t even wanna watch.”

C. “But something good came out of it. We did pinch the 3D glasses though so sorry Odeon.” 

TP. “I’m sure they don’t mind, they went to a better place. So we’re heading into festival season now, and I know that you have done quite a lot before, and I imagine you must have had some pretty special moments together. Can you tell me about one of your favourite festival performances?”

C. “That’s hard because I don’t have a favourite, I like things for different reasons. So in our second year Me and Phoebe went to Slovenia and Austria and we saw a lot of street theatre. Because you don’t get a lot of that here, it was so nice to see what people are up to over there, but at the same time I really enjoy festival performing and walkabout acts.”

P. “It was pretty special, we were in Austria, we were working with a company and it was proper street theatre, quite brutal, gritty street theatre, a bit different to what we do now but still something we’re interested in. Six hundred people gathered round and watched this little show that we did around Austria, and it was just amazing. Everyone was so involved with it, and we got such a good audience. That was incredible. But also festival seasons are great as well. ‘Nozstock’ last year was pretty special actually, we did a walkabout which was our ‘Bird-Maids’ one, and loads of people loved it. It got loads of press and stuff, because it was just really pleasing visually. We had these big wings, and we were fairies handing out fairy-dust. They loved it. Then we did a stage on the Saturday where we collaborated with our friends who run Grooveyard, and it was pretty much Funk, Disco, Soul and loads of paint, games and water fights. From 4yr olds to 70yr olds getting fully involved. It was so nice to see the ages just come together to have fun and enjoyment. That was what we were doing it for. It was visual art as well as dance and music, sort of everything all in one.”

TP. “That sounds incredible. I understand that you’ve both just finished your degrees in street arts at Winchester University too. Can you tell me a little about the course and the opportunities it’s given you?”

C. “Yeah, we’re finished! Well, I wouldn’t have met Phoebe if I hadn’t done the course so that’s a good start. The course is great, it opens so many doors for you within the UK and Europe.”

P. “It’s the only one doing a street arts degree in the whole of Europe I think.”

C. “It’s very specialized but really broad at the same time. It lets you pick what you want to do, so if you want to go down the circus route it allows you to do that, if you want to go down the teaching route it allows you to do that, if you want to do visual arts you can do that, installations, or if you want to be more drama based.”

P. “It’s really broad and the teachers are great. We get some great training, but it’s also very academic as the same time because it’s a degree. I think that’s what we kind of struggled with a little bit, because by the beginning of third year we’d already set up this company and we just wanted to go out and perform and create stuff. It was still a great learning process for sure.”

TP. “Amazing, and did you get some funding through them?”

C. “Yeah, we wouldn’t have been able to do a lot if we didn’t have the funding. It’s Winchester Hub, they’re a part of the university, and they support students who are creating their own business. That’s anyone from business students to us, street art students. We had to go through a series of interviews and applications presenting our company Sunken Circus, and we managed to get some money from it which was amazing.” 

P. “Last year we went for it, and that was when our we’d just started out. We got £500, and then this year we went back, we were like, ‘Look, this is what we’ve done with it’, and they were really impressed! They gave us a business meeting and said we could apply for more funding, and then this year we got the full £2000, which we’ll get in the summer.”

TP. “That’s amazing. What do you have planned with that money?”

P. “Party! No, half of it’s already gone, you don’t understand what you spend it on. For example, at least £300 has gone on our insurances to cover our backs for us to perform, then you have equipment, which is pretty much half the money. Obviously we’ve done a lot of work with Khali Ackford, and he’s an amazing photographer and has done us a massive favour, so we want to give him some money and do some more shoots with him, pay people for doing our media and things like that. We’d like to get more costumes, and we wanted to get some more circus equipment and actually do more circus workshops in communities, kind of broaden our spectrum a bit. Also, we’d like to teach some circus skills and silks if possible.” Smiles.

C. “That’s the thing that sets you back, the equipment, so it’s just trying to fund that.”

P. “We want to get a silks rig, but it’s like £2000 – £3000.”

TP. “Wow, well maybe with the next bit of funding and you’ll be there. Well finally girls what do you have coming up in 2016?”

C. “Well next weekend starts off our festival season. It’s a busy one next weekend, we’re at ‘No Mans Land Festival‘ (This has already happened, sorry.) from Thursday to Sunday, but then we’ve got to leave the festival on the Saturday and go to Salisbury Arts Festival to do an aerial performance. So that’s the start of it.”

P. “Oh, it’s so busy! Then we’ve got ‘Eden Festival‘ in Scotland, and then after that we’re doing ‘Somerfest‘ in Taunton, and then the weekend after that we’re doing ‘Glastonbury’. Then we’re doing a skills festival in Surrey, which is like a day thing, and there’s another possible opportunity we may have that weekend but I’m not allowed to say anything just yet. Then ‘Nozstock‘, and then a wedding, and then ‘Boomtown‘, so we’re ending on a high. And then it’s my birthday the day after ‘Boomtown’s’ finished.”

TP. “That sounds very very busy, but it sounds incredible. You’re gonna have an amazing time!”

If you’d like to get in touch with Sunken Circus about their performances or for bookings you can find them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Words: Adam Chisman (Talking Passions)

Pictures: Talking Passions & Khali Ackford Photography

Here’s a feature on Bristol24/7 called Talking Passions. It’s a Bristol-based interview series that hopes to inspire your creative side by interviewing passionate individuals in Bristol’s arts and music scenes. The driving force behind the series is a belief that within each of us is a creative soul with untold capabilities. It’s not always easy to follow your dreams, to believe in yourself and try to make it work, and it should be celebrated!

Started by local journalist Adam Chisman, and with links to various Collectives in the city including Liquifyah, The Coconut Collective, as well as Irish online magazine Ceol Caint, Talking Passions comes in two weekly parts, with brand new written interviews on talkingpassions.com and Bristol24/7 and audio interviews on BCFM’s The Bristol Music Show and Soundcloud.

Be sure to check out Talking Passions on Facebook and Twitter @PassionsTalking to keep up to date with the latest interviews, and email [email protected] or use the hashtag #talkingpassions if you’d like to know more or recommend someone for a future interview. You can also become a patron and sponsor Talking Passions at www.patreon.com/talkingpassions