Test Flights is the long running work-in-progress series for circus and beyond! Come see the freshest and wildest experiments from circus artists of all disciplines, as they share acts that are still under construction. Offer your feedback and help these artists get valuable perspective on what they’re making, and go inside the art making process to understand more about how circus artists do what they do.
LINEUP
Melissa Mellon
Melissa is an aerialist and coach at the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts. This piece is about learning to enjoy the pain of circus arts.
Cassian McConnell
This piece draws inspiration from other aerial apparatuses and strives to explore less conventional movement on straps. At its heart, it is also a piece about celebration and happiness as rebellion.
sofia rose
aerial rope/ corde de lisse
Carmen Parcelli
Carmen Parcelli is an aerial performer based in the Washington, DC area. Carmen’s work showcases her formidable musicality and sharp eye for visual detail. Her frame act is the outgrowth of her explorations on this lesser-used apparatus, building her own movement vocabulary through discovery and play.
Aerial Mind (Caroline Cuff & Sam Anderson)
Caroline Cuff & Sam Anderson have been long time friends of Aerial Mind’s creative & therapeutic space. Christy Gorigoitia, has directed it since 2009. AQUA In Flames wants to explore the integration of Fire as an element that co-exists in our human nature, just like Water. We are aiming for the full production to be completed in 2025. The opening and closing acts intend to ignite a closer look at the forces that heat, move and connect us to life. Both Trapeze acts are creative expansions and adaptations from the original AQUA Connection production, presented @ Philly Fringe Festival in 2024.
Aerial Mind (Christy Gorigoitia)
Aerial Dance/ Static Trapeze
Aerial Mind
Judith Epstein
Judith Epstein is an artist from the Boston area, splitting her time between college and circus. In this dynamic lyra act, she takes the audience on an adventure through a dream-like world, as a woman is sucked into a nightmare before returning back to sleep.
Qatherine
Qatherine (she/they) is a multidisciplinary circus artist based in Boston, Massachusetts. A lifelong performer, Qatherine found her way to the world of circus and became enamored with aerials, flow arts, and fire. While Qatherine’s usual aerial apparatuses are silks, corde lisse, and multicordes, Qatherine will be bringing a unique self-suspension act to the stage for Test Flights!
PERFORMANCES
Monday, May 26, 7pm — Christ Church Neighborhood House
Christ Church Neighborhood House
20 N. American St,
Philadelphia, PA 19106
TICKETS
PWYC $0-50
Recommended for 15+