Youth from FLING Physical Theatre are taking to the air in their latest work Failure. Photo: Beth Lane.
FLING Physical Theatre is working on a high-intensity new project that tackles a big issue for regional youth – failure.
The bold new work explores risk, expectation and perfection, and how perhaps failure can be a creative force.
Through movement, theatricality and immersive staging, Failure unpacks the vulnerabilities, humour and resilience inherent in moments of collapse.
The Bega-based youth company recently enjoyed tremendous success with its impactful short film My Black Dog. It effectively communicated that simply talking can be a powerful tool for mental health. FLING’s new work is being created by its creative director Beth Lane who directed My Black Dog.
Ms Lane said in one sense the idea for Failure came from watching the cohort of 14- to 20-year-olds over time.
“It seemed that failure, resilience, getting over that hurdle of self-esteem, taking a risk or stepping over a boundary feels hard or could crush,” Ms Lane said. “They are elements that have come up a lot over the last four years.”
With so many in the group now 18, Ms Lane thought it was the right moment to reflect on their experiences and what they had learnt.
The dancers at FLING learnt aerial dance and parkour from Legs on the Wall. Photo: Elyse Dorey.
The involvement of 15 young people in the work’s development, bringing their own stories and perspectives of failure and resilience, is critical to ensure it is relevant to young people.
“Their voices are in there, so it has integrity and value to the people who watch it,” Ms Lane said. “It is coming not just from our experience of watching and working with them, but it is also coming from them, their collaboration and their physicality. Their voices are very present in the content.”
Failure is being created in collaboration with Legs on the Wall, a Sydney-based aerial dance and physical theatre company.
The collaboration came about because the FLING cohort is physically very strong, and Ms Lane wanted to test their physicality. Legs on the Wall held a skills development session on aerial dance and parkour in Bega in April.
Teaching them those new skills also made sense because the cohort have been together so long and know each other very well.
“You can really stretch the bravery and risk-taking and try different things together in a moment of real cohesion,” Ms Lane said.
It is spectacular to see the dancers off the floor, flying through the air. Photo: Maya Rae Navarrete.
They hope to take Failure to youth audiences across regional NSW. They have not firmly landed on what it will look like, but the goal is for an immersive and self-contained setting.
“If we can arrive at a point that we become self-sufficient to suspend, we can reach deeper into communities and public spaces,” Ms Lane said. “That moment when their bodies are elevated and flying in front of you is spectacular. We want something live and visceral in the flesh after spending so much time behind cameras during COVID.”
Developing a major work like Failure takes around two years. FLING has some funding from Create NSW but is seeking more.
FLING executive director Gabrielle Rose said Failure would have a big impact on youth resilience and mental health in regional areas. “We see it as an important tool for storytelling and questioning what it means to fail and get back up again.”
She said the work the young people were doing was spectacular.
“The risk is absolutely heightened when you take them off the floor. They are flying through the sky,” Ms Rose said. “Imagine Year 7 to 9 students seeing that. It would be very impactful.”
Ms Lane said something powerful happened when audiences saw them taking risks.
“It has a positive impact on connection with the show and on confidence, seeing examples of what is possible in other young people,” she said.
Excerpts of the work-in-progress will be included in a double-bill FLING season with its three youth performance companies. It will run on 23, 28, 29 and 30 August. Tickets are available here.
