EMPIRE: Twist of Fate for Aussie Aerialist

There are twists and turns aplenty in a contortionist’s career. Neil Litchfield speaks to Lucia Carbines – Empire’s ‘Miss A in a Bubble’.

Queensland aerial artist Lucia Carbines was rehearsing for High Wire Motorbike Trapeze stunt at the 2013 Melbourne Grand Prix when the call came which saw her join Spiegelworld’s EMPIRE, with its mix of circus, cabaret, vaudeville and burlesque, stepping into the role of ‘Miss A in a Bubble’.

It was a case of having a friend in the right place at the right time for the show’s sole Australian artist.

“A really good friend, and someone I’d trained with for a really long time was working in King Kong The Musical with Tracie Morley, who is the choreographer of EMPIRE. Their contortionist Elena Lev-Bakkar just happened to get appendicitis. She was out and they didn't know what to do. My friend overheard Tracie talking about it at King Kong, said that I was in the city, showed Tracie some photos and gave her my number.

“I was actually at one of my rehearsals at the Grand Prix, when I got a call from Tracie. She just said, ‘I’m from EMPIRE, our contortionist’s down, and we’d love you to perform for us. Can you be at the Crown Casino in a few hours for an audition.’ I went straight there and started learning the routine. She sent me a way for half an hour to have a break, then called me back and said they wanted me in the show. I had two days, with just a few hours each day, to learn the routine on the ground, and then the next day do it in the bubble for the first time, then that night I was performing.”

Then aged 18, Lucia performed with EMPIRE for two weeks in Melbourne in March until Elenarecovered, returning to her Gold Coast based corporate work with ‘Aerial Angels’, but was invited to rejoin the show about four months later when Elenaasked to leave her contract for personal reasons.

“They’d been in contact with me, wanting to keep me in their books, and they were thinking of sending me to Vegas in one of the shows they’re producing there, then when she asked to leave, they contacted me and asked me to join the troupe three months ago in Adelaide.”

While Lucia originally learnt the existing act, since joining the show permanently, she has personalized it to suit her own skills.

“Elena was a hula hoop artist, so she had a lot of ground training, and she used to bring a hoop into the sphere. I’m more of an aerial artist so I managed to incorporate a lot of aerial positions, changing them in terms of performing in the sphere. Rather than performing just standing in the bubble, or on my stomach in the bubble, I’ll hang underneath it by my arms, and put my legs through and do contortion aerial poses hanging from the bubble and also inside the bubble.”

How substantial is the change?

“A lot of the simple moves at the base of the routine are still the same, however we have a very different style, so when people actually watch the routine, they say that even though we’re doing something similar, the entire performance is different. The positions that I’ve created, and that are purely my own, are at least half.”

Lucia opens the show as ‘Miss A in a Bubble’, but she’s also provided a valuable back-up act through illnesses and injuries.

“Initially the bubble routine was my only role in the show, but I also have a contortion routine which I perform onstage as a back-up when someone in the show is injured, sick or can’t perform.  Since I’ve been the back-up there’s not many nights that I haven’t been on stage, because when we were in Canberra the flu went around, then just recently our wheel performer Yasu has flown back to Japan because he’s had a baby girl, so at the moment I’m permanently doing a contortion routine in the show.”

And as the replacement, you haven’t been sick?

“I’ve actually been very lucky. I didn’t get the flu, and I haven’t been sick I only missed one show when I pulled a muscle in my back and everyone was in.”

EMPIRE by Spiegelworld plays at Sydney’s Entertainment Quarter in Spiegelworld’s beautiful 700-seat antique spiegeltent from January 7, 2014, before returning to the rooftop of Crown in Melbourne from March 11.

empireaustralia.com

Photographer: Mark Turner.