Lucia Carbines is an Australia aerial artist who is part of the cast of Empire, which opens in Sydney next month. Nina Levy caught up with Lucia to find out more about her role in Empire and how she became an aerial artist.
Many readers will be familiar with Empire, as the show toured Australia this year, but for anyone is who isn’t, Empire is a work that combines circus with cabaret with vaudeville with burlesque… and it all comes together in a 700-seat spiegeltent.
Lucia Carbines’s character in the show is Miss A in a Bubble. “I perform a mix of aerial and contortion skills in a perspex bubble that spins above the head of the audience,” says Carbines. “I also perform a second routine of just contortion on the stage, this is a lot more intimate as I am often face to face with the people in the front row.”
Empire is presented by US-based company Spiegelworld and boasts an international cast but as Carbines explains, she managed to pick up the role without leaving Australia. “It was actually an amazing case of being in the right place at the right time,” she elaborates. “I happened to be performing in Melbourne at the time when the Empire contortionist was unable to perform for a few weeks. Through word of mouth, the Empire team heard that I was in the area and I got called in for an audition. I then performed for them for two weeks. Later in the year they asked me to join them permanently and of course I was thrilled!”
Carbines began her training in dance but was soon tempted away by more acrobatic pursuits. “I loved dance but was such an energetic child I always wanted to do more,” she recalls. “I trained in acrobatics for a while at the same time as dance, as well as horse vaulting. Then when Aerial Angels opened up near my house when I was 14 I was so excited, I went along to their opening class and fell in love with aerial. I trained in their elite team from then on.”
And what is it about being an aerial artist that is so appealing?
“There is something about being in the air that is so exhilarating, the freedom of not having your feet on the ground,” replies Carbines. “It’s also very empowering, being entirely in control of your body and knowing that just your grip and placement is the only thing stopping you from being on the ground. It is such an amazing feeling.”
You can catch Carbines and the rest of the Empire cast in the Spiegeltent at the Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park from 7 January.
For more info and bookings go to www.ticketek.com.au
Find out how you can win a double pass to the show here!