LUMINOUS

When it comes to the arts the word ‘innovative’ gets thrown around a lot. Art Kinetica’s first caper into theatre takes innovation to new heights – that is, covered in illusory UV bodypaint while performing circus tricks. “There are less than half a dozen equivalent companies in the world and we’re the only one in Australia,” company director Jessica Watson Miller explains. “What we do is pretty unique.” Thanks to a recent trip in Mexico, Luminous is partly inspired by Mayan culture. “Mexico has a hot bed of circus and I was training seven days a week,” she continues. This 45-minute blacklight circus experience is part of the Sydney Fringe Festival and features six standalone acts including acrobatics, poi, hula hooping, diablo and juggling. Miller, who is the current Australian bodypainting champion, will be performing aerial silk (aerial acrobatics performed on pieces of silk fabric). “It’s people defying gravity,” she says. Sounds like you gotta see it to believe it – and even then it’s all an illusion.

Sep 7-20, Pact Theatre, 107 Railway Parade, Erskineville, $20-26, 9560 9167, 2012.sydneyfringe.com