Performance
Projects
Refractions
Over the Creek was an multidisciplinary art event produced by The Creek Collective and Inter Arts Matrix, with generous creation and project support from the Waterloo Regional Artists Microgrant by Pat The Dog Theatre Creations and funding from the City of Kitchener, that took place at the mouth of the Schneider Creek watershed in August of 2024. The event featured the aerial silks performance piece titled Refractions, created and performed by Erika Lui and presented at a free public community showing just across the opening mouth of the Schneider Creek watershed at Willow River Park/ Victoria Park. The performance followed with the unveiling of the Schneider Creek community mural project, created and hosted by visual artists Jackie Bradshaw and Nadine Badran, and a screening of Ben Gorodetsky’s documentary, A Hole in the Ground, that featured the artistic works and research of folks that then went on to conceive The Creek Collective.
Refractions is an aerial dance act devised on silks by Erika Lui, with musical composition by Deborah Carruthers, and musical arrangement by Syndey Lancaster. Deborah is a non-conventional inter-arts creator who devised a graphic score to represent the emotional likeness and qualities of Schneider’s Creek, with musical interpretation by Laurier University’s Improvisation Convergence Ensemble (ICE). Refractions animates the words and reflections captured in Geoff Martin’s surface/tension audio-walk about Schneider Creek. ‘Refraction’ is defined as the shift in the pathway of light as it travels through a medium. Refractions seeks to explore and embody, from the perspective of the creek, the shifting feelings of tension, entanglement, compression and release that follow the history of the creek and the life that once flowed and still flows through it.
The Chaos Project
The Chaos Project is a contemporary circus show made up of three distinct but interrelated vignettes exploring the thematic concepts of chaos and order. The work uses movement to delve into how these concepts intersect, collide, compliment and challenge one another in different human settings. The overall project is Conceived and Directed by Kirsten Edwards with Dramaturgy by Zita Nyarady and Produced by Hercinia Arts Collective. Each vignette is led by a different choreographer in collaboration with the performing artists, offering a variety of perspectives on the work, themes and overall concepts.
Captured in the photographs above are lomography photographic shots and still shots developed during the creation process of The Chaos Project: Parts I - Play (May, 2023), II - Corporate Chaos (June, 2024) and III - Revolution (May, 2024). Erika Lui, along with Isadora Bello, Vanita Butrsingkorn, Athena Lamarre, Laura Lawless, and Taranee Ponjani were cast as artistic collaborators for Part I - Play, directed by Emily Hughes, that explored the chaotic and orderly elements of childhood, imagination and play-making on dance trapeze. Erika was also cast as a performer for the second iteration of Part II - Corporate Chaos, directed by Kirsten Edwards, exploring the structures of the competitive and capitalistic world on aerial rope (corde lisse); and in Part III - Revolution, directed by Diana Lopez-Soto, set in a post-apocalyptic environment that uses aerial harness dance to explore the aftermath of a cataclysmic event.
Previous Performances
Cabaret production brought to you by the independent regional circus artists of KW and Guelph! Performance features coming soon!
Winter Student Showcase by TriCity Centre for Circus Arts - Cambridge, ON, Dec 2023
Back to Black Aerial Silks Act: Aerial Instructor Performance - filmed December 2023
Slipstream, is an immersive experience that uses circus-based disciplines to create a calming space. Inspired by Lindsay Bellaire's experience with anxiety after the birth of her daughter, and the ensuing quest to regain control of my mind, Slipstream takes the audience on a soothing journey of resilience and hope. Erika was brought on as an artistic collaborator and performer on aerial silks in 2022 and aerial silks and hoop in the 2023 iteration of Slipstream.
Circus Sessions is a creative residency for circus artists and multidisciplinary artists who intersect with circus, originally conceived by Holly Treddenick and Lynanne Sparrow. The 6th iteration of Circus Sessions focused on the hyper-local and hyper-now, with mentors and all artists from across Ontario.
Cirque du Poulet is a fun, zany and sometimes saucy contemporary circus cabaret featuring original creations and performances from some of Ontario’s top circus talents. For the 2022 iteration of this show, Erika Lui worked in collaboration with Sarah Greenberg to bring back to life a re-imagination her original concept of The Sky is Falling act - a hip-hop climate change activist silks routine originally created by Sarah for the Hercinia Arts' 10-year anniversary Cirque du Poulet show.
Rough Drafts by Aloft Circus Arts' 2018 Year 1 Fulltime Group (performed June 2019)
Performances by Rebecca Vick and Erika Lui on Wall Trampoline and Lexee Barerra and Erika Lui on Duo Trapeze as part of their year 1 full-time circus training end-of-year showcase.