The Questionnaire

Eve Gordon

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and The Dust Palace’s debut collaboration, Midnight, will surprise and delight from aerial heights. Two graceful acrobats are balanced and entwined in a hoop suspended 10 metres above a 70-piece orchestra. The Dust Palace was co-founded by well-known New Zealand actress and performer Eve Gordon.

What are you plugging right now?

Midnight, which is a collaboration between The Dust Palace and Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Our cirque artists will be blending aerial silks, contortion and acrobatics in a performance to live orchestral music, taking audiences on a journey of the senses.Midnight is the largest and most significant project The Dust Palace has ever done, and it’s sure to be an astonishing mix of art forms.

"I'm learning Corde Volante (Cloudswing) for Midnight. When you get the moves right, it's the closest thing to flying there is. That is pure happiness for me." Eve Gordon

What’s your idea of perfect happiness?

James Thierree, grandson of Charlie Chaplin and an incredible circus theatre maker. His work is so incredibly inspired and inspiring.

What’s your most embarrassing moment?

We were doing a video shoot for our show Ithaca in 2015. I was wearing what most women would know as ‘‘chicken fillets’’ – i.e. bust boosters. For our first move, I was upside down doing a handstand on my partner and, of course, one of the fillets fell out and

I work too much. I train most days for around four to five hours. This can be on silks, with the lyra (aerial hoop) or practising my most recent endeavour, the duo Cyr Wheel. All other moments from 5am until bedtime are taken up with teaching, performing at events, admin and planning for The Dust Palace’s future projects.

What gets your back up?

Performers getting asked to do their job for free because it’s ‘‘good exposure’’. You’d rarely ask a mechanic, baker, IT consultant, lawyer or your local barista to do their job for free. Circus performers train for four to eight hours a day to stay in peak condition. Some of the skills we display take years to master. Our work is valuable.

If you could go back in time, what part of history fascinates you the most?

The Middle Ages. I love Gregorian chanting.

What life lesson would you pass on to your children?

I am the happy extra-mother for a wonderful 17-year-old hand balance contortionist – who happens to be so good we cast her in Midnight – and an incredibly energetic little 7-year-old boy! As an extra-parent, you can really only try to provide an example of one way of how to live a good, fulfilling life. But the great thing about it is that you can provide an alternative, objective, viewpoint to the other parents!

What job would you do other than your own and why?

I started developing the career of an experimental film artist for a while, in my early 20s, but then I found circus. Circus has a limited lifespan, whereas film-making I can do until I’m very old. I’ll pick it up again one day.

❚ Midnight,

ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland, November 23.