Artist Profile: Georgia Deguara
Hailing from Rubibi (Broome) Western Australia the Founder and Director of YUCK Circus, Georgia Deguara continues to push boundaries for women in arts while winning countless awards and standing ovations across the globe. Leading a powerhouse all-female acrobat group takes strength, on and off stage. We sat down with Georgia to hear more about her motivators, thriving success and the wonder of performing in regional WA and beyond.
Creating art was a way for Georgia to share her experience of growing up as a woman in remote WA and in regional performing arts. With a passion to tell her story Georgia set off to find performers with the same vision, “I was lucky to have a bunch of incredible lady-acrobats put their hand up. YUCK is an incredible platform to be able to represent the Australian Female Voice, to challenge stereotypes and celebrate women on stage.”
Image: YUCK Circus at Latitude Festival, photograph by Luke Dyson
With a stellar all female cast rocking global stages and festivals Georgia thanks all the female performers who paved the way for YUCK’s success, “the collection of incredible female circus performers who have come before – the women who have strived in our industry for fair play and have pushed the boundaries of performance through generations of work. In Broome, Karridale, WA and beyond – it’s this wealth of experience and activism that’s inspired me to take on this work.”
YUCK Circus has performed at FRINGEWORLD, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney Fringe, and the world class Edinburgh Fringe Festival, winning countless awards across all festivals including The Martin Sims Award, FRINGEWORLD’s top prize. Even though her and her team have experienced global success, Georgia still feels the most fulfilled performing in her hometown, “the most rewarding experience is when I get to take my work home to Broome…there’s nothing like selling out shows and standing ovations from your home crowd, and being able to be in your community with a greater understanding of what you do.”
With a strong connection to regional arts and love of touring, Georgia is an advocate for female-led work across remote areas addressing how important it is “to make WA excited for work with a female lens and keep putting female-led work out there! There are some communities where this kind of work is normalised, some communities that aren’t quite there yet, but are ready to make a change.”
Georgia shares that there is a real strength in belonging to a regional community and her own perseverance for success on the global stage offering advice for those looking to do the same, “keep doing what you’re doing! I was lucky growing up to have a supportive arts community, and many opportunities to perform and travel with circus. Being remotely based, a lot of the work had to have gumption with it; training by yourself, teaching yourself off YouTube, and giving everything a red-hot-go.”
Prior to being our Artist of the Month, Georgia was a Next-Level participant at Regional Arts WA and has recently been selected to participate in the Local Giants Performer Program. Congratulations Georgia!
For more information on Georgia and YUCK Circus visit: www.yuckcircus.com/