Circus Artist, Producer, Variety Performer, Entertainer, Clown, Mouth Juggler, MC, Street Performer, Cabaret Luminary and human being. Ciara defies expectations in extraordinary ways, she has a knack for turning the mundane into the astonishing.
Biography:
Hi, I'm Ciara, Ciara Thorburn. It is important to start here, as I am the only Ciara Thorburn. OK, I might not be the only Ciara Thorburn, but there is definitely no-one else out there like me. Basically, I am not your average artist. You might have noticed, I wrote – artist – not performer, that’s because I am a unique and creative individual who ended up on the same planet at the same time as you did. Ready to make stuff.
Lucky us, hey?
As an artist, my endeavour is to solve problems and create things. My passion lies within variety, balance, illusion, manipulation, conceptual strength and physical comedy - but paramount to all of this is entertainment. A valuable lesson which I have learnt over the past decade of my career, is that the joy of everything that I do, comes simply from the moment onstage when I have the audience. The moment where we are connected, in our separate worlds, and for just that short period of time we can escape together into a conjoined world of obscure pleasure.
“Ciara Thorburn is an artist and voracious autodidact of the highest order. She has seemingly endless enthusiasm, passion, ingenuity, smarts and bravery, and her playfulness and eclectic improvisation belies her life experience and maturity. She is part of a hilarious brave new generation of strong female Australian clowns.”
— Mike Finch
Freelance Circus Director
Artistic Director & co-CEO Circus Oz 1997-2015
Qualifications/Training
Ba Circus Arts, NICA - 2018
Certificate IV Circus Arts, NICA - 2015
Dip Ed – Primary, QUT - 2011
Ba Art History, UNSW - 2009
Institutions
NICA (National Institute of Circus Arts) Swinburne University, VIC, Australia
NICA (National Institute of Circus Arts) Swinburne University, VIC, Australia
QUT (Queensland University of Technology) QLD, Australia
UNSW (University of NSW) NSW, Australia
Additional Key Training
(clown/physical theatre)
Spymonkey (Aitor Bassuri) Worthing, UK 2022
Eric Davis (Red Bastard) Online Bouffon Workshop Intensive 2020
Philippe Gaulier Summer School 2019 in Clown & Le Jeu (France)
Giovanni Fussetti Bouffon Summer School 2018 (Aus)
Deanna Fleysher Summer School 2018 (Aus)
Side Hustles
Cheeky Faces
Ciara is the director of Brisbane based face painting company Cheeky Faces.
Spin Circus
Ciara is the co-producer of Spin Circus Festival alongside the one and only Chris Carlos.
Miss C
Ciara’s Street Show and children’s entertainment alias is ‘Miss C - Balloonologist’.
Tech Specs
DOB: 24/12/1986
Weight: 65kg
Height: 164cm
Pronouns: She/her
HAIR: Brown, shoulder length, blunt fringe.
ETHNICITY: Australian
LANGUAGE: English
SKIN: Warm skin tone, no tattoos.
Measurements
Download Docs
Download my current Curriculum Vitae HERE
Download my Public Liability docs HERE
Download my WWC HERE
