Cirque Mania #21: The Kettle is Always On

Makers:	Melody Nolan, Lily Nolan
Duration	50 min
Part of	Cirque Mania

Handstand Sisters in Search of Balance

Raised in a traveling circus family in the United States, the hand-balancing Nolan sisters know better than anyone how rituals can bring stability to a chaotic world. But what happens when you reunite after ten years, only to find that you each have different rituals?

In The Kettle is Always On, the sisters navigate an impressive interplay between static handstands and fluid acrobatics in search of a new shared ritual. Full of humor and vulnerability, they shine a light on small, everyday moments that can feel worlds apart: Melody craves calm, tea, and a tidy table, while Lily prefers to let loose to pounding techno. To make things even more challenging, we the audience decide when the performance ends, turning the show itself into a new ritual. Will they manage to embrace their differences?

Lily (2003) and Melody (1998) are hand-balancers, acrobats, and sisters from the United States who perform together as Nolanders. 

Nolanders started as a family project. Later, the sisters moved from California to Codarts Circus Arts in Rotterdam, developing their own practice along the way. Now, more than ten years after their last collaboration, they've reunited to create The Kettle is Always On. 

Their work takes a physical approach to human questions, always seeking the unusual in the everyday. The sisters are driven by a shared fascination with the incredible capabilities of the human body and are eager to share that with their audience. They embrace the contrast between the often-static discipline of handstand art and the momentum and dynamics of acrobatics, pushing themselves and each other into motion. The result is poetic and absurd and firmly grounded in acrobatic skill. 

Creation & Performance: Melody Nolan, Lily Nolan
Outside Eye: Noëmi Wagner
Dramaturgical Advice: Aurelia Brailowsky
Costumes: Lisa Chudalla
Producer: TENT – House for Contemporary Circus
Co-producers: PERPLX vzw, De Landing
Supported by: Municipality of Rotterdam
Residencies: Silence Residency, Arts Printing House, De Clinch, Latitude 50, Motion Chapel