Celeste - Contemporary Circus Show

Celeste is a contemporary circus performance by Muika Dodd and Meya Donkers. Through circus aerials, dance, tightwire, hand-balancing & partner acrobatics, we explore the gravitational relationship between the moon and the sea.

We are crowdfunding to support essential production elements, including training space, stage lighting, a backdrop curtain, and tiered seating, to fully realise the visual and atmospheric world of the show. 
 Celeste will be performed on the 9–10th of July at the Roy Stokes Hall.

We are Muika Dodd and Meya Donkers, two young circus artists (18 & 19) based in Christchurch. We have both trained in circus for most of our lives and have each been awarded 1st place in aerial competitions across New Zealand.

Together, we bring over a decade of combined experience and a shared interest in blending technical skill with expressive, story-driven performance.

Celeste is our first self-directed show. This project marks an important step in our creative development, as we move from performing in existing works to creating our own original performance language and artistic voice.

We are raising funds to support the core production elements:

• Stage lighting – to create atmosphere and highlight movement
• Backdrop curtain – to define the visual world and focus the space
• Tiered seating – to improve audience visibility and overall experience
• Venue/training space hire – allowing us time and space to rehearse and perform

These costs are essential in transforming Celeste from an idea into a fully realised, immersive performance.

The sea moves because the moon tells it to.

Celeste explores an invisible pull between two bodies. The ocean rises and falls, advances and retreats, constantly reshaped by a force it can’t see. The tides aren’t a choice, they’re a response. 

In this show, we bring that idea into our bodies and movement. Using multiple circus aerials, tightwire, dance, partner acrobatics and hand-balancing. We explore what it feels like to be pulled, to resist, to let go, and to return. 

This show goes through waves of shifting states, building tension into a storm-like intensity, then softening into stillness and calm. Like the ocean, the performance flows through cycles of chaos and quiet, rise and release.

This project is personal for us because it’s our first time creating our own full-length, self-directed show, and a chance to take everything we’ve learned through circus and turn it into something that’s fully our own.

Celeste offers a different perspective on what circus can be. In our experience, much of the circus we’ve encountered in New Zealand leans toward high-energy, upbeat entertainment. With this work, we wanted to explore a more contemporary approach, slower, more atmospheric, and concept-driven.

By blending circus with a contemporary movement style, Celeste focuses on mood, relationship, and storytelling, rather than just spectacle. It invites audiences to engage with circus more reflectively and emotionally, exploring themes of connection, imbalance, and unseen forces.

This project is also about creating space for new voices. As young artists making our first self-directed show, we are contributing to the next generation of circus in Aotearoa, bringing a fresh perspective and expanding what the art form can look and feel like.

By supporting Celeste, you are helping us create work that goes beyond expectations and opens new possibilities for contemporary circus in our community.