GravityWorks Circus returns with its second ensemble show, “Feel It All,” Friday–Sunday, June 27–29, at the Foundry Theater. This year’s show, which features both youth and adult ensemble members, aims to use aerial theater performance to represent the range of human emotions. (Photo by Lauren "Chuck" Shows)
‘Feel It All’ with Yellow Springs-based GravityWorks Circus
- Published: June 25, 2025
A year after GravityWorks Circus spread its wings for its first ensemble show, the Yellow Springs-based aerial and theatrical company is back at it — this time, soaring through the full range of human emotion.
The local aerial arts school will present “Feel It All,” its second ensemble performance, Friday and Saturday, June 27 and 28, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, June 29, at 2 p.m., at the Foundry Theater on the Antioch College campus.
GravityWorks co-owners Maya Trujillo and Kayla Graham spoke with the News last week about the upcoming show, which they said — like all their ideas — grew out of brainstorming together.
“We sit at the Emporium and drink a lot of coffee,” Trujillo said. “I just remember there were a lot of emotions going on at that time, and we thought, ‘Let’s explore that.’”
What emerged was a show built around what the show’s creators were feeling at the time — which, as it happened, was everything. After all, Graham said, “feeling it all” is the basic human experience.
“It can be vulnerable, but it’s necessary, and we want to give a space for people to feel it all in these crazy times,” Graham said. “So we kind of picked the emotions and then strung a story through it.”
In contrast to last year’s performance, which followed the story of a single main character, this year’s production aims to give equal space to each performer.
“Everybody plays an emotion,” Trujillo said.
And those emotions run the gamut, with scenes ranging from “Aggressive,” featuring stage sword combat choreographed by Graham, to “Anxious,” “Playful,” “Happy,” “Lonely” and “Introspective.”
“And we have two ‘Depression’ features — because once wasn’t enough,” Graham said with a laugh. “But we try to end the show on a note that communicates that it’s OK to feel all these things.”
The ensemble has expanded and evolved since its first show. Two new students have joined the performing group’s youth classes this year. Sean Moorman, who appeared as a juggler in last year’s show, is now performing on aerial apparatus, as well as contributing a new juggling piece. Another ensemble member, Casey Moorman, choreographed a hoop piece with younger students — an expansion of skills and performance opportunities the directors said they’re eager to encourage.
“They have advanced just by being an ensemble,” Trujillo said. “Last year, it was more about moving across the floor, whereas now there’s a lot of aerial stuff higher up.”
Adult ensemble members, all of whom are returning to “Feel It All” after performing at the Foundry last year, agreed that their skills have grown since their first performance.
“I look back at videos of where I started versus where I am now — it doesn’t even look like the same person anymore,” Alice Little-Luebke said.
Chandra Jones-Graham said that returning to aerial practice this year has been healing for her, both physically and emotionally, as it helped her recover from surgery.
“I had to learn to trust my body again,” she said. “I was very depressed, losing so much strength and ability. It helped me regain confidence in my body.”
Fellow ensemble member Sean Moorman said he finds the themes of this year’s show easy to relate to, and hopes they’ll resonate with audiences.
“These are all universal things, I think,” he said. “I go through [these emotions] every day, just waking up, going to work.”
Working together through the creation and execution of two shows, the ensemble members said they’ve begun to form a kind of community — one that celebrates each other’s successes and collaborates to find new ways of expression.
“It’s really fun to work with other people,” Casey Moorman said. “Our energies kind of feed off each other, and we’re able to bounce ideas off each other. It lends itself to community.”
Graham and Trujillo said community-building is part of what they hope GravityWorks will foster as they continue building their company in the dance studio at the Foundry. They referred again to the theme of their show, which encourages performers and audiences to feel it all, together — even when it seems difficult to do so.
“Sometimes it can feel silly when the world is burning and we come to class,” Trujillo said. “But we want to make a space where people feel safe to move and create.”
Graham added: “And if we stop all the things that bring us joy and bring us together, then what are we fighting for?”
Tickets for “Feel It All,” presented by GravityWorks Circus, are $20 for general admission, and free for children under 12. Tickets are available online at http://www.antiochcollege.edu/calendar.
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