Balancing above a crowd, Outdoor Artist Rueben DotDotDot walks the line.
“Every time I go to a Fringe, I watch shows, I get totally inspired, I start writing and I have new things. It’s just a wonderful thing to exist, and I’m really happy to be a part of it.”
It’s when he’s balanced mid-trick—precariously high above a crowd, one wrong move away from disaster— that Reuben DotDotDot really gets to admire the view.
“It’s lovely to see everyone’s faces,” he says. “It’s lovely to see people who don’t know whether it’s going to work. I do love that moment of apprehension—inside of even myself. Sometimes I’m like, ‘oh, is this gonna work?’ It’s adrenaline for me. Every show is still scary, and I love that.”
The love must be stronger than the fear: he does live feats of wonder for a living. A world-trotting circus star, the Australia-based Reuben DotDotDot is an acrobat and entertainer who’s toured more than 40 countries with acts of gymnastic derring-do.
Initially self-taught, he started doing street shows to pay for circus training, eventually studying the art in China. But Reuben DotDotDot’s always pushed himself: building new props, writing new material, and learning new skills to make his shows bigger and better.
That drive to improve has taken him all over the world, sometimes in serendipitous ways. For instance, he once bought a DVD of Saltimbanco, one of Cirque Du Soleil’s touring shows, to teach himself the Chinese pole Saltimbanco.
”It was this lovely full circle of buying a DVD and eventually working in that show,” he says.
Still, Reuben DotDotDot’s true passion is street performance at festivals like Fringe. He loves the egalitarian nature of the setting, where absolutely anyone can wander up and become one of those faces looking up from the crowd, sharing their energy and spurring him on.
“I’ve always come back to the street,” he says. “Street and outdoor shows are my passion and my love.
And given the many artistic happenings at any given Fringe, Reuben DotDotDot always finds fresh inspiration to bring home, too.
“You have this hive of activity for the time that it’s on: you have roving performers, you have outdoor performers, you have stage performers and theatre performers and comedy performers and everyone inside of this tight, creative, jam-packed area for two weeks,” he says. “The cross-pollination of arts and creativity is just an amazing thing to be involved with. Every time I go to a Fringe, I watch shows, I get totally inspired, I start writing and I have new things. It’s just a wonderful thing to exist, and I’m really happy to be a part of it.”
Check out all the amazing programming this Festival here.