Intro: Right Way Down is a new company, a collective of six hand balancers whose work tampers with common definitions of circus. Experimenting with the absurdity of reality upturned, they challenge us to see the world the right way down. We invited Right Way Down to share with us thoughts, feelings and lessons they’ve learned while making their performance, Váld.

Lessons about our bodies 

Despite our handstand training being so similar, we all carry personal and very different movement patterns. We’ve learnt that even though we are the same hand-balancing body, we are very different and the scope for individual flavour and character as a handbalancer is endless. These differences are incorporated into our production, Váld, and they make it interesting. During the process we were reminded of how heavy the practice is; that we need to explore vocabulary that takes us off our hands and gives us time to recover. We’ve learnt how much we benefit from variation, and how entwined movement and handstands are. It’s an incredible discipline to crossbreed with physical theatre and dance, which is what Váld encompasses.