Who We Are
Acrobatch strives to bring honest and entertaining circus experiences to audiences and communities. Founded by two Perth locals, Ben Kotovski-Steele and Simon Wood, it started out with a decade of friendship that evolved into an artistic collaboration based on our mutual appreciation of contemporary circus, humour and each others’ skillsets. Since our inception, the team has grown to include others whose skillsets we admire and respect. Acrobatch now offer an extensive variety of specialties ranging from acrobatics and aerials to object manipulation and roller skating. The team always aim to connect with the community through their genuine circus acts and shows, their fun interactive roving performances and their stimulating workshops. Acrobatch is thrilled to be one of CircusWA’s resident circus companies and is proud to call the Freo Big Top their home.
If you have an event or project for us, we’d love to hear from you! Send us an email here to chat about what that could entail!
About Ben Kotovski-Steele
Ben Kotovski-Steele has a reputation for being able to do pretty much anything. While most circus artists generally have only one or two specialties, Ben is highly skilled as a juggler, aerialist, roller skater and partner/group acrobat while also being proficient in hand-balancing, most forms of object manipulation, stilts, chinese pole, and tumbling. He’s also a qualified rigger, highly sought-after circus coach and, as well as Acrobatch, is one half of Perth-based Yip Yip Circus. Ben has produced, directed and performed in an award-winning show for Fringeworld Perth (Critical; Best WA Circus 2019), toured Ireland with Tumble Circus in their show Unsuitable, and performed in the Perth Festival commissioned show Leviathan – a collaboration between CIRCA, Circus MAXIMA, Circus WA and CO3. Ben performs regularly with Fliptease and teaches classes at both Circus WA and the Circus Centre. He is the director for the Circus WA Youth Academy.
About Simon Wood
Simon Wood is an international performer who has recently come back to his roots in Perth, WA. Previously working only as an aerialist and specialising in corde lisse, aerial silks, and contemporary dance, in the past couple of years Simon has been diversifying his skill set to include juggling, acrobatics, stilts, and roller skating. In the UK, Simon performed on Britain’s Got Talent as a guest aerialist, at Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, and with London-based contemporary circus company, Upswing. Since coming back to Perth, Simon was also part of Leviathan, as well as performing with Steamworks Arts in SITU-8 at the State Theatre Centre, and being a regular performer with Fliptease. Simon has extensive experience teaching circus – especially aerials, and has regular classes at Circus WA and the Circus Centre as well as being a guest teacher at Cirquest Circus and Kinetica CDT. In Europe, he was a guest teacher for the professional aerial students at Salto International Circus School in Maya, Portugal. Simon is also a judge on the Dance Panel for the WA Performing Arts Awards.
Photographer: Tashi Hall