Ra-Ra Zoo

Ra-Ra Zoo was an English-based new circus theatre company active (1984–1994), a seminal group who created self devised physical theatre performance for theatres using comedy and circus skills.

Started by Sue Broadway, Stephen Kent, David Spathaky and Sue Bradley while they were all working and staying together at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 1984.

They first performed in public at the infamous Tunnel Club hosted by Malcolm Hardee in the East End of London. The normally vocal audience were unusually silenced by a wordless version of their signature teacup act.

They opened their first full show at the Battersea Arts Centre as part of the London International Mime Festival in January 1985 their first theatres show 'Juggling With A Social Conscience'.

They subsequently toured internationally for ten years playing in theatres notable to Africa, South America, Australia and extensively in Europe. Their show under the joint Artistic Direction of David Spathaky and Sue Broadway combined the ethos of 'alternative' comedy of the 1980 with a 1970s revival of Circus skills, variously called 'Neo or New Circus' which largely promoted a reinvention of circus focusing on human skill and generally without presenting animal acts. Their background in street performing Amazing Mendezies and in the influential Circus Oz (of which Sue Broadway was a founding member) gave the show an irreverent, fast paced, surrealist feel.

They produced several different shows and were occasionally given some financial support in the UK by the Arts Council and other grants. They also produced several large scale community shows and where touring two shows at the same time in the early 1990s created jobs for more than twenty five people simultaneously during production periods.

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