There must have been a moment, countless eons in the past, when one of our ancient ancestors felt the urge to move. And not to escape from a sabre-toothed tiger or hunt down a passing mammoth, but for no other reason than it felt good. In that moment, that long-forgotten person was compelled to express an ineffable something, a frisson of joy or excitement, through a burst of physicality; perhaps a playful shuffle or a few hopping steps in the dust. And maybe to our modern eyes, this might have appeared like nothing more than an unintentional stumble. But in that moment, long ago and who knows where, a human danced for the very first time.

In the many millennia stretching out across the ages since that primordial-polka began the evolution of a brand new art form, dance has revealed near-numberless ways for the body to express our most essential humanity. From the graceful rigour of ballet, to the ubran swagger of hip hop, to the heel-toe and do-si-do of a good ol' boot scoot, dance has proven to be one of the most successful mediums for capturing and preserving human culture. But it has also consistently been a means for artists to look to the future, and to imagine what expressive potential our anatomy has yet to unlock.

Headlining this year's Brisbane Festival are four newly created works that reveal this physical frontierism in action. With the same raw materials - the bodies of highly trained performers - each of these works chart its own innovative path, not just in the substance of the respective choreographies, but in the psychology, emotion, and storytelling underpinning each lift, leap and lunge.

The cabaret mavericks of Strut & Fret know more than a thing or two about the limits of the human body, or lack thereof. Be it sword swallowing, fire-breathing or near-unfathomably contortionism, "can't" isn't a word that features in their creative vocabulary. In recent years, they've brought this high-energy daring-do into homages of various Vaudevillian eras, including for Madonna's fierce, flamenco-infused Rebel Heart tour. But at their core, each of this company's productions share a similar ethos: an intoxicating escapism that lifts the audience out of the humdrum world.

However, in their latest production, Life: The Show, Strut & Fret will be keeping one foot in everyday reality. Bringing together a collective of dancers such as Hilton Denis (pictured above), circus artists like master clown and Cirque du Soleil veteran Goos Meeuwsen, and musicians including Blaise Garza of Violent Femmes and multi-lingual chanteuse Fantine, the show aims to unriddle the ups and downs that are a familiar part of most lives.

"It's a kind of acknowledgment that sometimes things can be a bit tough, and sometimes things go awry," says Founding Director of Strut & Fret, Scott Maidment. "And then, in the second half of the show, it's all about a celebration of what it means to be human. It's about celebrating that we are alive, that we think and feel, and that no matter what's going on around us, we should find every opportunity to enjoy our lives and have a party."

Many of Maidment's previous productions have been aesthetically anchored to particular periods or cultures, such as the decadence of burlesque or the white-knuckle thrills of the circus Big Top. But while creating Life, Maidment explored a far broader creative scope. "I wanted to make a show that really travelled the full gamut of physicality and musicality. It's a show that has such a diverse range of talents and skills, that it almost becomes its own genre. It's not quite circus, it's not quite cabaret, it's not quite a gig, and yet it's all those things at the once."

Key to Maidment's vision is a thorough understanding of his audience's expectations: when to meet them and when to blow them apart. "People come to one of our shows knowing they're going to have a good time, and that's exactly what we want to give them. But I also want to show them something they've never seen before. Australian audiences are pretty well served when it comes to cabaret and circus, you know? They've seen hula hoops 10,000 times! What I always strive for is a way of presenting that thing that's familiar in a new light."

En Masse by Circa

A similar subversion, passing the familiar through the prism of the unexpected, also exists in En Masse, the latest production by Brisbane's own Circa. This contemporary circus company has pioneered an artistic vernacular that uses circus craft to explore creative ambitions that far exceed mere spectacle. It's a language of movement that exists in the liminal space between the audacious and the subtle, where acrobatics and feats of strength can be vehicles for poignancy and poetry.

"I think a lot of our job is to unleash the artistic potential of circus. To say 'What can this medium do as an art form?' And it strikes me that because of its extremity and force, circus can connect very deeply to these kinds of extreme states of humanity that generate a lot of emotion," explains the company's director Yaron Lifschitz. "Also, it's partly me and the company having spent twenty years saying, 'What else, other than just entertaining, can this medium of circus actually do?' And that's twenty years of systematic investigation and thinking and looking and frankly, making a lot of mistakes as well. I'm delighted to have the gift of the opportunity to do that over the years."

"It's the blood-pumping-through one person on a stage, connecting with hundreds or thousands of people in an audience, communicating, sharing an experience, feeling something together."

Drawing on his more than two decades experimenting and refining a unique perspective on circus, Lifschitz's latest work is a watershed moment, both personally and for the art form itself. Igor Stravinsky's The Rite Of Spring, is a work of mythic reputation. When, in 1913, the Ballet Russes premiered the work, with Vaslav Nijinsky's paradigm-shattering choreography, the Parisian balletomanes in attendance rioted. For a work that tells a story of tribal savagery and ritual sacrifice, the reaction was apt, to put it mildly. Many choreographers have tackled the work since, and it has come to represent a declaration of technical and creative prowess by an artist at the zenith of their powers. But in the more than a century since it was first performed, Circa's iteration is the first time The Rite Of Spring has been interpreted through circus.

For Lifschitz, the urgent, almost animalistic qualities of the Rite are a perfect fit for his unique brand of circus art. "Its place is in ritual. It's in real primal states of connection. It's this thing that happens when you're in a collective space, when there's a drumming circle, a ritual sacrifice. To me, the essence of circus is something truly existential. It's the blood-pumping-through one person on a stage, connecting with hundreds or thousands of people in an audience, communicating, sharing an experience, feeling something together."

Aerialist Josh Bond has also spent the better part of 20 years honing his mode of storytelling. However, this tireless determination comes from a deeply personal place. After experiencing first hand the suicide of a close relative, Bond was compelled to confront his grief through his art. But as a First Nations Australian, this drive also came with an added sense of urgency; it's estimated that suicide rates within Indigenous communities are six times higher than the national average. "I remember thinking. 'Fuck. It's gotta fucking stop. This has just gotta fucking stop,'" Bond says. "So feeling the need to address this issue in some way, well I'm a theater maker, so using that soapbox to create something that actually can be a part of the healing and effect some change and encourage people to talk about it — because this subject is so shrouded in taboo — felt important."

Working with physical theatre company Legs On The Wall and acclaimed writer-actor Ursula Yovich, Bond has drawn on his own experience of suicide and counterpointed it with the story of The Great Peters — an early 20th-century circus star who wowed crowds with an astonishing trick: he could throw himself from a bridge, a rope tied around his neck, and survive. The result is a production that pairs the physical daring of aerialism with a deeply touching narrative. "Making this show really threw up a lot of questions for me about our mortality and the risks we take, at varying degrees. And also in the context of whether that risk is intentional, or on what the intended outcome is," Bond explains.

The upcoming premiere of the show at Brisbane Festival will bring an important story to the stage, but it will also be a profound moment for Bond personally. "I'm 36 now, and I was like 20 when I first began thinking about this show, so it was probably one of the very first show ideas I ever had. And I quite clearly remember thinking at the time, 'I'm a young fella, and as I get older and more experienced and what not, I'll have other ideas.' But it's funny how that yarn has stayed with me for so many years, and how it's coming full circle now."

Josh Bond in Legs On The Wall's The Man With The Iron Neck

Dance can, of course, simply express itself, without having to convey any narrative in the conventional linear sense. But it can also investigate concepts that far exceed traditional storytelling. Another local company, Dance North, are delivering a bold display of dance' s power to stimulate its audience on both a visual and cerebral level. Created by the Artistic Director Kyle Page and Associate Artistic Director Amber Haines, Dust has a strong political message underpinning its choreography.

"It' s about the idea of inheritance and the fact that we're born into a world that's been designed and predetermined by those who have come before us," Page says. "We have very little capacity or agency to alter or shift those systems and those structures that we are born into and have to abide by. But I guess what we're trying to do is hopefully create a sense of potentiality in this idea, that maybe we can reassess, or we can reframe our relationship to some of those systems, and possibly we can collectively move towards perhaps evolving, shifting, or transcending some of them."

Given the complexities and anxieties that are in orbit around the current geopolitical status quo, Page is hoping the piece will connect to these broader social contexts, leaving his audience with plenty to contemplate. "I think what we're really curious about is just inviting the audience along for the ride, hoping that they will go away with a sense of empowerment, or even just a curiosity that perhaps we can reimagine the world and look at the way that we relate to the world and relate to one another," Page shares. "I'm hoping the audience will be inspired to question some of the social, cultural, political and personal systems and structures that are in place, and whether they serve us now as perhaps they did in the '50s. Perhaps they did serve our grandparents, but do they now? We're simply asking the question regardless of the answer; it's where that leads the audience that we're really curious about"

Brisbane Festival presents the world premieres of Strut & Fret's Life: The Show, Circa's En Masse, Legs On The Wall's The Man With The Iron Neck, and Dance North's Dust, from 8 Sep.