Circus 1903 at Arts Centre Melbourne is a reverential trip through the Golden Age of Circus. Its cast of 22 performers bring contortion, trapeze, hair-hanging, strongman feats and even an elephant to the stage.

But Queenie the elephant is no ordinary mammal. She’s a life-sized puppet, controlled by three performers in a carefully coordinated ballet of human movement.

Puppeteer Chris Milford joined Steph & Dan on SmartArts to talk about how he gets into an elephant’s mindset before a performance, managing his energy levels (elephants are slow and deliberate creatures) and how observation plays an important role in bringing large creatures to life.

“There’s three of us in Queenie – we’re allocated positions. There’s James… in the hind, myself in the heart and Nyron in the head”.

Circus 1903 is on now until January 14.
Photo credit: Jason Lau.