Katie Williamson - Dance Trapeze | BA3 Devised 2025

Katie Williamson BA3 Devised 2025 Find out more about our circus arts higher education programme here: nationalcircus.org.uk/degree Video Production: Mark Morreau www.morreaux.co.uk Camera Operators: Graham Pettit and Mark Morreau Lighting Design: Mark Dymock --- Husterikos Husterikos is a contemplation on the historical pathologization of the female-presenting experience, viewed through the lens of a “hysterical” Victorian woman exiled to the seaside as a supposed cure. Hysteria, derived from the Greek root hystera (meaning “of the womb”), evolved in the late 1800s into a catch-all diagnosis for women exhibiting behaviors deemed emotionally excessive—a concept that framed female-presenting mental health as inherently tied to their reproductive systems. The term reflects a legacy of medical and societal repression, one that has yet to be fully dismantled today. In this world, the sea is both refuge and restraint—a place of longing and a symbol of escape from control.