Falling (Gravity and Other Myths)
Reviewed August 2026
My family and I went to see "Gravity and Other Myths" (GOM) in the Festival of Arts this year. They were gobsmackingly amazing! My 10 year old's face was a picture of shock, delight and awe, and I'm sure mine was too! Such strength, control and precision. Nervous system and musculoskeletal frame coordinated brilliantly and then combined with others of such calibre that the performance was flawless. Humour and humility woven through... An amazing example of what the human body can do.
I was reminded of the ABC online article I read in January about GOM performing as a part of the Festival of Arts in Adelaide this year and one of the acrobat's comments about falling. Here's an excerpt –
Veteran acrobat Jascha Boyce stares fear in the face every time she trains and performs.
If a routine goes wrong, Boyce knows she has to immediately get up and do it again.
The 28-year-old is a founding member of the Adelaide-based company Gravity and Other Myths, a performance troupe that puts the physical into the physical contemporary circus genre.
"I'm a flyer most of the time so I spend a lot of time up high and I do fall and hit the ground a fair bit," she said.
"If I don't get up and do it almost straight away again then it can become a bit scarier and the pressure builds up to do it again."
Boyce is working from the wings for this show as associate director.
However with friends still flying through the air in their sixties, she has no intention of giving acrobatics away.
She said she had been "lucky" to get through her career with only a broken nose and various ankle and thumb sprains.
"On tour for 10 or 11 months of the year and performing six to eight shows a week, you get really good at maintaining your body," she said.
"So we do really, really long good thorough warm ups and cool downs and if any little thing goes wrong, we really jump on it straight away and make sure we look after ourselves."
I take three important gems out of this piece:
- Falling happens.
- If you fall, get up and do those things again so your brain doesn't "protect" you by making you fearful of doing them in the future.
- You have to maintain your body if you want it to perform well.
Despite this physical theatre group's name, gravity really does exist. It can have a brutal effect on a body whether it's a goalie throwing themselves at the ground to save a goal in soccer or someone catching their toe on an uneven paver and laying themselves out on the path.
Are you at risk of a fall? Here are a couple of interesting stats to consider:
- If you have a history of vestibular (balance) issues, your risk of falling increases by 17%
- If you take three or more prescription medications per day, your risk of falling increases by 140%
- If you suffer from vision impairment, your risk of falling increases by 150%
That's sobering.
There are three factors which affect the likelihood of a fall and the potential consequences thereafter. You have control of all three. They are:
- A body's sense of balance - how well your brain collates the relevant information collected from your eyes, your inner ear and the kinaesthetic sensors in your joints (especially ankles and neck).
- The condition the body is in to begin with (quality, strength, coordination, practice).
- Fear.
Balance. Eye, inner ear and joints (especially ankles and neck joints) -the brain collates data from all three kinds of receptors to give us our sense of balance. Having all the components working well is important (all three can deteriorate with age), but practice is also vital for maintaining a good ability to balance. Our brain needs to be challenged to keep doing this well. I'm not talking about taking on the unicycle for fun. Just walking regularly is a great start. Walking on uneven or natural surfaces (such as at the National Park) is a step up from there. Have a conversation with the chiropractors here at the Adelaide Chiropractic centre to help you create a plan to improve your balance and challenge your brain. We have many patients working on this and steadily increasing their abilities instead of experiencing them deteriorating. Like any other skill – it takes practice.
Strong, fit and able. We only get one body. Generally, we take better care of it when we're young and can focus on ourselves. We're also a bit laissez-faire with our bodies when we're young – pushing them to the nth degree, taking risks and being unconcerned with the potential long term sequelae of our actions. Later, partners and babies come into the picture and other responsibilities take the top positions on our personal priorities list – maintaining our body takes a back seat for some more than others. Some pick up the gauntlet again (prompted by injury or lifestyle balance). It can be patchy, but by the time we're older, less of us are fit and strong.
"Only 35% of older Australians (designated as over 65 years of age) are sufficiently active and 72% are overweight or obese".
Older Australia at a glance, 2017, AIHW (online) https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/older-people/older-australia-at-a-glance/contents/demographics-of-older-australians/australia-s-changing-age-and-gender-profile
Being less active results in decreased quality of our tissues (muscle, bone, ligament) and decreased feedback to our brain from our body and a consequential decrease in brain mapping for possible movement options (so less variety of options for safe movement). This means an increased falls risk and greater damage when it happens.
Fear. The most serious issue for "well" elderly patients is the risk of falls.
"50% of people who are >75 and
have a fall, die within a year"
Dr Paul Noone, Neurologist
A serious fall doesn't just cause injury; it also causes a loss of confidence and a subsequent loss of movement which promotes brain atrophy. The brain atrophy happens when the person plays it safe, doesn't move around as much and thus the brain doesn't receive as much feedback from the kinaesthetic sensors in the joints. As a consequence, the person's brain edits out those movements as options and then has less adaptability when exposed to unexpected movement (e.g. catching their toe on the hall rug).
Where possible, after a fall a person needs to keep moving. Once healed enough they need to go walking again – to practice the skill of balancing, to maintain strength, and to teach the brain "yes, I can!"
As chiropractors we help people prevent falls and recover from them when they occur. Our adjustments provide fantastic novel stimulation to the joint position sensors in the body and remind the brain what's possible. We give you the advice and encouragement to help you get your body strong, fit and able. We teach you to gently push the envelope of possibility for your physical activity so fear doesn't set your limits.
Our goals might not be as lofty as those of the fliers in GOM, but graceful, free and easy movement plus a decreased falls risk sounds good to me. Give us a call and make an appointment today at the Adelaide Chiropractic Centre on 8221 6262.