circus, amateur and professional
Last Wednesday I went to silks, and Thursday I went to Alegría, a Cirque du Soleil performance.
On Wednesday, I finally was able to hold a (messy) meat hook, if only for three seconds or so. But I got it! Things that helped were switching to practicing it on the lyra instead of the silks (more stable of a grip), and just trying it enough. I also got angel in the ropes once, which is nice. I've gotten that one before, but it's still quite difficult for me, and I need to be very careful not to wrench things while doing it, since it seems to have a bit more of the muscle-wrench nature than a lot of moves. I also worked through my routine twice. A good practice!
I guess I'll just write mini-reviews of the acts as I think of them, and then a bit of overall impression at the end.
Trampoline: The stage has and X made of trampoline in it! That is amazing! Seriously, the way the cover for the trampoline works, I have no idea how they construted it to work that smoothly and not seem to go anywhere in particular. Probably something conveyor-belt style, but it was hard to tell.
The acrobatics were pretty impressive -- the flips were great, but the timing was even better. The performers were quite well organized to be exactly synchronized, or exactly slightly out of synch in a deliberate way to just miss each other -- and the whole piece had a very energetic, dance-like feel.
Handbalancing: Canes of various heights, some impressive one-handed handstands and planches. He did some jumping between sets of canes at different heights on his hands, too, which was neat. Also, he was so pretty.
Ribbon and hoop: Yay object manipulation! The ribbon routine was pretty, though wasn't quite as technically astounding as some of the other acts. The hooping was impressive to me, though I don't know that much about hooping. She used her flexibility to good effect, and held hoops spinning in some pretty amazing positions.
Duo flying trapeze: The gimmick here was the synchronicity, which was pretty good. It was interesting to see the artists beat themselves back into synch after a release trick (which must be pretty hard to control the exact pace of). They were able to do so faster than I imagined.
Firespinning: I think this was my least favorite of the acts. It was pretty much a basic very-fast short-staff and double staff performance. Well choreographed, but I didn't see much special in it.
Also, the description of it online annoyed me. "Tribal and magical - this authentic ritual dance is performed with the pulsing rhythm of congo drums by artists weaving their baton-like fire knives around their entire body, from the feet to the palms to the mouth, in a seductively dangerous dance."
What tribe is it authentic to? If there is one, isn't that kind of appropriative -- shouldn't you give credit? If there isn't one, what do you mean by "authentic"? What would it be a ritual for? I do not think these words mean what you think they mean. Argh.
This contraption with bars and a swing: Whee acrobatics! Gymnastics stuff, done in a circus context, by an ensemble -- instead of catching some release moves on a lower bar, caught some of them in a catcher's grip on two people swinging on the swing-thing below. Neat concept. I think my favorite part, though, was the brief section they all did a few synchronized giants -- the impression of giant turning human gears was wonderful.
Bungee straps: Interesting concept, and it seems they got what they could out of it in terms of moves -- some spins, a wrap-drop and a slackdrop, and a lot of bouncing around. Looks like a really fun apparatus, but not one with quite as much room for creativity as silks or even non-stretchy straps.
Sproingy balance beams: These were held on the shoulders of some performers, and then others climbed up and did aerial tricks, the bases scrambling to be placed just right to catch. This act was amazing. The sproingyness of the beams provided quite a bit of height to play with, and even when the tricks weren't landed exactly perfectly, they were landed well enough the performer could do a deliberate-looking jump off and then remount. And the chain jumping from beam to beam -- nice!
That's what I remember of the acrobatic/skill acts. There were also some pretty good clown acts, the one that particularly sticks in my mind being a kind of morbid parody of the sproingy balance beam act, which was well done.
Overall, the show was well-produced. I loved the set design, especially the way they used the sloping stage for sliding-around choreography. The lighting could have been a little brighter, and a little stabler -- there were some lights with gobos that kept shaking in a way that really irritated my eyes. The costuming was pleasantly fantastical, and I really liked it for some of the acts -- the trampoline one, for example. The handbalancing and object manipulation acts had understated but elegant costumes that didn't distract from what they were doing.
I think I was a bit more impressed overall with KOOZA, but it was definitely worth going. Yay circus!
On Wednesday, I finally was able to hold a (messy) meat hook, if only for three seconds or so. But I got it! Things that helped were switching to practicing it on the lyra instead of the silks (more stable of a grip), and just trying it enough. I also got angel in the ropes once, which is nice. I've gotten that one before, but it's still quite difficult for me, and I need to be very careful not to wrench things while doing it, since it seems to have a bit more of the muscle-wrench nature than a lot of moves. I also worked through my routine twice. A good practice!
I guess I'll just write mini-reviews of the acts as I think of them, and then a bit of overall impression at the end.
Trampoline: The stage has and X made of trampoline in it! That is amazing! Seriously, the way the cover for the trampoline works, I have no idea how they construted it to work that smoothly and not seem to go anywhere in particular. Probably something conveyor-belt style, but it was hard to tell.
The acrobatics were pretty impressive -- the flips were great, but the timing was even better. The performers were quite well organized to be exactly synchronized, or exactly slightly out of synch in a deliberate way to just miss each other -- and the whole piece had a very energetic, dance-like feel.
Handbalancing: Canes of various heights, some impressive one-handed handstands and planches. He did some jumping between sets of canes at different heights on his hands, too, which was neat. Also, he was so pretty.
Ribbon and hoop: Yay object manipulation! The ribbon routine was pretty, though wasn't quite as technically astounding as some of the other acts. The hooping was impressive to me, though I don't know that much about hooping. She used her flexibility to good effect, and held hoops spinning in some pretty amazing positions.
Duo flying trapeze: The gimmick here was the synchronicity, which was pretty good. It was interesting to see the artists beat themselves back into synch after a release trick (which must be pretty hard to control the exact pace of). They were able to do so faster than I imagined.
Firespinning: I think this was my least favorite of the acts. It was pretty much a basic very-fast short-staff and double staff performance. Well choreographed, but I didn't see much special in it.
Also, the description of it online annoyed me. "Tribal and magical - this authentic ritual dance is performed with the pulsing rhythm of congo drums by artists weaving their baton-like fire knives around their entire body, from the feet to the palms to the mouth, in a seductively dangerous dance."
What tribe is it authentic to? If there is one, isn't that kind of appropriative -- shouldn't you give credit? If there isn't one, what do you mean by "authentic"? What would it be a ritual for? I do not think these words mean what you think they mean. Argh.
This contraption with bars and a swing: Whee acrobatics! Gymnastics stuff, done in a circus context, by an ensemble -- instead of catching some release moves on a lower bar, caught some of them in a catcher's grip on two people swinging on the swing-thing below. Neat concept. I think my favorite part, though, was the brief section they all did a few synchronized giants -- the impression of giant turning human gears was wonderful.
Bungee straps: Interesting concept, and it seems they got what they could out of it in terms of moves -- some spins, a wrap-drop and a slackdrop, and a lot of bouncing around. Looks like a really fun apparatus, but not one with quite as much room for creativity as silks or even non-stretchy straps.
Sproingy balance beams: These were held on the shoulders of some performers, and then others climbed up and did aerial tricks, the bases scrambling to be placed just right to catch. This act was amazing. The sproingyness of the beams provided quite a bit of height to play with, and even when the tricks weren't landed exactly perfectly, they were landed well enough the performer could do a deliberate-looking jump off and then remount. And the chain jumping from beam to beam -- nice!
That's what I remember of the acrobatic/skill acts. There were also some pretty good clown acts, the one that particularly sticks in my mind being a kind of morbid parody of the sproingy balance beam act, which was well done.
Overall, the show was well-produced. I loved the set design, especially the way they used the sloping stage for sliding-around choreography. The lighting could have been a little brighter, and a little stabler -- there were some lights with gobos that kept shaking in a way that really irritated my eyes. The costuming was pleasantly fantastical, and I really liked it for some of the acts -- the trampoline one, for example. The handbalancing and object manipulation acts had understated but elegant costumes that didn't distract from what they were doing.
I think I was a bit more impressed overall with KOOZA, but it was definitely worth going. Yay circus!