Attending the launch of the Circus City programme was a joyous moment, the collection of work that the team had curated felt like a profoundly hopeful expression of care, struggle and connection.
So I got myself a festival pass in order to see as much of it as possible. Turns out the festival was even more joyous.
The team behind Circus City managed to do something really powerful by bringing together a collection of incredible works and finding an audience for them.
Work of the caliber the team curated deserves the widest possible audience, so it is a service to the city and culture itself to have such skill in programming and production on display.
I think that some of the most interesting live art/performance art that is currently being created is happening within the world of contemporary circus.
So here is a collection of my thoughts about some of the shows, in the order that I wrote them:
The Shedding, Elise Reine (DK)
Darkness within and without, stark choices and layers of suffering, rebellion, acceptance, othered for her skill and made a mute object by contract. Impossible movements from a body which must find ways to exist while the soil, air and water are saturated by hostility.
Mentir Lo Mimino, Cia Alta Gama (FR)
Love. Love behind, beneath, above, before and after. This show, these performers, seemed to work on a level beyond words, from another realm, I was filled with a childlike joy from beginning to end. Playful, delicate, bold, and delightful. Let us all care for each other the way these two took care of us and each other, a sublime balancing act.
Delusional, Diana Salles (BR/DE)
A sacred sacrifice, one must die for the other to live, an act of supreme power and an impossible price to pay. How can we love those versions of ourselves who must die for us to become who we need to be? With grace, rage, grief, with each other as witness.
Fireside, Nikki & Jd Lost Dog (UK)
Bravado and braggadocio are bad when sent to deal with monsters, we find ourselves in the company of an incompetent leader and the consequences are disastrous. What is there left when the hero’s journey turns out to be a fool’s errand? The curtain call.
Armour, Arno Ferrera & Gilles Polet (BE)
What ridiculous creatures we can be when we bind our life to some small safe story. How about we talk and take risks together? Holding each other dearly and dangerously, they dance and abandon the defences they never needed to climb behind.
Cocoon, Farrell Cox (UK)
Tension and trauma while going about an upbeat everyday, the performers felt in constant dialogue during the physical vignettes and with a gently energetic connection throughout. Where do you go when it’s all too much and will you find what you need there?
No Magic, My!Laika (FR)
No fucking around, straight up danger-chaos from the first moment to the last, a riot of joy and anger. I would follow them into revolution inspired by the feeling that they know exactly what needs to be trashed for things to get better for everyone. I never once had a single clue what would happen next and that is exactly what I want in a show.
Revolutions Per Minute, Gorilla Circus (UK)
There is a moment within this show that will live with me forever, an image of justice denied, of a terrible machine consuming hidden truths and throwing away lives as lightly as unwanted scraps of paper. An infinite loop of suffering, faceless and procedural.
How a Spiral Works, Art For Rainy Days (LT/LV/UK)
A physical hymn, an elegy to some unknowable sense I hold with my chest, working upon me at the level underneath the words I have learned. A sense of time, depth, a stew made more flavourful for the time it has taken to grow in richness. Before we learned to speak maybe we moved like this, before we found religion maybe this is what we believed. Two bodies in communion and absence.
Heka, Gandini Juggling (UK)
Beautiful lies and the beautiful liars who tell them for our benefit, a beneficent dictator and unreliable narrator, who is the Great Gandini? Technique, timing, innovation, deception. If we are to do business with each other what terms can we agree upon about the nature of reality? Having fun with things which are very hard to do, making them look good without looking easy.
Rollercoaster, Wes Peden (USA/SE)
Are we watching a cartoon character brought to life, no that’s too simple. We witness an avatar of play made manifest. Brighter and more colourful, sillier and more skilled at having fun. Give your inner child full freedom to cackle and giggle and gasp. On stage we see skill and invention in service of exuberant energy, rushing forwards with us.
Get out there and watch something wonderful.