Cirkus Cirkör captures the heart of New Yorkers in its new production of “Inside Out.”  Visiting their website (http://www.cirkor.se) prior to the show, I knew I was in for a treat, seeing a beating heart on my MacBook.

Directed by Tilde Björfors, who also founded Cirkus Cirkör in 1995, “Inside Out” the production is like an artistic autopsy of the circus, beginning with the circus show.  Coming into the theater, performers are already onstage milling about, making preparations for the performance, though this is part of the performance.  The lead clown welcomes the audience members personally, then pulls one onstage to help power the stage lights by pedaling a stationary bike. 

The performance begins rather light-heartedly, the entertainers downplaying their talents. They join in silly back-up dancing as each one performs their specialty trick.  Then the scene flips so the audience is now viewing the performers’ backsides as they perform their bows.  Suddenly we are drawn into the blood of circus life, celebrating and drinking, practice and play.  The characters are real people, just like we are as audience members.  The circus tricks become more impressive and beautifully elaborate on the story of personal struggle and growth.  The lead clown, often used in modern circus productions to shed light on social issues, addresses the audience with the big life and death questions.  Are you living fully, or is it possible that you are no longer living although your heart still beats?

Philosophical questions are left unanswered, the audience left to sort them out as the performance escalates with circus and theatrical elements.

The clown, Angela Wand, plays a funambulist (tight-rope walker) whose soulfull performance is both silly and endearing. Embodying the washed-up circus artist, she bourres about the stage in her ragged fairy costume as if she is the greatest thing to grace a stage.

Anna Lagerkvist does a fierce Chinese pole act.  The agility with which she climbs the pole makes me wonder who could ever doubt that we are evolved from monkeys, it is so natural-looking. Perching herself high at the top, wrapping her body round the pole in all sorts of ways, she then is suddenly freefalling down the pole to catch herself right before she hits the floor.  Each time the audiences sends up a unanimous gasp, then clapping and cheering.

Jay Gilligan presents an incredible juggling act, in which the drummer Erik Nilsson accompanies with quirky vocalizations and percussion.  This segment is definitely a highlight of the show, eliciting laughter and cheers from the crowd as Erik Nilsson plays off Jay Gilligan, teasing him for any slight fumble.  Jay Gilligan is a delight to watch as he moves with such exaggerated clumsiness that only a supremely coordinated individual can accomplish.  The handstand equilibrist, Jens Engman, impressively holds a one-arm handstand throughout some of Jay Gilligan’s long juggling sequences, vying for the audience’s attention.  Jens Engman has a boyish charm that adds to his appeal with his supremely erect handstands.

Mirja Tuulikki Jauhiainen and Sanna Kopra perform a breath-taking aerial trapeze act.  The duo are incredibly in-synch with each other, having worked together for over a decade. This act is amazing because of the potential danger and required skill, but even more beautiful because of the eloquent artistic expression of the aerialists.  André Farstand and Fredrik Deijfen are talented acrobats that join in with other cast members to do some incredible aerial propulsions on the Teeterboard. 

Cirkus Cirkör features live music provided by Irya’s Playground who have recently debuted album by the same name.  Irya Gmeyner is the lead singer who also helped found Cirkus Cirkör.  Elegantly dressed with a large plume feather headdress, her lovely sounds blend beautifully into the actions of the performers.

The stage design is fantastic, with beautiful backdrops that looked like they are hand painted.  Images are projected over parts of the set and performers, adding to the magic and illusion.  These fantastic light projections propel the themes of science and art and the idea that they are two sides of the same coin.

In “Inside Out” Cirkus Cirkör finds its way into the hearts of its audience members.  I am particularly impressed with the program notes, that read as personal stories of how each performer was drawn into the circus life, instead of the conventional listing of credits that can be boring and tedious to read.  Cirkus Cirkör has taken on a difficult task of performing formidable circus tricks within a theatrical framework, seeking to reach deeper meanings of life and death.  This is a wonderful and inspiring show appropriate for audiences of all ages and backgrounds.  Cirkus Cirkör breaks past boundaries of the fourth wall and the limited showiness of traditional circus to share a greater message with the world.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Lea McGowan
Performance:  Cirkus Cirkör: Inside Out
Choreography:  Dag Andersson / Circus choreography: Christian “Vippen” Vilppola
Venue:  BAM The Gillman Opera House, Brooklyn, New York
Performance Date:  November 12, 2009
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This evening’s performance features recurring themes of strength versus weakness, connectivity, distrust versus trust, overcoming struggle and limitations.  The diversity of the repertoire was brought together with the music by Nicholas Csicsko and Reinaldo Moya, blending one piece into the next.

The dancers made unique musical choices with the timing of their movements, the stilts sometimes adding a downbeat rhythm of their own.  In simple costumes, unitards with pants or skirt layered over, the dancer’s bodies are revealed for their diverse abilities.

To my eye, the stretchy quality of pants does little to disguise stilts underneath, which I personally find distracting from the dramatic magnificence of these height accentuated dancers.

Yet it was fun to see dancers roam about like ordinary people then whip out aerial maneuvers tangling and detangling in fabric.

Above and Beyond Dance brings more levels into dance physically from aerial acrobatics to stilts to the various levels of a leaping or crouching dancer.  Though vertically enhancing, the stilts pose movement challenges themselves, having a reputation of being intrinsically awkward with the ever present danger of falling.  The dancers of Above and Beyond Dance surprise the audience, eliciting gasps and murmurs with the difficult maneuvers they accomplish on stilts. With high kicks, the dancers send the stilts high into the air, then transition sliding dramatically into extra long splits, continuing to incorporate the stilts in modern dance floor movement combinations.  A thrilling moment occurs as one stilt dancer, and positioned far downstage directly in front of audience, fends off the other dancers charging towards her.  Her back muscles ripple, contoured by red lighting as she propels them backwards convulsing through the air.  Lost in an imaginary world, seemingly witnessing a mystical battle between a giant and little people, I almost forget my fright for the safety of the dancers.

The dancers show no fear of the apparatus, yet are able to convey fear and other emotions through their performance.  I am given the impression the dancers are stepping out into the unknown, peering over an abyss into the unknown.

Solid Dancers . . .

A beautiful duet between one stilt dancer and another dancer eloquently expresses tolerance and harmony between two very different beings.  In another work, attachment is explored between two people, connected by an umbilical like cord from the crown of each dancer’s head.  Is it the story of the growth and separation of Siamese twins?  Perhaps this is where such a metaphorical idea for the dance originated, but it lends itself well, opening the minds of the audience.

Imagery abounds in Above and Beyond dance, in one instance a dancer suspended in a silk hammock flails about like a fish caught in a net.  The lighting is beautiful, playing off the exposed walls of the one room box theater, casting silhouetted shapes that become flying dancers, otherworldly beings crawling up the walls.  The audience is left with one stunning image to finish the evening, women in billowing white skirts, soaring through space.  Breathtaking . . .

Above & Beyond Dance is a great starting point for dancers curious about aerial acrobatics and those looking to expand their modalities.

The company offers an intriguing glimpse at the creative possibilities of cross breeding movement genres.  Working in a collaborative style of choreographing and developing dance, several contributors create unique pieces fusing input from multiple sources, with artistic direction by Chriselle Tidrick.

Chriselle Tidrick describes the wonderful working relationship she has with her dancers: “One of the girls asked, ‘okay, what next?’  And I said, ‘Well, what I think it would be really cool if …and somehow, the dancers make it happen!”

Above and Beyond Dance is definitely worth keeping an eye on, as we all look forward to seeing what’s next!

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Lea McGowan
Performance: “Ascendance” Above & Beyond Dance
Choreography: Chriselle Tidrick with collaboration from Madeline Hoak, Sharon LIvardo du Maine, Andrea Skurr, and Emily Smyth Vartanian
Composers: Nicholas Csicsko and Reinaldo Moya
Venue: The Flea Theater, Soho NYC
Performance Date: Thursday September 10, 2009 www.iDANZ.com

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