Australian acrobatic/dance company Circa has heated up our frosty Vancouver winter with its production of Sacre. This is an extraordinary work that showcases the company’s innovative hybrid of circus and contemporary dance. The touring show’s run at the Vancouver Playhouse, co-presented by The Cultch and DanceHouse, is a great fit for all companies involved. Sacre is dark, sexy, innovative, ingenious, and absolutely captivating.
What is Sacre exactly? It’s an interpretive acrobatic and contemporary dance retelling of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, a ballet commissioned for Paris’ Ballets Russes, for which Stravinsky wrote the score. The work premiered in Paris in 1913 and caused quite the uproar. Avant-garde for its time, the piece was considered scandalous for its depiction of primitive rituals celebrating the start of spring. And while the research I did doesn’t outright say this, I think the work was likely considered too sexually provocative for its time.
And although it would be super fun to see what all the fuss was about, Sacre is something completely different. If anything, it’s a subdued experience that plays like a dream. It sparks your curiosity at every turn, making you longing for answers. Under the direction of Yaron Lifschitz, Sacre begins with a piece of music by Philippe Bachman and then eventually transitions into Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.
Photo credit: Pedro Greig.
On a dimly-lit stage, we see 10 performers masterfully use their bodies to twist, bend, lift, leap, and sometimes fly across the stage. There are no glitzy costumes or stage effects. Every leap landing and lift or formation dismount is tremendously gracefully and quiet. And set against Stravinsky’s increasingly aggressive score with its rising franticness – while the performers do gravity and human physicality defying feats – it makes you wonder if what you’re seeing in front of you is actually happening and not just an imagining.
The women are dressed in simple black dresses, the men in black dance shorts and either sheer black t-shirts or are shirtless altogether. Every performer is a specimen of peak athletic and dance form with their incredibly sculpted bodies. There are formations consisting of human ladders and pyramids; in one pyramid-like formation the performers at the base gradually exit, leaving one lone male dancer carrying the weight of three individuals on top of him. At one point, a body is arched into a bridge between two people. And at another point, a woman is tossed through the air, twisting as she flies over those below, eventually caught by a dancer on the other side of the stage.
Obviously, the demonstration of superhuman feats here is jaw-dropping. However, I’ve seen my share of incredible acro, circus, and athletic dance, and Sacre is unique. For one thing, the audience doesn’t applaud after any of the tricks, which is what usually happens in circus-type shows. It didn’t seem right to applaud and interrupt what was happening onstage. There was an interesting story being told, and I was so drawn into it that I was spellbound.
The show begins with a series of vignettes featuring different couples, set to Bachman’s mysterious score. Each duet between the dancers abruptly fades to black, leaving us hanging for more. Throughout the 65-minute presentation, the onstage action builds alongside the music, climaxing and coming to a dramatic end.
The cast of Circa’s Sacre. Photo credit: Vince Kanasoot.
The dance-side of things is very contemporary and melds seamlessly with the acro. There are also moments of classical beauty, demonstrated by handstands in splits, and pointed feet and stretched legs throughout. And there’s also innovation – at one point a woman presses a man up into an overhead lift alongside a group of other couples, in which only men are lifting women.
The entire show leaves you on the edge of your seat, feeling impressed by what you’re seeing; a little fearful for the performers (like you would in any circus-type show); and in awe of the creativity of everything. This show is definitely high art. Place Circa’s Sacre in a distinguished art gallery in Europe and it would seem perfectly in place.
Circa’s Sacre, presented in Vancouver by DanceHouse and The Cultch, runs until January 21 at Vancouver Playhouse. Visit DanceHouse’s website for more information.