Circa alights on the Pillow stage, in mid-flight
By Tresca Weinstein
BECKET, Mass. – The seven dancers of the Australian troupe Circa, onstage at Jacob’s Pillow this week, do superhuman things while somehow remaining utterly human.
In their new show, “S,” the performers use each other’s bodies as objects to climb, balance and step on—heads included. They swing each other like jump ropes and throw each other as hard as they can. They do stuff that makes you whisper to yourself, “No way,” even as you see it with your own eyes.
Yet they never seem larger than life, because they show us the people inside those unbelievably powerful bodies.
They smile and snuggle for a second when they reach the safety of someone’s arms after a flip in midair. They let us see them quiver a bit as they focus intensely on staying upright atop a pair of shoulders or a head. They tease each other, and bring the audience in on the joke.
Director Yaron Lifschitz collaborated with the company members—whose backgrounds include gymnastics, martial arts and contemporary dance as well as circus arts—to create the evening-length show “S” (the name reflects the contortions and undulations of the choreography). It’s a gorgeous, jaw-dropping fusion of forms that highlights physical prowess, precision and fluidity, artfully aligned with music from the Kronos Quartet’s album “Uniko.” It’s not like the performers drop an amazing feat into a dance sequence here and there—there’s something gasp-worthy happening almost constantly.
To describe just a few … Alice Muntz balances a bowl of water on her head while walking across four of her fellow dancers’ heads as if they were stepping stones. Freyja Edney whirls hula hoops around her hand, neck, hips and legs. Phoebe Armstrong is swung like a sack of flour halfway across the stage, and ends up clinging to Jarred Dewey like a baby monkey. Robbie Curtis gets down to the floor and then up again while holding Muntz aloft with one arm. Three stacks of dancers atop dancers fall forward in straight lines like chopped trees, releasing into a flurry of somersaults as they hit the ground.
We’re not just talking broad-shouldered men supporting tiny women. Muntz, Edney and Armstrong are graceful Amazons who do their share of the heavy lifting, carrying each other as well as the men (including Todd Kilby and Lewis West, not mentioned above but just as awesome).
The second half of the 90-minute show features aerial work on the trapeze, with the dancers hanging upside-down, bat-like, and traveling through the tangled ribbons like spiders weaving webs. But these performers don’t need props. They’re at their best with nothing but each other and themselves to rely on as they fly.
Tresca Weinstein is a frequent contributor to the Times Union.
Circa in ‘S’
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Jacob’s Pillow, 358 George Carter Rd., Becket, Mass.
Length: 90 minutes, no intermission
Continues: 8 p.m. tonight through Friday; 2 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: $39–$65; 17 and under, $10 for the Friday show and Sunday matinee
Info: (413) 243-0745 or http://www.jacobspillow.org