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I sat down this week with a the feeling of a bit of a “mid- course crisis” so to speak I guess, with the nagging question of “where does circus end and dance begin?” or “where does dance end and circus begin?” in circus. I thought I would go backwards a bit and find something that was ‘pure Traditional circus’ and then make my way towards more of the contemporary work. The place I started was looking at the differences between Traditional circus and Contemporary circus. The two are from the same family of arts but have branched off to become two almost entirely different forms. Traditional circus is skill-focused. The acts are a series of tricks leading up to a big finale that wows the audience, and the shows overall are a series of independent acts which are set up to create a “spectacle”. In traditional circus shows the acts are used to create a crescendo to entertain the audience, and a theme or storyline can be used. Contemporary circus on the other hand ‘tries to create unity between its acts connecting them with a central narrative or theme’(History of Circus). Contemporary circus takes aspects from other art forms to create more ‘artistic’ creations. It draws on dance, theater, audio and visual art to supplement the ‘tricks’ of circus.
In addition to reading on some of the differences between the two forms, I studied a few acts from the last Ringling Brothers show, The show Varekai by Cirque du Soleil, and Cuisine and Confessions by Les Sept Doigts de la Main. Watching these helped put some of the ideas from the articles into concrete ideas. I realized I had never actually seen a Ringling Show, so it was interesting to see for my own eyes what I have read and heard so much about. The way it was presented reminded me much of a sports event, or a gala/ceremony of sorts, as they even had spoken commentary talking about the performers and giving the audience the background of the skills and describing why they were difficult. The tricks were technically amazing, but I was not drawn into the show. It felt very shallow or superficial to me- there was an overall theme of Space which vaguely connected the acts, and a storyline that was playing out, but everything seemed kind of fake and cheesy. There was some dance involved between acts. There was an opening number with many performers on roller skates and unicycles, and they would do a few skills then do some dance in unison before doing more skills. While there was a theme, a storyline, and dance incorporated, the focus was still very much on the skills themselves. I was expecting to see more dance and artistry in Varekai, but found that it was more similar to Traditional circus than Contemporary. The show contained a more loose theme and storyline, with stunning makeup and costumes, but the focus still seemed to be primarily on the tricks. Just like in the Ringling show, there was dance incorporated between the acts, but the acts themselves were primarily skill based, with a few transitions between tricks. The foot juggling/acrobatics act I saw, was composed of trick-trick-trick with pauses in between for the flyers to ‘present’ to the audience for applause. The skills were performed with ‘perfect technique’ straight legs and pointed toes. Even the transitions from one skill to the next mostly consisted of ‘walking and looking important/intense’. In contrast to this, was the hoop diving act of Les 7 Doigts de la Main’s Cuisine and Confessions. In this show, the dance was infused not just in the show but in the actual acts and even skills themselves. There were around ten performers who were all onstage- two who actually did the hoop diving, but the others in the background added moments of choreography to supplement the movement of the acrobats. The technique used was not just ‘straight legs and pointed toes’ but rather it seemed that the performers had infused dance into the tricks. They spiced the skills with a variety of different forms- sometimes just straight legs, sometimes bent knees. They played with intention of the movement, the use of weight and tempo to create a more visually intriguing act. It almost did not seem like I was watching circus tricks, but rather a contemporary dance performance that also happened to have a large amount of highly trained acrobats and jugglers. The dance helped draw me in as I could not tell what was going to happen next. It also made the performance more intimate- it felt so human and relatable. Even though the skill level was a bit lower than that of Cirque or Ringling, I could understand the difficulty of the skills better as the performers seemed more human than the superhumans of Cirque or Ringling. Another striking aspect of the 7 Doigts show was that every single move seemed intentional, and thought about. Even the little movements of moving a chair out of the stage were choreographed and intentional and weaved into performance. The skills may have not been the hardest ever performed, but I found the parts I watched much more engaging as it was such a unique combination of skill and art. Anyone could do a dive roll through a hoop and create an act, but no one will ever combine acrobatics, dance and movement the same way the two performers did in this one piece. To respond to the comment on my last journal entry: I actually had just read something about stealing and inspiration recently as well so this quote made me think. One of my favorite quotes is from Picasso: “First you have to learn the rules before you can break them”. I think this is relatable as I believe that stealing can be an important part of the creative process. I don’t like the idea of stealing something completely from an artist, but I think imitating them can lead to greater discovery in your own work. I think if you find something you love, you should steal the idea to play with. Learn the idea, but then you should find a way to do it in your own way. No two movers are the same, nothing will ever look the same. If you steal something that is not your style it may look out of place- therefore you should take something, then change it keeping only the original bones of the thought to suit your needs- if you wish to steal at all. Personally I am trying to use the videos I am researching as inspiration. I would like to find the underlying ideas of how dance can fit with circus to add to my own pieces, the techniques for combining the two. As well, I am searching for inspiration of visuals, or just different presentations of acts to see different ideas of presenting the art form. I am trying to create pieces that fit my personality and movement style as I feel if I steal something outside my style to too much of a degree it will look out of place and not genuine. Sources: Powell, Mark. “No Elephant in the Room: How Modern Circus Is Changing.” International Arts Manager, 22 Sept. 2016, www.internationalartsmanager.com/features/no-elephant-in-the-room-how-modern-circus-is-changing.html. “History of Contemporary Circus.” Clowning - Circus Clowns History and Facts, www.historyofcircus.com/circus-origin/history-of-contemporary-circus/.
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This week I watched an assortment of acts from the show “Scatter” from the 2018 Graduating class from the National Centre for Circus Arts in London, England. I researched this specific school as they are an affiliate of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama. I mainly watched ground acts as those are what I will be focusing on this year- juggling and hand balancing, and then watched a couple Chinese Pole acts and an Aerial Straps act as they intrigued me. A theme throughout almost all the acts I watched was the use of vocals with or without music. I found that this fit some of the acts very well, but when it wasn’t done with great care it became repetitive and overdone. The most enthralling juggling act of the three I watched was done in silence and was done in a way that it resembled stand up comedy. He varied tempo and speed of his tricks to make it impossible to predict what he was going to do next. He also incorporated pauses and vocal commentary to draw the audience even further in. This was less of incorporating juggling into a dance piece but more drawing on some of the movement patterns from dance and adding them to the focus of juggling. Another act that incorporated vocals was a hand balancing act. This act completely drew me in with the visuals it created. I noticed that she didn’t actually do many tricks so to speak, but really drew from other aspects to create an incredible act. Her act started out with a vocal track of what she was thinking about while she was performing her act. She timed her movements to the words and thoughts being projected in her sound piece. The other aspect that struck me was her use of other performers on the floor/in the environment around her. They would move in relation to her movements, and she would also interact with them in between her skills. The last act that struck me played off the relationship between circus and dance in a very literal way. It was a straps act with a music box theme. The woman started off the act with balletic steps on the ground, while still holding onto the straps. She was then lifted off the ground but still kept the aura and technique of ballet in the air (and also did a straps act all in pointe shoes!) It was very interesting to see the translation of ballet technique from the ground into the air, and how it brought another dimension to the piece.
For my kinetic research this week I focused on 1-ball juggling and moving in relation to that one prop. I spent most of the time rolling the ball on the floor and following its path with different levels of movement. I played with stopping the ball with different body parts on the floor, and avoiding the ball as it moved. I came up with a very short sequence of rolling the ball and following it, myself rolling as well, on the floor. It was interesting to start at such a small detail and see where I could go from there in the future. |
About the ProjectAn exploration into the relation of dance and circus and how the former can be used to create more visually engaging circus pieces. |