/ARTS WEEKLY/BRITAIN: A Circus and So Much More

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Beverly Andrews

LONDON, Sep 23 2003 (IPS) - The French-Canadian company Cirque du Soleil has dramatically changed the way audiences view a circus. They have got rid of animals, sequins and traditional clowns, and presents shows with contemporary live music, interlocking stories and multi-talented performers.

This formula has proven to be an enormous success both in Canada and around the world. To the point that Cirque du Soleil now has several companies touring the world, and two permanent shows based in Las Vegas and at Disneyworld in Florida.

But their younger contemporaries Cirque Eloize have taken a radically different approach. They have elevated circus to the level of high art. Where Cirque du Soleil’s work now has the feel of a glam rock concert, Cirque Eloize is radically different; the company’s production in London now shows that great circus can also be great theatre.

Created in 1993 by a troupe of circus students, Cirque Eloize has always tried to explore the poetic possibilities of circus. The company’s director Daniele Finzi Pasca said in a recent interview that "Cirque du Soleil changed the way we do circus."

Eloize has always been a gentler, more warm-hearted troupe. They may perform daring feats but without the startling special effects that devotees of new circus have become accustomed to. Instead they concentrate on developing believable characters and original stories.

Commenting on the company’s decision not to use special effects Pasca states: "The special effects are the artists. That’s what makes us different. Yes, we’re a part of New Circus. But we are also very conscious of tradition. You have to understand what your grandparents did in the ring in order to reinvent their acts and make circuses that people wanted to run away to."

Cirque Eloize’s original approach to circus can be seen in their latest production Nomade. Set at a wedding banquet under a luminous moon, the production has a haunting dreamlike quality, which instantly has both children and adults mesmerised.

The piece opens with a group of wedding guests bursting into song. While they sing a feverish gypsy melody, a young man proceeds to perform breathtaking feats on a vertical rope. The young man’s body appears to defy gravity has he walks along the rope’s edge, and periodically appears to fall only to stop himself inches from the ground with a playful smile.

The apparently death defying tricks he performs would be familiar to anyone who has ever seen a traditional circus; what is different is its context. A combination of the music, setting, and luminous lighting gives Nomade the feel of a enchanted nighttime summer feast which has been stumbled upon by chance, a feast at which the guests can create magic.

One of the recurrent themes in the show is love, a love that brings couples together only for them again to have to part. A love that leads to marriage, or a lost love who will never be found.

"In the journey of life we are all nomads," Pasca says. "We wander from one love to the next, from one sorrow to the next. Yet, in this journey some of us travel light. Some sleep under the stars with the moon as our pillow. For them it all becomes so clear at night the sky is endless."

It is this intense desire for love and life’s experiences, which this production manages to capture, and that makes it something that adults as well as children can enjoy. Children often enjoy the show’s physical beauty, while adults are more likely to pick up on the themes behind the images.

The breathtaking feats are of course important, but in this luminous production they are simply a backdrop to the story. So a duet on the trapeze is performed by lovers during a midnight shower. They end their act not by performing some breathtaking feat but with a lingering kiss.

Two male guests tumble through the air, not for the applause of the audience but for two girls they are trying to impress. This is the quality of storytelling which makes Cirque Eloize so unique and magical to watch.

The success of this enchanting French Canadian company as well as Quebec’s long tradition of producing some of the most groundbreaking and most innovative theatre and art owes a lot to the Canadian policy of supporting Francophone culture in the country, with generous subsidies given to artists.

This financial support covers every field in the arts including film, literature, music and the theatre. Many Canadians have always traditionally viewed French- Canadian culture as an aspect of Canada, which gives the country its distinction and makes it unique from the United States, and therefore it is seen as being vital to support it.

The artists in turn find that once they are free from the pressures of financial uncertainty, they can turn their attention to creating work, which is genuinely innovative and original.

Artists who have benefited from this policy include the enormously successful Cirque du Soleil who have returned the government’s investment in them many times over. The achievements of these individuals and groups point to the simple fact that for art to flourish, governments must support them. By so doing they may find that the returns they receive in reflected glory for their country makes their investment worthwhile.